For the past few months, Arfan Bhatti has been staying in a small village outside Gujrat in Pakistan. In Norway, the police have investigated Bhatti. They have charged him with complicity in an act of terrorism after the mass shooting outside two nightclubs in Oslo. Two people were killed and 21 injured in the crime. On 23 September, the Oslo police district informed that the Norwegian citizen was wanted internationally. Several Norwegian media have since written that Bhatti must have been arrested by the Pakistani authorities. According to Aftenposten, Bhatti was arrested on Monday 26 September. Now the family of Arfan Bhatti is telling for the first time what must have happened this Monday. Today, a local journalist visited Bhatti’s family on behalf of news. The journalist meets Bhatti’s uncle and cousin in the area where Bhatti is said to have lived recently. – On the morning of September 26, he went with the children to drop them off at school. Since then he has been missing without a trace. We have no information about where he is, says Mohammed Azam Malik to news. Malik is Arfan Bhatti’s uncle. This is also confirmed by local politician Hafeez Malik to news. Wanted Arfan Bhatti Malik says that the family has sent a wanted notice to the local police. news has gained access to the missing report. There, the family describes how Bhatti is said to have disappeared, and they ask for help to find him again. – We have reported to the police. I ask the authorities to think about his children. They are worried. Regardless of where he is, we must get information about it, says the uncle to news. In the letter, the family also describes that Bhatti is said to have sent an audio message on the same Monday that he is said to have gone missing. Four hours after he allegedly left his home with the children, Bhatti is said to have sent the message. In the audio message sent on WhatsApp, Bhatti is said to have asked a relative to pick up the children from school and take them home. – I am now going to Lahore, Bhatti is said to have said. According to the letter from the family to local police, Bhatti is said to have sent the message at 1245 on Monday. In this handwritten letter from the family, it is stated that Arfan Bhatti must have disappeared on 26 September. It also says how later that day he is supposed to have sent an audio message, at 1245. The family has sent the letter to the local police to report Bhatti missing. Photo: Privat/news Silence from the police The family has so far received no answer from the authorities about Bhatti’s whereabouts. news has also been met with silence from Pakistani police authorities. news has spoken to the federal police FIA (Federal Investigation Agency), which handles international wanted information. The director of FIA in Gujrat promised on Wednesday last week to come back with information. Since then it has been completely quiet. The Ministry of the Interior manages the FIA. On Wednesday last week, local journalist Waqar Gilani asked on behalf of news whether the interior minister knew whether Arfan Bhatti had been arrested. – Regarding this, I have no first-hand information. But if you are interested in this, I can check the matter and get back to you with information, replied Rana Sanaullah at a live press conference. Interior Minister Pakistan, Rana Sanaullah says he does not know if Bhatti has been arrested. Photo: Geo News / Screenshot Sanaullah is the supreme commander of all police units and responsible for law and order in the country. news has since been in contact with the press manager of the interior minister Ali Nawaz Malik. By Friday afternoon at the latest, the response was that the ministry had no information about Bhatti. Must be produced Arfan Bhatti’s uncle requests that his nephew be produced for remand if he is involved in anything illegal. – If he is involved in something, he must be produced, so that we know where he is, says Mohammed Azam Malik to news. According to his defender Svein Holden, Bhatti has denied having anything to do with the mass shooting in Oslo. – I have no new information regarding the matter, says Holden to news today. Police prosecutor Ingvild Myrold in the Oslo police district writes in an e-mail to news today that the police are in dialogue with the Pakistani authorities and with the Norwegian embassy in Pakistan to confirm whether Bhatti has been arrested or not. – The police have still not received official confirmation of the arrest, writes Myrold.
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