JournalismPakistan.com
June 01, 2023

ISLAMABAD—Daily Dawn on Thursday termed the abduction and detention of journalist Imran Rian Khan a brazen illegality keeping him beyond the reach of his family and legal counsel.

In an editorial, 'Missing anchorperson', the paper regretted the obduracy of those in whose custody Imran Riaz Khan is held that multiple appeals from various quarters have not had even the slightest effect.

The anchorperson was arrested on May 11 from Sialkot Airport by police on charges of hate speech, two days after violent protests erupted countrywide in the wake of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's arrest. Imran Riaz, Released later that day, was immediately picked up by 'unknown persons'.

The paper said that though the disappearance of the anchorperson has been widely condemned, it seems to have little effect on abductors. "Despite court orders, condemnation by rights groups and journalists' organisations, and his father's emotional appeal before the Lahore High Court, nothing has been heard of him."

The editorial quoted his lawyer as saying that the anchorperson is alive and well and may soon be released. "One hopes this is indeed the case, though that cannot be allowed to deflect from the brazen illegality of his abduction and his detention beyond the reach of his family and legal counsel."

However, mentioning the fate of the late Arshad Sharif, the paper maintained, "Mr Khan's safe return cannot be taken for granted. But it must be demanded, and his enforced disappearance condemned in no uncertain terms".

It said the pattern of Mr. Khan's disappearance is the same as that of others before him—flat-out denials by law enforcement and intelligence agencies of any knowledge of his whereabouts, as though feigned ignorance when a citizen vanishes into thin air is a fitting, or sufficient, response.