https://arab.news/6pwpa
- Khosa was taken from his home on Aug. 15 by police and plainclothes officers
- The comedian is widely seen as a critic of coalition government of PM Sharif
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani digital content creator and comedian Aun Ali Khosa, who was taken from his home in Karachi last week by police and plainclothes officers, has returned home, his lawyers said on Monday.
Around eight to ten police officers and men in plain clothes took Khosa from his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore early on Aug. 15, also confiscating his mobile, computer and camera, according to testimony from family members and rights bodies like Amnesty International.
Khosa was widely seen as a critic of the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which is believed to be close to the military. He was picked up a day after he released a satirical song, ‘Bill Bill Pakistan,’ about high power prices, which raked up millions of views. The video was removed from YouTube after Khosa’s disappearance.
“God willing, Aun Ali Khosa has been released! Arrived home!” his counsel Khadija Siddique said in a post on the social media site X.
“The methods used by the kidnappers are always the same,” Siddique wrote in a separate post. “Around a dozen people break inside the house around 2-3 am. Their faces are covered with masks and they carry weapons. They remove all the CCTV cameras. Later when the court intervenes, the same people leave the abducted person back at home late at night.”
Mian Ali Ashfaq, another lawyer for Khosa, also confirmed he was back home.
“Aun Ali Khosa’s family has confirmed that he has reached home safely,” he said in a post on the social media site X.
On Friday, Amnesty International had urged the Pakistan government to disclose Khosa’s whereabouts and called on authorities to conduct an “effective, independent and impartial investigation” into his disappearance.
This is not the first time a digital creator has been targeted in Pakistan for his political views.
Anchorman and popular YouTuber Imran Riaz Khan, who has more than 5.7 million followers on X and millions more on other social media platforms, was picked up in May last year and returned home in September, with authorities giving no indication of where he had been for over four months.
Khan, widely seen as being a supporter of ex-PM Imran Khan, took on the Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies after Imran was removed from power in April 2022 and blamed the army for being behind his ouster. The military denies it interferes in politics.