Social activist and blogger Salman Haider returns home

ISLAMABAD: Social activist and blogger Salman Haider who went missing from the capital earlier this month has returned home but declined to record his statement with the police, officials said.

Haider went missing on January 6 and his family was informed via text message the blogger's car could be collected from Koral Chowk.

Haider had shot into prominence with his sarcastic poem 'may be Kafir-tou beKafir' and his mysterious disappearance caused an uproar in civil society and political circles.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar held a news conference and later on the floor of the Senate said with the help of Safe City cameras, it was identified that Salman Haider was kidnapped by men in a Toyota Surf and Toyota Vigo. Nisar added that it was unknown where Salman Haider had been taken.

Some anchors at certain media channels ran a vociferous campaign against Haider and three other bloggers who were reported missing around the same time, as an Indian agent, a traitor and one who was anti-Islam.

"Brother of Salman Haider has confirmed that his brother is back. Salman will meet police tomorrow for a statement. "Today, Salman Haider didn't meet police officials for any statement. Neither his brother disclosed anything else," a police source said.

Sources in Lahore police also confirmed that another blogger Waqas Goraya has also reached home but his family declined to confirm the information.

The fate of two other bloggers is still unknown though reports have surfaced in social media that they had also reached home.

Sources confirm that despite a campaign by certain channels and in a section of social media branding the bloggers as enemy agents and anti-religion, no such evidence surfaced and there had been no case registered against them.