PAKISTAN: A student leader goes missing after his alleged arrest by state agents; a female student demonstrator is sentenced to three years in jail

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that a student activist has been arrested by members of a military intelligence agency, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Another female student has been fined and sentenced to three years in prison on sedition charges by the Anti Terrorism Court for heading a demonstration against disappearances. The cases show that harsh crackdowns on free speech, association and assembly continue in the province, contrary to the claims of its democratically elected government. 

CASE DETAILS: (According to information from the Baloch Students’ Organisation-Azad) 

According to information we have received, activist student Mr. Zakir Majeed was allegedly abducted by intelligence agents on June 8, 2009 in Mastung, near Quetta. Majeed is the senior vice chairperson of the Baloch Student Organization-Azad (BSO) and was with two other members, Waheed Baloch and Basit Baloch, near a busy marketplace at around noon when they were stopped by plain-clothed men. The men, who had driven up in two cars without number plates, asked a few questions and said that they were intelligence agents working for the Pakistan army. They took Majeed away with them in the cars without making any charges. One car was a Toyota Vego, the other a Toyota Surf SSR. 

The news of his illegal arrest has triggered violent protests in various cities across Balochistan, including Mastung and Quetta, with roads blocked, rallies held and slogans chanted against the Pakistan army. The AHRC is concerned that, like many arrested by state agents, Majeed will be tortured. 

Meanwhile postgraduate student Miss Karima Baloch, 23, has just been sentenced to three years in prison and fined Rs 150,000 (US$ 1,875) after she and several other women demonstrated in August 2006 against disappearances. The charges were made in her absence since she has yet to be found and arrested, and they were based mainly upon the removal of a flag from a government building without authorisation (under section 123 B of Pakistan penal code). She has been charged with defiling the flag and with sedition, which under section 124 A of PPC means ‘whoever by words or by sign or by visible representation excite(s) disaffection towards the federal or provincial government.’ The sentence was given by the Anti Terrorist Court (ATC) in Turbat, Balochistan province on June 2, 2009. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

Karima Baloch has had personal experience with the disappearances she campaigned against. One of her uncles, Mr.Abdul Wahid Qamber Baloch, was arrested in March 2007, tortured and kept incommunicado in secret military cells for nine months. He was handed over to police on April 21, 2008 and acquitted of nine out of ten changes, but remains in custody charged with anti-state activities. Another of her uncles, Dr. Khalid Baloch, was killed in August 2007 in an alleged encounter, in which the Frontier Corps (FC), a paramilitary organisation, claimed to have been ambushed. According to reports by journalists and rights groups, encounter killings are often staged in Balochistan as a way of ridding the authorities of unwanted detainees. Considering the circumstances it is unsurprising that the student has not come forward for her sentence. 

There is also widespread doubt regarding the validity of rulings made by the Anti Terrorism Court which was set up under former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The court is notorious for its harsh judgments which are regularly overturned by the high court, and have often been followed by the accused disappearing into military custody regardless. 

The Baloch Students’ Organization-Azad lobbies for the basic rights of the Baloch people in Pakistan, and is thought to be the largest platform for students critical of military action there. At the moment this mineral-rich province is experiencing its fifth large scale military operation since 1947, which has lasted eight years. Though the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari has stated that military operations were stopped when the new government was democratically elected in 2008, forces are still stationed there, military quarters continue to be built and reports of wide spread human rights abuse, particularly by the paramilitary Frontier Corps, constantly leave the province. These include the disappearances of over 350 persons after their arrest since Zardari came into power and about 4,000 in total, since military operations began. (Please see previous AHRC reports on disappearances and secret military torture centres: AHRC-UAC-041-2009, AHRC-STM-012-2009) Majeed was a member of the committee that worked for the release of victims of abduction. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

The cases indicate a harsh crackdown on the freedom of speech, association and assembly in the province, enshrined in articles 16, 17 and 19 of the Pakistan constitution. They also demonstrate the continued omnipotence of the military in courts and squads in the province, in which due process is ignored and people continue to disappear without trace. This is despite the pledges made by the current government before the UN Human Rights Council in May 2008, to uphold the principles of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which it has ratified, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture (CAT) which it has signed. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please write letters to the authorities demanding the swift and safe release of Zakir Majeed and a thorough review of the charges levied against Karima Baloch. Please also demand that Wahid Qamber Baloch be released immediately and that those responsible for his illegal detention and torture be investigated and charged. 

The Asian Human Rights Commission has written a letter to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and the Special Rapporteurs on the Question of Torture and on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER