jayron
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BBC News - Pakistani intelligence publicly accused of kidnapping
A woman in Pakistani-administered Kashmir has taken the unusual step of publicly accusing the intelligence services of kidnapping her husband.
It is thought that Qazi Khushal was abducted because he renounced the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir in the mid-1990s.
The uprising - analysts say - has always been supported by Pakistani intelligence who do not want it to end.
But an intelligence official said he was "not aware" of the case details.
Qazi Khushal was, according to his wife, arrested near an army post two weeks ago and has not been since since.
While such kidnappings are believed to be commonplace in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, few if anybody affected by them has dared speak out so stridently and so publicly.
This is believed to be one of the first times that the intelligence agencies have been directly accused of carrying out such a crime.
Few cases are reported to the police - or challenged in the courts - because people are fearful that they or their relatives may be harmed as a result.
The claims have been made by Shahnaz Akhtar, 35, a school teacher who lives in a refugee camp near the regional capital Muzaffarabad.
She told the BBC that her husband disappeared the day after his arrest, when he was brought to a hospital in the city for a "heart condition".
Ms Akhtar said that her husband was returning to Muzaffarabad on his motorbike when he was arrested at an army checkpoint.
"A friend of my husband's rang me up to tell me my husband had been admitted to a hospital," Ms Akhtar told the BBC.
"I went to the hospital and walked right up to his bed but some men in plain clothes rushed towards us and stopped us from talking to each other. They pushed me out of the ward," she said.
"I went there again the next morning but his bed was empty. No-one has told me what happened to him or where he was taken."
Muzaffarabad Deputy Commissioner Ansar Yaqoob said that he was "not aware of the case" and could not comment.
The couple crossed into the Pakistani side of Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir in 1990, when the separatist insurgency there was at its height.
A woman in Pakistani-administered Kashmir has taken the unusual step of publicly accusing the intelligence services of kidnapping her husband.
It is thought that Qazi Khushal was abducted because he renounced the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir in the mid-1990s.
The uprising - analysts say - has always been supported by Pakistani intelligence who do not want it to end.
But an intelligence official said he was "not aware" of the case details.
Qazi Khushal was, according to his wife, arrested near an army post two weeks ago and has not been since since.
While such kidnappings are believed to be commonplace in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, few if anybody affected by them has dared speak out so stridently and so publicly.
This is believed to be one of the first times that the intelligence agencies have been directly accused of carrying out such a crime.
Few cases are reported to the police - or challenged in the courts - because people are fearful that they or their relatives may be harmed as a result.
The claims have been made by Shahnaz Akhtar, 35, a school teacher who lives in a refugee camp near the regional capital Muzaffarabad.
She told the BBC that her husband disappeared the day after his arrest, when he was brought to a hospital in the city for a "heart condition".
Ms Akhtar said that her husband was returning to Muzaffarabad on his motorbike when he was arrested at an army checkpoint.
"A friend of my husband's rang me up to tell me my husband had been admitted to a hospital," Ms Akhtar told the BBC.
"I went to the hospital and walked right up to his bed but some men in plain clothes rushed towards us and stopped us from talking to each other. They pushed me out of the ward," she said.
"I went there again the next morning but his bed was empty. No-one has told me what happened to him or where he was taken."
Muzaffarabad Deputy Commissioner Ansar Yaqoob said that he was "not aware of the case" and could not comment.
The couple crossed into the Pakistani side of Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir in 1990, when the separatist insurgency there was at its height.
