Five hundred and forty-four is a horrendous number of people to have gone missing, reportedly, in the last eight years since 2008. Only a few of them have returned; unfortunately 300 of them remain unaccounted for. It is a very sorry state where relatives of victims of such patently criminal acts should find themselves between the devil and the deep sea. They don't know who they should turn to when their sons or husbands or fathers are picked up in very clandestine manner by people claiming to be members of the law enforcing agencies. And when the families approach these agencies for redress, they are met with a flat denial. Those few that have returned alive are seized with such mortal fear that they are unwilling to recount their experience. Regrettably, the fingers of accusation in almost all cases are pointed towards these agencies.

We would like to stress that the security agencies cannot wash their hands off the matter by merely saying that they have nothing to do with disappearances. We suggest that they have everything to do with a matter that not only undermines the rule of law, but also severely smirches their credibility, more so of Rab and the special branch, given the method of operations of the abductors. And when there are public misgivings about the role of these agencies, it devolves on them to trace out the perpetrators, and curb them permanently, if nothing else than for their image only.

It needs no repeating that law enforcement must not in any way result in breach of law that these agencies are entrusted to prevent.