By Zar Alam Khan
ISLAMABAD, May 31, 2010: A Chitrali youth who went missing about 22 years back has returned home to tell his family that he was serving in the army of slain Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
Qamaruddin, son of Mirza Badshah of Marthing village in the Yarkhun valley, passed the SSC examination from the Government High School Brep in 1986 but could not continue education due to financial problems. Being the elder son of his poor parents, he moved to Islamabad to work as a labourer and support his family including four other siblings.
After working as a watchman in the federal capital for about two years, Qamar planned to return home to marry his fiancée in the Broke village of Laspur valley. Before leaving for home, he went out for shopping in the capital city but did not return.
His mysterious disappearance shocked the entire village and considering that he had fallen victim to robbery, his relatives fulfilled his funeral rituals. Soon his old mother died of shock while his father lost eyesight.
The villagers told Dawn on the phone that Qamar’s sudden return had given a new life to his octogenarian father and the local people were celebrating the happy moments with him.
“He did not recognise anyone in the village except his father. Even he cannot speak his mother language of Khowar and talks in Urdu and Pushto only,” said one of the residents of the village.
Qamar told his relatives that he along some other people was picked by unknown persons from Peshawar Mor in Islamabad and taken to an orchard in a deserted and distant place and assigned the job to pluck fruits and load them into outgoing vehicles. Later, the owner of the orchard died and his successor released him.
Afterwards, he served in the army of Mr Bugti. When the Baloch leader was assassinated in August 2006, he was arrested by security forces and put behind bars. His final freedom came after the federal government recently announced a package for Balochistan.–Dawn
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