Turkish educationists have expressed concern over the abduction of one of their colleagues and his family from Lahore and urged the Federal and Punjab governments to ensure immediate recovery of the abducted Turkish nationals.
Speaking at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, here on Friday, the lawyer Shah Mohammad on behalf the Turkish teachers, said that Turkish teacher Mesut Kaemaz and his family members had been picked up in the early hours Wednesday September 27 by the armed men in the guise of police cops who blindfolded them and since then the teachers and the family were missing.
Accompanied by scores of Turkish teachers, their families, Pakistani students and their parent, the lawyer said that the action against the teacher was in violation of the Article 14 of the Constitution and the United Nations resolutions. He said the government was bound to ensure production of the teacher and his family to the court of law within 24 hours in case he was involved in any offence.
"Following the internal political crisis in Turkey, teachers serving in various educational institutions in Pakistan had been under the UNHCR protection as asylum seekers since November 2016," he said, adding that the teachers and administrators who worked at the Pak-Turk educational institutions had selflessly educated the children and served the people of Pakistan for last 22 years and they had not been found involved in any illegal activity.
The lawyer said that as a result of the political issues in Turkey and unjustified pressure from the Turkish government the visa applications of these teachers had been rejected by Pakistan in 2016 and thus they were forced to apply for asylum. He said that these foreigners had been staying in Pakistan with the asylum seeking certificates issued by the UNHCR.
"In the past 10 months under the UNHCR protection, none of the Turkish educationists had undergone any legal investigation," said Shah Mohammad advocate, adding that the people wished Pakistan to allow them to stay here with peace throughout the validity of asylum seeking certificates.
He said that these Turkish people were seriously concerned about their lives and demanded of the government to ensure release of the Lahore-based educationist, his family members at the earliest.
Replying to various queries, the lawyer said that at the time of the arrest, the educationist had been severely thrashed, his wife fainted but the constables pulled her on her feet and their two teenaged daughters had been crying.
"Seeing this, their neighbour, who is also a Turkish educationist under the UNHCR protection protested and he too was arrested," he said, adding that the police blindfolded all of them including the witness (neighbour). He said that later the neighbour Fatih Avci was released near the gate of his housing society.