Islamabad, Sep 13 (IANS) Human rights organisation Amnesty International has urged Pakistani authorities to investigate the disappearance of Afghan journalist Sayed Qasim Hashemi and artist Hamed Ehsas and inform their family about their whereabouts.

In a statement, Amnesty International said that the families of both Afghan nationals have not been able to contact them, and Pakistani police have refused to lodge cases regarding their kidnapping.

"Journalist Sayed Qasim Hashemi and artist Hamed Ehsas, both Afghan nationals who fled Afghanistan immediately after the Taliban takeover, fearing threats to their lives due to the nature of their work, have been missing since July 4 in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Neither individual’s family has been able to reach them since, and the police authorities have refused to register cases regarding their abduction," it said.

"The circumstances raise concerns that they may have been subjected to enforced disappearance or arbitrary detention. Pakistani authorities have an obligation to investigate their disappearance and inform the families about their whereabouts and fate," it added.

Hashemi and Ehsas have been missing from Pakistan's Islamabad since July 4. Their families said that both of them left their homes together on July 4 to purchase camera lens equipment and have not returned. Their family members approached police and judicial authorities in Pakistan to find the two men but have been given no clear information regarding their whereabouts, Afghanistan's Khaama Press reported.

According to the families, both men were living in Pakistan without legal residency and had entered the country with their families after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. The families reported that the vehicle used by the two men was later found through GPS system in Islamabad; however, Hashemi and Ehsas were not present in or around the vehicle.

The families voiced concerns for the safety of the two men and urged Pakistani authorities to provide information about them. The two have gone missing amid Pakistan's intensifying pressure on undocumented foreign nationals, particularly Afghan people, including arrests and deportations.

--IANS

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