Policemen in Sindh province have yet to release eight women and four children who were arrested on the night of November 24, 2008, without charge, and taken away in police vans. (http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1785/) Higher police officers are currently using them as bartering tools, to force relatives to hand over a suspected bandit, Haji Wakeel, who may be holding another man, Dr. Abdul Jaleel Bachani, hostage. Their detention is entirely illegal and unconstitutional.
Protestors across Sindh province, including in Hyderabad city, have held demonstrations demanding the release of those taken, and the arrest of the police officials involved. (Please see AHRC-UAC-258-2008)
A delegation of citizens, consisting of lawyers, human rights activists and journalists, met with Mr. Sana Ullah Abbasi, deputy inspector general (DIG) of the police in Hyderabad, to secure the release of the hostages. The DIG has merely apologised, declaring that his hands are tied until the suspected bandit is turned in. The district police officers of Hyderabad and Tando Allah Yar have told the DIG that they will not give up the whereabouts of the hostages; they claim that the ruling party of the province, the Pakistan Peoples Party, is pressuring them to find Dr Bachani at all costs. The government remains silent on the issue.
The seeming impotence of the deputy inspector general makes a mockery of the policing system in this province. The fact that only civilian groups are concerned with the rights of those kidnapped makes a mockery of its government.
The situation in Sindh province is getting worse day by day. To get ahead, gangsters need only look to the example set for them by the police. The provincial government, worried about its grip on power, plays into the hands of the police heads, and as a result, the province is practically lawless. Between December 1 and 3 this year, for example, more than 50 persons were abducted and killed in Karachi, the capital; they were either burned alive abducted, or resurfaced as corpses bearing severe torture marks. A number of these crimes have been linked to coalition partners in the government.
The abducted Dr. Bachani, executive health officer, is the younger brother of Mr. Abdul Sattar Bachani, the leader of the ruling party and a former minister. Meanwhile family members of the suspected bandit, Mr. Haji Wakeel, 18 who works on lands which belong to the Bachanis claim that he is innocent. They believe he has been implicated because he demanded wages owed to him.
The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government of President Zardari to immediately release the women and children, and provide redress for their ordeal. The AHRC also urges upon the government to take legal action against all police officers who are involved in the heinous kind of crime.
