KARACHI: Mohammed Hanif’s first book A Case of Exploding Mangoes touched upon the controversial life of a military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq; his second, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti was about what a Christian woman has to go through in an Islamic state, and his latest work, Red Birds is going to touch upon another controversial topic: it’s a tale revolving around a missing person. The much awaited novel has finally been released today.

“I was also doing some reporting about missing people in Pakistan, specially in Balochistan, spending some time with their families. I was getting to know the fragility of their hope and the horror that awaited them if their struggle was to end,” Hanif shared speaking to Vogue India about what sparked him to write Red Birds.

In Pakistan, there are about 1,400 cases of enforced disappearances, according to the commission formed to probe the cases, but “the actual number of people whose whereabouts were unknown remained higher”, as reported by The Express Tribune.