Police appear to be dragging their feet in Sami Ibrahim kidnapping case

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published May 29, 2023

ISLAMABAD—On Monday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) expressed dissatisfaction with the police investigation into the kidnapping of prominent journalist Sami Ibrahim.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) seeking the recovery of Ibrahim, who was kidnapped on May 24.

The police told the court that they had completed the geo-fencing of Ibrahim's cell phone but could not determine the route taken by the abductors. They said the phone's location could only be traced when it was turned on or received a call.

The police said they had traced the journalist’s cell phone location to 7th Avenue (9:00 pm) and then the Judicial Colony around 11:00 pm, about a 15-minute drive from 7th Avenue.

However, the police could not find where the abductors took Sami between 9:00 and 11:00 pm the night he was kidnapped.

The court also expressed dissatisfaction with the police's failure to question Ibrahim's driver and said that the police should actively probe the matter instead of the court having to tell them to do so.

The lawyer for the journalists, Raja Amir Abbas, told the court that it seemed the police were deliberately delaying the investigation.

PFUJ president, Afzal Butt, told the court that it was not enough for the investigating authorities and intelligence agencies to pass the buck and say Ibrahim was not in their custody. "It is their and the government's responsibility to recover Ibrahim," he said.

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