SRI LANKA – 20 days passed, NGO leader still missing
3 March 2010 8:22 am

One of the Managing Trustee of
Community Trust Fund (CTF)
Mr.
Pattani Razeek has been missing since February 11th 2010. He
was last seen at Polonnaruwa Town when he got into a white colour van at
around
3.00 pm. CTF is deeply concerned about his whereabouts and appeals to
the
authorities to act speedily to locate Mr Razeek.
(Source: FORUM-ASIA member Commynity Trust
Fund, 22 February 2010)
One of the Managing Trustee of
Community Trust Fund (CTF)
Mr.
Pattani Razeek has been missing since February 11th 2010. He
was last seen at Polonnaruwa Town when he got into a white colour van at
around
3.00 pm. CTF is deeply concerned about his whereabouts and appeals to
the
authorities to act speedily to locate Mr Razeek. 

Fifty five year old Mr Razeek is from Puttalum District and
has
worked in a number of positions including in government service and the
NGO
sector. Mr Razeek, as a Managing Trustee, has been managing the
membership
affairs/secretariat unit of the CTF.

Mr Razeek had gone to Polonnaruwa on a mission to maintain
Government-NGO liaison activities on 11 Feb 2010. He informed CTF staff
who
accompanied him that he would be going to Ottamavadi Town in Batticaloa
District for the night to meet his friend and would be back in time for a
meeting at the CTF office in Polonnaruwa the next morning (February
12th)
at 10 am. One of the CTF staff was instructed by Mr. Razeek to transfer
his
luggage from the CTF vehicle to a white colour van parked near by the
Polonnaruwa mosque. According to the eye witnesses he appeared to know
the
people in the van. He did not return the following morning as he
promised and
when the CTF staff attempted to contact him his phone was not
working. Immediately after that
CTF staff
informed Mr. Razeek's family and deployed a search team to travel to
Batticaloa on 12th afternoon.

A call
was made from Mr Razeek's phone to a driver from
CTF on February 15th. When one of the CTF staff called back the call got
through but no one spoke.  Few minutes later a text was received from Mr
Razeek's phone to the driver and the staff member who accompanied Mr.
Razeek to Polonnaruwa stating that he was in Polonnaruwa and would be
home
soon. There were several attempts at contacting Mr. Razeek through his
mobile
phone and even though a few phone calls went through no one answered the
calls. 

On the
12th CTF staff team attempted to search for Mr. Razeek in
Batticaloa and tried to make a complaint at Valaichchenai Police. They
were
asked to lodge a complaint at Polonnaruwa since he had switched vehicles
there.
The CTF team then lodged a complaint at Polonnaruwa and they were
instructed
that Mr. Razeek's wife has to lodge a complaint in the area of his
residence. Mrs. N. Razeek then lodged a complaint at Mundel Police
Station in
Puttalam district on the 12th.  On the 15th CTF made an additional
complaint with the Puttalam Police. CTF facilitated the complaints made
by the
family to the Human Rights Commission in Puttalam and ICRC in Colombo.
CTF's local partner organizations also have been informed of this
incident.  

CTF and
the family members of Mr. Razeek have also put an
advertisement in Virakesari paper on February 17th requesting the public
to
help them find Mr. Razeek. A hand bill has been printed and distributed
in
Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa on the 12th and 13th by the CTF
search
team. After these complaints police has so far investigated the phone
calls of Mr. Razeek after obtaining a court order.  SMS messages that
came
from his mobile phone on the 15th have also been traced by the police
but so
far Mr. Razeek's whereabouts are unknown.  

CTF is a non-governmental service institution working in
North,
East and South of Sri Lanka. It works for the vulnerable, marginalized,
economically disadvantaged, internally displaced and those unfortunate
victims
of war as well as religious and ethnic minorities to improve their
basic
facilities for a peaceful life through the concept of participatory
community
oriented rehabilitation and development, environmental protection, human
rights
and humanitarian activities.