Families of the missing seek answers from Pakistan's feared spy network

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Jaffan Muslim holds a picture of her daughter Arum, 13, who went missing last August, Muslim and others have set up a camp near the parliament in Islamabad, Pakistan, to demand answers. Picture taken Feb. 23, 2012.

The Associated Press reports from Islamabad — Abdul Hameed last saw his son a year ago, being dragged away from their home by Pakistani intelligence operatives along with an Indonesian al-Qaida suspect who had been staying there. The ailing 59-year-old father now has a simple wish.

"I just want to see the face of my son before I die," said Hameed, who has been bedridden for much of the last year with multiple illnesses. "Just that. I have no enmity with anybody, any agency or any government. If you were in my position, what would you do?"

Kashif, who is a student, is among the ranks of Pakistan's "missing" — people seized by security forces for months or years, never to be brought to trial, their families never informed of their fate. Many of the men are presumed to be suspected Islamist militants, swept up in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, crackdown supported by the United States. Some are alleged to have been killed or tortured in custody.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has now given the families a measure of hope by bringing a landmark case against the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the country's most feared spy network, which is suspected to be behind most of the seizures. The agency, which works closely with the CIA, operates largely outside of the law. Read the full story.

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A photograph of Gulzar Jaan Ghullzir Jan, 35, who went missing in 2010, is left on a chair inside a tent near the parliament in Islamabad on Feb. 24, 2012.