Ikramullah had been missing since October 2023 from the Farooqiya madrassa in the Tajabad region
A Peshawar citizen missing since 2023 from a religious seminary has been found and reunited with his family, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Department said. According to a press release, the Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances held hearings on 22 petitions in KP.
Ikramullah, a citizen missing since October 19, 2023, from Farooqiya madrassa in Tajabad region, was found thanks to the efforts of the commission and produced before the court. He was then handed over to his relatives.
The KP committee member said cases of enforced disappearances would be heard regularly. He stressed that this is a problem that has caused thousands of families to suffer for years. This is an important step towards justice, transparency and accountability, the statement added.
Who are the missing people?
According to the Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances (COIED), a missing person means any person who has been arrested/taken into custody by a law enforcement or intelligence agency, working under civilian or military control, in a manner contrary to the provisions of the law.
Persons reported missing in cases of kidnapping for ransom, personal enmity or on their own will do not fall under the category of enforced disappearances, the commission noted.
The commission resolved 103 missing persons cases, while registering 11 new cases, during the month of August 2025, according to its monthly report.
According to the commission’s data, the COIED also processed 8,873 files out of a total of 10,618 files received between March 2011 and August 2025. This represents 83.56% of the total files.
The settlement of 8,873 cases concerns 6,809 people whose location was traced by the commission. The remaining 1,745 cases are being investigated in the records of the Commission in Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Lahore.
The commission also successfully initiated the conduct of hearings into missing persons cases through video link, thereby saving time and expense of stakeholders as well as travel of families to and from Islamabad.
Commission established to hear cases of missing persons in KP
Last month, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice SM Atiq Shah had said that the federal government had constituted a committee to deal with cases of missing persons and all such cases would be heard by it. Justice (retd) Afsar Shah was officially appointed as a member of the commission.
These remarks were made during the hearing of petitions demanding the recovery of missing persons. During the proceedings, the petitioners’ lawyers, the Deputy Attorney General, the Additional Advocate General and the Missing Persons Officer appeared before the court.
At the outset, the CJ observed that the Home Ministry had confirmed the activation of the commission and its mandate to hear cases involving agencies. The focal point also reiterated that all cases against agencies regarding enforced disappearances would now fall under the jurisdiction of the commission.
