- Aun’s wife moves high court, claiming her husband is ‘in unlawful and illegal custody of law enforcement authorities’
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday gave the Lahore police time until August 20 to recover YouTuber Aun Ali Khosa, who was allegedly “whisked away by some unknown armed men.”
The court ordered the Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) to locate the whereabouts of the “abducted” YouTuber and produce in the court on August 20.
LHC’s Justice Shahbaz Ali Rizvi issued directives while hearing a petition filed by Beenish Iqbal, the wife of Aun Ali Khosa, claiming that her husband was “in the unlawful and illegal custody of the law enforcement authorities”.
She informed that on August 15 at around 2am, a dozen police officials along with masked plainclothesmen” barged into her apartment after breaking apart the entrance door.
“The heavily armed men confiscated Aun’s phone, laptop, computer system, and digital camera, and drove away with Aun Ali Khosa,” the petition further detailed.
“The petitioner followed them as they left in a Fortuner and a Black Revo double cabin vehicle. After manhandling him and shoving him into the Black Vigo parked outside the flat, they fled,” Beenish Iqbal alleged.
She stated in the petitioner that she repeatedly asked the men the reason for picking him up but they refused to provide any information and left.
She stated that the whereabouts of her husband were unknown, fearing “her husband might have been a victim of enforced disappearance.”
The petitioner submitted that Aun was a “digital content creator, a writer, and a dignified comedian/artist having a massive following of 137,000 subscribers on YouTube”.
On the other hand, Lahore Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran denied the police had not received any complaint about the alleged abduction of Aun. He stated that the police would investigate the matter after receiving any complaint.
Appeal for prayers and support
Taking to platform X on August 15, the artist’s brother, Ali Sher Khosa, said Aun had been “taken into custody by some unknown armed men from his flat in Lahore”.
He asked people to pray for Aun’s recovery while also requesting everyone to spread the word.
In a post on X today, Khosa rebuffed reports that his family was “receiving threats”.
“This is fake news! Please stop spreading it. We have not received any threat calls from anyone,” he said.
‘HRCP condemns abduction’
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that it was alarmed by reports that the digital content creator was “abducted” allegedly by unknown armed men from his home in Lahore.
HRCP said it was concerned that the incident may be related to his work as a satirist and called for his immediate recovery.
Activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir, in a satirical post on X, said that the “abduction” of the video blogger was “proof” that people’s laughter could also bring “instability” to the country.
“For stability, it is important that the people remain quiet, do not question and silently tolerate fascism,” Nasir said.
