- Deputy director Muhammad Usman allegedly abducted from Islamabad on October 14
- Wife says four armed men took him as she too has gone missing after filing plea
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted police another seven days to locate Muhammad Usman, a deputy director of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), who was allegedly abducted earlier this month while investigating a high-profile cyber case.
The direction came during the hearing of a petition filed by Usman’s wife, Rozina Usman, who stated that four armed men kidnapped her husband on October 14. At the previous hearing, the court had given police three days to recover the missing officer.
Resuming proceedings, Justice Muhammad Azam Khan questioned the police over their progress. “What is the progress? You were given three days,” the judge remarked.
District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Legal Sajid Cheema told the court that investigations were underway and that the senior superintendent of police (investigation) was overseeing the matter.
He revealed that the missing NCCIA official had been probing the ‘Ducky Bhai’ case—an investigation linked to popular YouTuber Saadur Rehman—and added that other members of the same investigation team were also missing.
Cheema further informed the court that the petitioner’s phone had been switched off since October 18, and her last known location was Lahore’s Empress Road. “When the investigating officer visited her residence, it was found locked,” he said, adding that Usman’s last traced location was Islamabad’s F-6 sector.
“If the WhatsApp data is retrieved, everything will become clear,” the DSP told the court.
Meanwhile, the petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Rizwan Abbasi, argued that his client had also gone missing after filing the plea and that she last received a call threatening her to withdraw the case.
At one point, Justice Azam observed that the petitioner might have gone to stay with her parents or relatives. “If she did go, did she go willingly?” her lawyer asked, adding, “A person was kidnapped from the federal capital, and ten days have passed.”
The court directed police to trace Usman’s WhatsApp records to aid the investigation. Granting the DSP’s request for additional time, the IHC gave police another week to recover the abducted officer and adjourned the hearing until next Friday.
