lahore, march 23: mothers cried, wives shed tears in silence and sisters sulked as they heard speeches and watched a docu- mentary on the "abduction" of their loved ones at a convention for missing persons here on sunday. the human rights commission of pakistan auditorium descended in gloom when the viewers watched police torturing protesters, and stripping and bundling into a van a young man seeking his father's re- lease. the documentary showed former fed- eral law minister wasi zafar denying the role of agencies in picking up the missing per- sons while former interior minister aftab sherpao refusing to accept them as citizens of pakistan. nighat khatoon, mother of the missing faisal faraz, broke down into tears and star- ted crying as soon as she stepped up the po- dium to make a speech. "i want the families of the kidnappers of my son to meet the same fate and feel the same pain. i want my son back," she said while sobbing. student action committee (sac) convener amir jalil said they had invited de- posed supreme court judge justice khalilur rehman ramday, who could not come be- cause of his illegal confinement. "today i am confined along with rest of the judges because of the missing person's case. my heart bleeds and beats with people mak- ing efforts to get their loved ones released," jalil read out justice ramday's message to the audience. the sac and groups called young professionals and fast rising - formed in the wake of the deposition of the judges - had organised the convention with the subject 'does a government sell its citizens?' the families of the missing persons later joined the concerned citizens of pakistan (ccp) in a rally for the restoration of the de- posed judges. amina janjua, whose husband went miss- ing on june 30, 2005, said on december 28, 2006, when the families of the missing per- sons gathered for a protest, the police and the agencies outnumbered them. she said that day the police beat up his son, stripped him in front of the crowd and took him away in front of her seven-year-old daughter. "she cried and begged police to leave her brother alone and lost consciousness when nobody listened. that was the second blow i faced after my husband's abduction," she re- called. "my son has not been able to come out of that shameful episode. he is reluctant to meet people and today refused to accom- pany me to this convention," she said. she said she would lay her life on the line for the deposed chief justice iftikhar mohammad chaudhry, who entertained their case and consequently lost his office on march 9. later, she said, they were beaten up on their way to meet the vice chief of army staff for the release of their loved ones be- fore eid. she said several persons, released after prolonged detentions and torture, refused to recognise their families while one of them died as he was reduced to a mere skeleton. "we don't want a pakistan where its people are abducted and tortured to death," she added. shaukat aziz siddiqui advocate, associ- ated with the struggle for the release of the missing persons spoke at length on the con- stitutional safeguards against illegal arrests and detentions. he said the common element among the missing persons had been the an- ti-american sentiments and the love of the country. talking about a man, abdul basit, who was got released from illegal detention on the or- ders of the deposed cjp, mr siddiqui said: "let alone seeing the sun, he (basit) did not see the sunlight during his four-year long de- tention." supreme court bar association secretary amin javed said the country had to see five martial laws, including the action of november 3, because the judiciary had been endorsing them on the bases of the law of necessity. during the question-hour ses- sion, participants demanded punishment for those abducting people, urging the new assembly to enact a law to stop the agen- cies and army from perpetrating such acts. they also asked whether or not there was a connection be- tween all the missing persons. later, the participants ob- served the 30-second silence to honour bhagat singh. on march 23, 1931, bhagat singh was hanged in lahore along with his companions rajguru and sukhdev.