Pakistan: Disappearance of 2 Egyptian-Pakistani students aged 22 and 17; fear of torture and extraordinary rendition

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22 year-old Abdullah Al Sharkawy left his university in Islamabad to go get a drink around 6pm last Wednesday, 25 May 2011. He has not been seen since. Then on Sunday 29 May 2011, his brother Ibrahim, 17, went to buy breakfast at the market near their home, and he also disappeared.
 
 

The owners of several stalls described to the family how Ibrahim was followed and then "taken" by Pakistani security forces. Alkarama fears that both have been abducted by the Pakistani ISI and that they are at high risk of serious torture.

Their father and brother were both previously disappeared by US and Pakistani security forces before being seriously tortured for months then subjected to "extraordinary rendition" to Egypt (their country of origin). The boys' father was detained for 17 years in Egypt without charge or trial despite more than 20 release orders from Egyptian courts. Their brother, Abdelrahman, was detained for 16 months and regularly re-arrested and harassed.

Abdullah Mohammad Al Sharkawy is a 23 year old Egyptian-Pakistani who studies at the Air University in Islamabad in Pakistan in the Faculty of Engineering. Ibrahim Mohammed Al Sharkawy is a 17 year old Egyptian Pakistani who is in 10th Grade at the Indus Valley public School of Attock, Pakistan.

Their family has been in Pakistan for 22 years, but they have lived in great difficulty as the authorities required that the head of the family be present to issue their ID cards and resolve other administrative issues. Since the father's abduction and extraordinary rendition to Egypt in 1994, he was of course unable to be present, and the family endured endless administrative difficulties due to this complex situation.

The abduction of two more sons therefore comes as a further serious blow to the family."Following the horrible experiences that my father and I have been subjected to, I cannot bear to imagine that my brothers may go through the same ordeal" said Abdulrahman, Abdullah's brother who is based in Cairo, "These disappearances is particularly difficult on my mother who remains in Pakistan"

Alkarama called today on the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances and other UN human rights mechanisms to ensure that the Pakistanis either immediately release Abdullah and Ibrahim or put them under the protection of the law and inform their family of their whereabouts.