Pakistan: The "disappearance" of the Ansari family

Index Number: ASA 33/016/1996
Date Published: 1 November 1996
Categories: Asia And The Pacific, Pakistan

On 1 May 1996, Zamir Hasan Ansari, a retired section officer of the Pakistan ministry of foreign affairs, reportedly "disappeared" from his home along with his wife and their two grown-up children. Available evidence suggests that the family may have been detained by Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). AI appeals to the new government to take all possible measures to establish the whereabouts of the family if detained by any agency of the state.