In the strange case of a devout Muslim student apparently kidnapped at gunpoint in an east-end Toronto suburb and not seen since, the plot looks to be thickening. Furqan Muhammad-Haroon, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student from the University of Toronto, vanished in what police are treating as an armed abduction, was recently charged in connection with the theft of computer gear from a former employer.
Police have received no ransom demand, nor any independent confirmation of the events that appear to have culminated in Mr. Muhammad-Haroon being forced off the road and kidnapped.
One of three brothers whose parents emigrated to Canada from Pakistan, the Toronto-born Mr. Muhammad-Haroon has no criminal record. The family made a tearful appeal to the public yesterday from the Islamic Foundation of Toronto mosque, urging anyone with information to call police. His disappearance, described as completely out of character, has stirred alarm in Scarborough’s Islamic community. The mosque issued an appeal for help after prayers on Sunday. Mohamed Mobeen, the mosque’s secretary and fund-raising chair, last year accompanied the missing man, together with his mother and one of his brothers, on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a journey all Muslims are expected to take at least once in their lives. Mr. Mobeen described Mr. Muhammad-Haroon’s conduct and morals as exemplary.
