Abducted journalist Saeed Sarbazi returns home
Saeed Sarbazi, Senior sub-editor of daily “Business Recorder” and Joint Secretary of Karachi Press Club (KPC) returned home early hours of September 23 after being abducted three days earlier, allegedly by intelligence agencies. According to Sarbazi, he was dropped in a suburb of Karachi, blind-folded from a truck. Talking to journalists at the Karachi Press Club. Sarbazi said he was on his way to the KPC on Wednesday when he was intercepted by some unknown people who dragged him from his car into another vehicle and covered his face with his own shirt. He said he told his abductors he was a journalist but they insisted he was a terrorist. He said he was interrogated about his personal and professional life and his connection to Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist organization. Sarbazi tried to explain that he had made telephone calls as part of his journalistic assignments after the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in an army operation.
He said he was kept awake for almost three days and was not allowed to sit during that time. He said that he was brutally beaten to extract information, which he did not have. He said that his blindfold was taken off only when he was fed. He said after three days he was told they picked up the ‘wrong man’. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), described the treatment meted out to Sarbazi as the “worst form of torture” and appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of torture meted out to Sarbazi by intelligence agencies, as well as the murder of the six-year old brother of slain Journalist Hayatullah Khan. The PFUJ statement said, Sarbazi was having problems in his neck and in passing urine. Sarbazi informed PFUJ that his abductors kicked him so badly on his back and in the stomach that he become unconscious. The PFUJ statement added that Sarbazi, who was recovering from Hepatitis-C, was not given his medication during his detentions which resulted in deterioration of his medical condition.
Source: PPF
Date:9/25/2006
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