PAKISTAN: Disappearances and extrajudicial killings continue unabated in Balochistan — the civilian governments remain callously indifferent

By: Asian Human Rights Commission

During the first four months of the year 2013 no restraint was observed on the part of the military in their actions. Abductions by unknown persons, disappearances and extrajudicial killings continue unabated in the war torn zone of Balochistan province. During the months from January to April, according to the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), an organisation that compiles records of missing persons and extrajudicial killings, 244 persons were abducted, 11 recovered, 34 extrajudicially killed and 26 died during military operations in different parts of the province.

According to the Pakistan Medical Association, Balochistan Chapter, 32 doctors are missing and 28 doctors have so far been killed. In addition dozens of lawyers are missing and many have been extrajudicial killed after abduction. Besides this, generally there is no rule of law and any person can be picked up and killed for any reason.

However, a new situation has arisen in the policies of the law enforcement agencies in that they have extended their jurisdictions to other provinces. Today Boloch citizens are being abducted from Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, where they go for higher education.

Read more » Asian Human Rights Commission
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-110-2013

Reepika Maseeh abducted & forcibly converted to Islam

Mian Mithoo & Mian Aslam’s new conquest, Reepika Maseeh, coming out of court. Reepika Maseeh is a Christian nurse from Sukkur, Pakistan. According to her father, she was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam & married away to a disciple of Mian Mithoo/Mian Aslam.

Read the story in Sindhi daily Awami Awaz: CLICK HERE

http://www.awamiawaz.net/%D8%B1%D9%BE%DA%AA%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AD-%D8%B3%D8%AE%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D9%BB%D8%A7%D8%A1%D9%8E-%DB%BE-%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA-%D9%BE%D9%8A%D8%B4%D8%8C-%DA%AA%D9%86%D9%87%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%87

via – adopted from facebook

PAKISTAN: A Hindu girl was forced to convert to Islam and is now missing – the judge and police have sided with the perpetrators

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 14-year-old girl, from the Hindu religious minority community was abducted by gangsters and forcibly converted to Islam. When a police case was filed against the abductors the girl was produced before a Magistrate’s Court by the gangsters to record a statement that she has embraced Islam as her religion. The irony of the judicial process is that the judicial magistrate has accepted her subsequent marriage as legal in spite of the Pakistan law which does not allow the marriage of girls before the age of 16 years. Her age was forged from 14 to 18 by the police and perpetrators before the judicial magistrate who had never asked for evidence about her age.

The father of the victim received information from the police that girl has been shifted to the tribal areas of the Pakistan, close to Afghanistan border for nefarious designs.

The police took five days to file the First Information Report (FIR) providing good time to the perpetrators to manage a forced marriage. The three young sisters, their mother and one brother of the victim were terminated from the employment from the same factory where their sister was employed because the parents of the victim had mentioned the registration number of the car of the factory in which their daughter was abducted. ….

Read more » Asia Human Rights Commission

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-115-2012

Pakistani Christians, Hindus, Sindhis and Shias Protest Against the Chief Justice of Pakistan in London

London: Lunch-time on the 28th of May 2012 the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry received a vocal reception at the hands of the protesters gathered outside the award giving ceremony of the International Council of Jurists (ICJ). Ironically Justice Chaudhry is himself the ^{vice president of ICJ.}

Zee News reported, “Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ha[s] been awarded the prestigious International Jurists Award 2012. Justice Chaudhry received the award from Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court of the UK, for his “unique and tremendous contribution in the field of administration of justice and for the tireless and fearless endeavours towards administration of justice in Pakistan against all odds.”

Shortly before Justice Chaudhry received the award, two persons barged into the auditorium at the Hotel Court House raising slogans against killings of Shias in Pakistan.”

While outside a large demonstration by Sindhi, Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Human Rights organizations was taking place against forced conversions of Hindu and Christian girls in Pakistan. The protesters were chanting loud slogans against Justice Chaudhry ’s role in handing over the Hindu girls to their Muslim ‘husbands’ whereas their families allege that all three girls were abducted on the orders of the influential custodian of a Muslim shrine Mian Abdul Haq-Member National Assembly for the ruling PPP.

Christian groups pointed out the lack of justice in Pakistani courts for scores of victims languishing in jails under trumped-up charges under Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws which carry the punishment of death penalty. The protesters were allowed to speak to the organizers of the event. ….

Read more » Global Christian Voice

http://globalchristianvoice.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/pakistani-christians-hindus-sindhis-and-shias-protest-against-the-chief-justice-of-pakistan-in-london/

SAPAC efforts for Rinkal Case

March 30, 2012 – SAPAC, Washington, DC: On 24th February, 2012 , a young Hindu girl named Rinkel Kumari was abducted from her home in a small village in Sindh, Pakistan. It was a full twelve hours before her family discovered where she was. Rinkel, aged 19, had been forced to change her religion to Islam and to marry a young man named Naveed Shah. Her parents immediately filled a first information report and brought her case before a civil judge. The court house was surrounded by thugs and supporters of the Pakistani Peoples’ Party Member of the National Assembly (PPP MNA) who was assisting Naveed. Under tremendous pressure, and obvious duress, Rinkel testified that she had married and converted to Islam of her own will. The judge released her into Naveed’s custody. Unsatisfied with the verdict, the Hindu community in Sindh rallied together to demand justice for Rinkel and other Hindu girls who had faced the same fate.

Christian girl, 12, kidnapped, beaten and raped for eight months until she converted to Islam

Asian Human Rights Commission claim girl was lured on shopping trip by friend before she was kidnapped.

Abductors drove her 120 miles before raping her, then forced her to sign marriage papers

Victim managed to escape eight months later, but police refuse to prosecute rapists because they are tied to militant Islam group

By Wil Longbottom

A 12-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped and repeatedly raped for eight months in Pakistan by a man who then falsified marriage documents with her, it was claimed today.

The girl was lured on a shopping trip in Lahore by a friend, before she was driven 120 miles to Tandianwalla and raped by the friend’s uncle in January this year.

Two days later, she was forced to sign papers consenting to marriage with the man and beaten for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.

She was then held against her will for eight months, before managing to escape and contact her family.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has said the rapists have not been arrested because of their affiliation with a militant Muslim organisation – the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

It claims the police have refused to order a medical check-up on the girl, and have warned her parents that it would be better for them to hand over the girl to her ‘legal’ husband or a criminal case would be filed against them.

An investigation into the kidnapping found the girl’s father reported her disappearance in January and made complaints against her abductors, but police took no action for eight months.

Last month, the girl – who has not been named for legal reasons – called her family from Tandianwalla and told them she had been abducted, but had escaped and was hiding at a bus stop.

The girl’s parents travelled to the town and rescued her, before taking her to a local magistrate to give a statement.

The rapists then contacted the police through their religious group and produced a marriage certificate that claimed to show one of them was married to the 12-year-old.

As a result of their complaint, the Christian family has gone into hiding as members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are searching for them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048261/Christian-girl-12-kidnapped-raped-beaten-converted-Islam.html#ixzz1qVn3aSFg

What kind of justice is this?

By: From the facebook wall of Aziz Narejo

“Kill me here in court, but don’t send me to Darul-Aman” The words of Rinkal Kumari: “Everyone in Pakistan is hand in glove, there is justice only for Muslims, there is no justice for Hindus. Kill me here in court, but don’t send me to Darul-Aman, all these people are hand in glove, they will kill us”.

Even after repeated pleas by Rinkal Kumari & her parents, the court didn’t allow her to go with her parents. Instead the court sent her to shelter home in Karachi where she said that she faces threat to her life. What kind of justice is this?

Who will be responsible now if something happens to her? I think the Chief Justice & the other two members of the bench should be held directly responsible if something happens to her. A direct FIR should be registered against them in case something happens to Rinkal Kumari.

After Rinkal Kumari’s statement in the Supreme Court today & her cries to go with her parents, it is established beyond any doubt that she is separated from her family against her will & that she had been kidnapped & forcibly converted to Islam. Now it is the duty of the govt & the Supreme Court to immediately order the arrest of kidnapper Naveed Shah, his accomplices, MNA Mian Mithoo, Mithoo’s family members & armed men who harassed a Sindhi Hindu girl.

Shame on those Sindhis & Pakistanis who still support Mian Mithoo brand of forced conversion to Islam of non-Muslim girls.

The Supreme Court should immediately order a complete inquiry in the case & punish all the culprits.

Courtesy: Aziz Narejo’s facebook wall.

Threatened Hindu girls to be moved to Islamabad

By Zahid Gishkori

ISLAMABAD: A National Assembly panel directed on Friday the Sindh police to shift two Hindu girls to Islamabad for protection against severe threats to their lives at the Panah Shelter Home in Karachi.

The panel gave the directions after the Sindh police expressed concern over the security for Rinkle (now, Faryal Bibi) and Lata Kumari, who were allegedly abducted and forced to get marry after embracing Islam.

Both girls will be shifted to Islamabad via the first flight available on the Pakistan International Airlines on Monday, according to the chairperson of the National Assembly Standing on Human Rights, Riaz Fatyana.

“I have directed the Sindh police to shift the girls to Islamabad for better security,” Fatyana told The Express Tribune.

Additional IG Police Sindh Falak Khurshid informed the panel that both girls were forcibly abducted ….

Read more » The Express Tribune

PAKISTAN – Supreme court directs Sindh IG to recover Hindu girls by 26th

SC directs Sindh IG to recover Hindu girls by 26th

ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Sindh inspector general of police to take all necessary steps for the recovery of Hindu females and produce them before the court on March 26.

A three-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing a petition filed by the Pakistan Hindu Council, making the federation through the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry respondents. Appearing on notice, Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq requested the court to grant him some time to seek instructions from the quarters concerned in the matter. The court then directed him to file reply until the next hearing.

The court was informed by Pakistan Hindu Council Patron-in-Chief Dr Ramesh Kumar that during the past few days, three females of the Hindu community including Rinkle daughter of Nandlal (Mirpur Mathello) and Dr Lata daughter of Dr Ramesh (Jaccobabad) were kidnapped from CPSP Karachi, whereas another Poja Devi (Larkano) had also been abducted forcibly. He said the entire Hindu community felt insecure and therefore had lodged a protest in Karachi. He requested the court to issue necessary directions to the provincial administration for the recovery of the girls by the next date of hearing.

Courtesy: Pakistan Today

A country for bigotry

Land of bigots

By Tazeen Javed

It has been a year since Shahbaz Bhatti passed away. No, strike that, he did not pass away; his life was brutally cut short when he was murdered. Everyone from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan have been suspected with his murder, either by the police officials, or by the home ministry, yet no decent progress has been made.

In a way, it all makes sense, since only certain kinds of angry groups of men, who bay for blood and destruction, seem to carry any weight around here. Bhatti was NOT that kind of a man. He believed in fighting for rights the democratic way and had planned to introduce legislation that would ban hate speech and hate literature against all. He was campaigning for official holidays for minorities’ religious festivals and wanted the blasphemy law to be repealed which turned out to be a crime worthy of death.

Bhatti’s death is not a lone incidence of brutal violence. Planned acts of aggression and cruelty against minorities — whether ethnic, religious, sectarian or communal — is becoming a norm in the ‘Land of the Pure’. Intolerance has reached such levels that people with names that revealed their sectarian or religious beliefs are afraid to use them when they feel unsafe. Slain journalist, Mukarram Khan Atif narrated one such incident, which depicted the extent of narrow-mindedness and fanaticism in the country. He and another reporter were travelling south from Mohmand Agency through Khyber Agency and one of them had to use a name that would make him pass off as a member of the majority sect.

The minority communities — no matter who they are and where they are living — are constantly under threat. We have cases of forced conversions of Hindu girls, mostly minors in Sindh who are forcefully abducted and married to Muslim men and then presented to the court as religious converts. According to a treasury member of the Sindh Assembly, around 20 to 25 forced conversions take place every month in the province.

Acts of mob violence against Ahmadis seem to be rising at an alarming rate. The situation is such that any Ahmadi family is at risk of being threatened with the blasphemy law. Their places of worship are gunned and/or ransacked and the law-enforcement community and the state does nothing and silently looks on.

The perpetrators of the Gojra incident, where a whole Christian colony was burnt down, still roam free and the Hazaras in Balochistan are regularly targeted for their sectarian and ethnic identity. Also, nothing is done to check the dissemination of hate literature, some of which can be found even in mainstream bookstores. Last week’s tragic shooting of passengers travelling on a bus to Gilgit on the Karakoram Highway, where people were asked to show their CNICs and then taken off and killed — all of them were Shia — shows that we have reached an even higher level of prejudice and bigotry.

It would not be wrong to say that intolerance rules our society and no one is safe here in this country other than the men who perpetuate bias, bigotry and hatred?

Courtesy: The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2012.

When Taliban or Al-Qaeda kills Pak soldiers no one talks about it. Too many apologists in Pakistani security establishment!

Handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the back of the head: Taliban releases horrific video of executions of 15 Pakistani soldiers

The paramilitary troops were abducted on December 23

‘God is greatest’ the Taliban yelled as they fired AK-47 rifles

Horrific video has been copied and distributed in street markets

By Jill Reilly

A video showing fifteen Pakistani soldiers being lined up and shot dead by a firing squad has been released by the Taliban.

The paramilitary troops were abducted on December 23 in what the terror group described as an operation to avenge the deaths of insurgents in Pakistan.

The release of the horrific video is intended to serve as a warning to Pakistan’s 600,000-member army, which has failed to break the back of the insurgents despite superior firepower and a series of offensives against their strongholds in mountain regions.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090165/Taliban-releases-horrific-video-executions-15-Pakistani-soldiers.html#ixzz1kCtxouI8

PAKISTAN: A senior surgeon belonging to the Ahmadi sect is abducted with his son and remains missing

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

HRC-STM-167-2011 (November 3, 2011) – A senior surgeon belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam has been missing since October 30, 2011. He was traveling in a car with his son of eleven years. The car was found abandoned far away from his home.

Abducted Journalist Found Dead, Tortured in Balochistan

Journalist’s body found in Khuzdar

QUETTA – A bullet-riddled body of a journalist was recovered from Khuzdar district, some 360 Km southeast of Quetta, on Saturday.

According to police officials, area people spotted a body lying at Gazgi area and informed police. Policemen rushed to the site and moved the body to Civil Hospital Khuzdar for medico-legal formalities where deceased was identified as Javed Naseer Rind, a missing journalist. “The victim was hit by bullets in head and chest while marks of torture were also visible on his body,” hospital sources said. Police after completing legal formalities handed over the body to heirs. …

Read more »  The Nation

Terrible news – Shahbaz Taseer abducted from Lahore

Shahbaz Taseer abducted from Lahore, police commandos start search operation

By Asad Kharal / Express

LAHORE: Police commandos have launched a search operation in upscale areas of Lahore including Defence, Gulberg and Model Town in connection to Shahbaz Taseer’s kidnapping on Friday. Earlier, the CIA had arrested two suspects believed to be involved in the abduction.

The son of late Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, was abducted from the Gulberg area of Lahore on Friday. …

Read more → The Express Tribune

Where are Taliban’s apologists who justified these actions through linking it to American highhandedness in the region.

– Execution Videos Strike Terror in Pakistan

By Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Jul 19, 2011 (IPS) – A video showing a group of 16 Pakistani policemen, hands tied behind their backs, being executed by Taliban gunmen in the Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is only the latest in a series showing brutal acts designed to strike terror in the areas bordering Afghanistan.

In the video, released on Monday, an unknown member of the Taliban (Islamic scholars) explains that the policemen are being punished for abandoning Islam and to avenge the deaths of six Pakistani children killed during security operations in adjacent Swat district.

The policemen are believed to have been abducted by the Taliban during a raid on a security post in the village of Shaltalo on Jun. 1.

“We first thought that we were watching a scene from an action movie and could not believe that it was an authentic recording of executions,” Imranullah, a resident of Dir, told IPS. …

“But, given the Taliban’s reputation for brutality, we were soon convinced that it was genuine,” Imranullah said. “We still remember how the Taliban murdered a popular female dancer called Shabana in Swat and strung her body up from an electricity pole as warning.”

Read more → IPS News

Central leader of BSO-Azaad Shafi Baloch killed in custody

Quetta: June 23: Central leader of the Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad), Shafi Baloch’s mutilated dead body has been found from Bolan area and shifted to his ancestral town of Sibbi for burial. Shafi Baloch was abducted by agencies on Friday June 17th 2011 near Lakhpass area of Mastung district.

Then they came for me – by Babar Sattar

The pall of gloom, anger and despondency in Pakistan has deepened with Saleem Shahzad’s gruesome murder. If the past is any guide, we will neither discover verifiable facts about his murder, nor will his killers be brought to justice. But let us revisit what we do know. Saleem Shahzad was called in by the ISI in October last year to discuss a story that he had filed for Asia Times Online and felt that he had received a muffled threat. He shared the details with his family, employers and some friends, including Human Rights Watch. Shahzad had written the first part of a story this past week suggesting that Al-Qaeda/Taliban had infiltrated the navy and the attack on PNS Mehran was a consequence of efforts to weed them out. Shahzad was abducted from a high-security zone in Islamabad while he was on his way to participation in a TV talk show. He was tortured to death and his body dumped in the canal close to Rasool Barrage a couple of days later.

Who could have abducted a journalist from one of the most fortified areas of Islamabad? If all this was the handiwork of Al-Qaeda/Taliban, why did they not make demands in return for his release, as they often do? If they didn’t abduct him for ransom or barter, why did they not claim credit for his assassination? Why did they not hold him out as an example for others they see as enemies or double agents, rather than silently dumping his tortured body, followed by an anonymous burial in Mandi Bahhauddin? Was the local representative of Human Rights Watch conspiring with Al-Qaeda and their “foreign” patrons when (according to reported conversations with interlocutors) he disclosed that Shahzad was being held by the ISI and would be released soon? Shahzad feared for his life and had pointed fingers. Should we simply disregard his account now that he is dead?

No terror group has claimed responsibility for Shahzad’s murder. But the ISI has denied involvement in his torture and killing, and resolved “to leave no stone unturned in helping bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice.” Let us assume that the ISI is being truthful here. How did we come to this pass where our leading intelligence agency is the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a journalist and, conscious of such a perception, feels obliged to issue a contradiction? Was Umar Cheema of The News really tortured by spooks or did he just imagine security personnel shaving his head? Was Kamran Shafi’s house never attacked? Is there some bright line rule that people will be roughed up but not killed? Or are the countless reported episodes of intelligence personnel intimidating journalists all lies? Has the US-Indian-Israeli nexus successfully manipulated the minds of our media and intelligentsia? Is this the best explanation for the suspicion that segments of our national security apparatus arouse?

Back in January 2010, I wrote about “reforming khakis.” I had endeavoured to identify multiple facets of the khaki mindset, as I understood them. “The first is an undaunted sense of righteousness,” I had argued. “This indoctrinates the military with the belief that its vision and definition of national security and national interest is the perennial manifestation of wisdom and truth. Any involvement of civilians with matters deemed to fall within the domain of national security is seen as unwarranted interference and an affront to its interests. This protective sense encourages the military to guard its proclaimed territory as a fief. The second facet of the khaki mindset is the military’s saviour instinct. Despite being a non-representative institution, the military has assigned to itself the role of deciphering aspirations of Pakistanis and protecting them. And the most insidious facet of this mindset is the unstated sense of being above the law that binds ordinary citizens.”

Consequently, I was “invited” to the ISI headquarter to meet with a brigadier who looked after internal security. I was offered a “tea break” while being informed that people within the GHQ had taken offence at my article. The brigadier read out “objectionable” excerpts from my article back to me and read from hand scribbled notes that spread over half-a-dozen pages to educate me on how I was wrong. He spoke for about 45 minutes before I sought permission to interrupt his speech and engage in a dialogue. At some point in this conversation he told me quite categorically that the army was more patriotic than the rest of us!

I wasn’t directly threatened at any point. However, I was informed, as a matter of historical record, that there was a time when the agency dealt with people only with the stick; but now things were different. During the meeting I felt obliged to reiterate my fidelity and loyalty to my country and was later ashamed and angry with myself for doing so.

I did not walk away from the ISI headquarters with a sense that this was another free exchange of ideas with a state official who disagreed with my opinion on how best to secure our national interest. In what is hard to describe accurately, I felt an eerie sense of anxiety and a need to protect my back. Not from the Taliban or terror groups but from the same security apparatus that is mandated by law to protect and defend my constitutional right to life, liberty and physical security. …..

Read more: The News

Sindh: New Disappearances Cause International Concern

The Asian Human Rights Commission has launched a campaign on Sindh after the latest news of further disappearances of political campaigners, the use of torture to extract information and confessions, and anti-terrorism charges levelled against activists.

Below is an appeal published by the Asian Human Rights Commission:

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that four activists of a nationalist political group were abducted from a crowded part of Karachi city by the police and plain clothed persons in police and military jeeps when they were ending their six day hunger strike in protest against the second disappearance of their leader who has been missing since 25 February 2011 after his arrest by persons from Army, Rangers and police. The parents of the disappeared person, in an application to different authorities, accuse Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and military intelligence (MI) for the kidnap and disappearance.  …

Read more : UNPO

Political activist abducted in pakistan

Muzaffar Bhutto, a senior member of a Sindhi nationalist political party in Pakistan, has been abducted for a second time allegedly by plain-clothed intelligence agents and police on 25 February. His wife is concerned for his life, as he is suffering from serious health problems. Amnesty International fears he might be tortured or ill-treated whilst in detention. …

Read more : AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PAKISTAN: Two more disappeared persons are extrajudicially killed in Balochistan to destroy evidence of abduction by law enforcement agencies

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the bodies of two disappeared persons have been found in a remote area. The bodies bore bullet wounds and marks of torture. Both victims were abducted from Karachi, Sindh province at different times but their bodies were found together 500 kilometers near the Gwader district, Balochistan province. Both the bodies were lying side by side in an abandoned place. It was witnessed that both were abducted by persons in uniformed and in plain clothes that identified themselves to the onlookers as being from the state security agencies.

Disappearances in Balochistan have become the routine work of the Frontier Corps (FC) and state intelligence agencies. Since last year the law enforcement authorities have introduced a new trend in which they kill the disappeared person extra judicially so as to destroy any possible evidence of their involvement. …

Read more : AHRC

Balochistan: A student leader abducted and four bodies of disappeared persons are found

PAKISTAN: A student leader abducted and four bodies of disappeared persons are found

Case: AHRC-UAC-032-2011 – The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a student leader from Balochistan was abducted from the check post of the Frontier Corps in Quetta while he was returning from an interview for internship at Pakistan Telecommunications, a public sector company. In the campaign of killings of disappeared persons four more bodies of disappeared were found with bullet and torture marks. No a day goes by in Balochistan province without agitation and ‘shutter-down’ strikes in protest of killings and abductions allegedly by the law enforcement agencies. …

Read more : AHRC