Karachi, Sep 5 (IANS): A renowned professor from Sindh in Pakistan, Inam Bhatti was picked up from Karachi airport by unidentified men, a report said on Thursday.

According to video footage, Inam Bhatti of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), was abducted by unknown persons from the premises of Karachi airport.

According to family sources, Bhatti was on his way to Istanbul to attend an academic conference, when he was picked up. He was accompanied by his son Sallar (18), when some persons asked his son to go away and took Bhatti in a pickup van without any number plate.

Bhatti is a professor in the chemical department and also director of the Office Of Research Innovation And Commercialisation. He is said to be politically close to a Sindhi nationalist party, the Sindh United Party (SUP).

Condemning the abduction, SUP leader Syed Zain Shah alleged that Bhatti has been abducted by the law enforcing agencies.

The SUP leaders said that men of letters, intellectuals and educationists were the glory of the motherland and it was the duty of every citizen to raise their voice against such an unjust act.

The World Sindhi Congress (WSC) has strongly condemned the abduction and demanded his immediate release.

The WSC believes that Sindh has been witnessing an unprecedented attack on the political and civil society workers as well as human rights defenders.