Fazal Mehmood, a resident of Hyderabad’s Mirza Para Tando Thoso Paretabad in Pakistan, appealed to the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and all human rights organisations to help secure the release of his paralysed father, Faiz Mohammad.

Family members of the Pakistani man alleged that he was picked up by the security forces on his arrival in Delhi railway station by Samjhauta Express on January 26, 2007, to meet his relatives, the Dawn daily reported today.

Addressing a news conference at the press club in Hyderabad, Fazal said they had gone to India and met the authorities after filing a complaint with the local police in New Delhi. Fazal said he had also met the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi and provided him with all the necessary documents. However, he failed to locate his father.

Fazal said he had now learnt that his father had been lodged in Tihar jail’s Cell No.3, the Pakistani daily reported.

Leading rights activist Ansar Burney, who was the Human Rights Minister in Pakistan’s caretaker government, is currently in India to trace Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. Burney played a key role in the release of Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh, who had spent 35 years on death row in Pakistan’s jail.