Senior journalist Mazhar Abbas, writing for Geo.tv, has recounted the ordeal of Nadir Shah Adil, a 76-year-old journalist. Adil was confined in a hospital for 18 days in Karachi’s Lyari area, against his will, by unknown men.
They arrived at his home claiming that he was to be taken to the hospital for treatment of Covid-19. Instead, he was kept in a room in the hospital, without any treatment, for days on end. Describing Adil’s ordeal, Mazhar Abbas writes:
“At times, recalled Adil, the men would take him to see a dance or music performance in the courtyard of the hospital. During this, they would ask him “strange” political questions about Lyari.”
Adil describes these days of mysterious confinement as a period of immense “mental torture” – after which he was sent home on a rickshaw with an apology and a cryptic suggestion that: “kuch khyal kiya karo” (“do be careful”).
Commenting on the deteriorating security situation in Lyari, Mazhar Abbas writes:
“Nowadays, even a literary programme can’t be held in Lyari without informing the Rangers.
There have been reports lately that some elements of the Lyari gang have come back from Iran and resettled in the area. The Iranian Baluch factor has in the past caused serious concern, particularly after Indian spy Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav’s network was unearthed in Karachi. Adil has in the past been targeted by the gang as well.”
