Missing Rights Activist Found In Pakistan

Fraz Haider (left), the brother of missing blogger Salman Haider, and Meesha Saeed, the wife of missing blogger Ahmed Waqas Goraya, attend a press conference in Islamabad on January 18.

A Pakistani university professor and human rights activist who disappeared earlier this month from the capital, Islamabad, is "fine and safe", his brother has confirmed in an interview with RFE/RL.

Earlier in the day, Pakistani police said that Salman Haider had returned home on the outskirts of the capital late on January 27 and that he was safe and well.

Haider was one of five social-media activists and bloggers who disappeared in separate incidents in Islamabad, Lahore, and Nankana Sahib earlier this month.

The other four included liberal bloggers Waqas Goraya, Aasim Saeed, and Ahmed Raza Naseer, as well as Samar Abbas, the head of an antiextremism activist group in Karachi.

They are known for their critical views of the country's military establishment and Islamic extremism.

No group had claimed responsibility for the bloggers' disappearances.

Rights groups said they suspected the bloggers were abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies seeking to clamp down on dissent.

The Interior Ministry had repeatedly said it is doing all it can to recover the missing men.

Pakistani media, citing police sources on January 28, said that the other missing bloggers had been found.

However, families of the remaining four have not confirmed their return yet.

With reporting by AP and Reuters