Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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More reports of abductions and arrests without charge..

AI concerned over ‘disappearances’
By Our Reporter

LAHORE, July 3: Amnesty International has expressed grave concern over what it called arbitrary arrests and disappearance of people, locals as well as foreigners, and rights violations in Balochistan and tribal areas of Pakistan.

This was stated by Amnesty International, Pakistan president Fayyaz-ur-Rehman while releasing summary of the Pakistan section of AI’s Report 2006 at a press conference at the Lahore Press Club here on Monday.

**He said dozens of people including women and children had been arbitrarily arrested on suspicion of their involvement in terrorist activities or having contacts with al-Qaida. Several persons disappeared in custody and some of them were handed over to US authorities, apparently without any legal process. He said that authentic human rights reports investigating the situation in Balochistan had found evidence of arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judicial executions, torture and ‘disappearances’ committed by security and intelligence agencies.

He said on December 9 last as many as 18 labour union leaders from Balochistan ‘disappeared’ in Karachi where they had gone to negotiate with the management of their company. Their whereabouts remained unknown so far.**

He said that according to AI report, the most important part of human rights violations included gender and religion based violence and those being committed in the name of `war against terror’

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

Yes. I think Pak government should come clean on these disappearances. This is not good for our image.

Moreover by subjecting these suspects to arbitrary actions will surely make us look like them. And that hurts our war on terror as well.

The best thing is to set up an island off the coast of Karachi. Anyone suspected of anti-state activities should be sent over there with his name clearly printed in major newspapers.

That will make sure, everyone knows their whereabouts, while we cleanup our society from the Arab and tribal lackeys.

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

I am sure the governments only rounding off the enemies, so no worries, infact keep it up boys, round up the halwa-khorz...

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Re: Amnesty concerned over “disappearances”

Yet another dumb statement from you :rolleyes:

According to your statement '18 labour union leaders’ picked up by agencies are ‘enemies’

I guess living in America, you have been influenced by Bush and his neo-cons

Of course the ISI never picks up innocents,they are pure angels :rolleyes:

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Re: Amnesty concerned over “disappearances”

I missed this..

BBC in ‘missing Pakistani’ debate
BBC NEWS | South Asia | BBC in 'missing Pakistani' debate
Organisers say that disappearances are a neglected political issue
The BBC Urdu service has held a special debate to discuss the issue of missing people in Pakistan.
The information minister and families of Pakistani nationals who have disappeared all took part.

**Using its reporters across Pakistan, the BBC’s Urdu on-line service complied a list of about 40 such people.

Correspondents say hundreds of people have gone missing in Pakistan, but authenticating the numbers remains a difficult task. **

Emotions

The BBC’s Mazhar Zaidi, who produced Monday’s hour-long discussion in Islamabad, said the programme was highly charged.

“Families of disappeared people who took part were crying and hugging each other,” he said.

“They were able to quiz the information minister as to why their dear ones had never been produced in courts or formally charged.”

The sentiments of the mother of Muneer Maingal - who was reportedly detained at Karachi airport in April and has not been seen since - typified the emotions of many relatives.

Muzaffar Bhutto’s family spoke during the debate

“I want to smell the fragrance of my son again,” she said.

The issue of disappearances in Pakistan came to the fore after the body of journalist Hayatullah Khan was found last month in a tribal region near the Afghan border.

He went missing in December. Most other disappearances have involved people active in politics.

Journalists in Pakistan believe Mr Khan was taken by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, and so do his family.

The authorities insist they had nothing to do with Mr Khan’s death and say they are launching a judicial inquiry.

Another one of the 40 cases examined by the BBC Urdu service was that of Muzaffar Bhutto, a political activist arrested by the authorities in Karachi in 2005.

His brother said he had not been seen since then, despite repeated pleas for information.

“Our programme was a huge success,” said BBC Urdu.com Editor Waheed Mirza.

“In addition to the 40 cases we selected for examination before the programme, we also learnt of several other cases provided by individuals and organisations who phoned in.”

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

Musharraf and co. have the power to detain, kill or torture 100's of people, but they do not have the power to abolish insane Hudood laws. This is why dictatorships do not work.

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

Thanks for posting the article zakk.

Enemies of Pakistan love to mulitply numbers by 100's. Very pathetic.

Bottom line is that Pak government should catch the trouble makers and keep them off the coast of Karachi in a ship, or on a small island.

Their names should be printed in major newpapers, and the island court should punish these $tupids.

No need to worry about declaring names of trouble makers. We all want to know about them, and supply some jootas (shoes) for their necks.

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Shame some are so naive and brainwashed,they make such comments :rolleyes:

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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\07\08\story_8-7-2006_pg3_1

Snippet from a pertinent article:

In Balochistan’s case, the matter of the “disappearance” of civilians — young and old, caught in the crossfire between the government and insurgents — is alienating large sections of that traditional and prickly society. It is known that many people from various parts of the province have been picked up by intelligence agencies and have not been heard of since they were taken away. Even the provincial government is helpless in the face of such transgression. Clearly, the agencies are working on the brief handed to them by the federal government. There is also an internal divide within Balochistan on the issue. While the governor of the province says “no innocent citizen is in the custody of intelligence agencies”, the chief minister is planning to lodge a ‘soft protest’ with Islamabad by sending his finance minister to the capital to discuss the increasing numbers of Baloch being picked up by the agencies. Even Governor Ghani’s statement shows that people are indeed being arrested and held, though according to him they are not innocent people.

The problem is that if those arrested are not innocent people and if that fact has been determined, presumably through incriminating evidence, then why are they not produced in a court of law (which is the proper forum to judge their culpability) and prosecuted according to their crimes? There is no reason for detaining someone if he is either innocent or the arresting agency has failed to make the charge stick. It should be obvious that no matter what the circumstances, agencies cannot be allowed to arrest anyone and hold him secretly against established norms of law.

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

Agreed! Criminals and terrorists should be brought to the court and tried. We already have terrorism courts to dispense quick justice in these cases.

No matter what, people should not disappear for more than few days. Their families must be notified of their whereabouts. National media is a good outlet of such arrests.

Case in point, the two news-guys who were caught tresspassing and taking pictures at the Jackobabad air base. These guys should have been shown on TV the day they were caught red-handed and produced in court within reasonable time.

As these guys were held without due process, they suddenly are heroes instead of criminals.

In case of Balochis, the responsibility is on Baloch intellectuals as well. They ought to learn that tribal insurrection against the government is never fruitful. They have an assembly, MPAs, and ministers in Quetta. No matter what, these ministers and Baloch media should be used to resolve issues. There is no need to kill or bomb law-enforcement agents.

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"

One should remember abductions or murders in a small region proportionate to the population can have a huge impact. To appreciate the effect, if we put a lower figure of 80 cases that have happened. Balochis in Balochistan constitute half the population approximately of the province which puts them at (according to the 1998 census) somewhere around 3 and a half million people. So 80 cases in 3.5 million people, now for comparison sake, if this was translated into an equal percentage in Punjab with 20 times the population you are talking an euivalent of 1600 kidnappings or abductions by intelligence agencies. Can you imagine the uproar if 1600 people just disappeared across Punjab? The same process can be used in Waziristan to appreciate the scale of the devastation that has been wreaked by the botched military operation.

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Re: Amnesty concerned over "disappearances"


Good way to look at things Zakk shaib!

As I said, if Baloch trouble makers are being picked up by police, they should be brought to the terrorism courts and given the due process followed by due punishment.

It is never good to violate criminal laws in an area dominated by minorities. However it takes two to tango.

Balochis should be up in arms against attacks on police and FC. They are not some foreigners. They are also the brothers and fathers of Balochis. Killing FC jawans is going to generate a lot of animosity between tribes in the long run.

So while we all are joined together and united to protect the honor of Balochis, we must remember to raise our voices for protecting the lives of FC and police jawans.

Peace!