PAKISTAN: Two more human rights defenders disappeared following arrest

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the disappearance of two more human rights defenders, including one lawyer and one blogger, following their arrests. The AHRC is also concerned that since New Years Eve, within 10 days, more than around eight bloggers and defenders have been disappeared.

Mr. Fayyaz Ali Khamisani, lawyer, was arrested on January 9, from outside his house in Khairpur Mirs, Sindh Province, whereas Mr. Samar Abbas, blogger and defender, was mysteriously disappeared on January 7, from Islamabad. These followed the disappearance of a professor, Salman Haider. They have blogged on the issues of disappearances in Pakistan and on fragile situation of human rights in the country.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Mr. Fayyaz Ali Khamisani, a prominent lawyer and activist of the Bar Association of Sindh, was arrested on the evening of January 9, 2017, just outside his house.

Returning from his law chambers, as he reached his house, a double cabin Vego Van, having registration plate SP-571, i.e. a police van, stopped him. Eight masked commandos in uniform, whose faces were clearly seen, captured him. In the process of his arrest, he was beaten when he tried to resist and shout for help. He was pushed and dragged into the van and taken to an unknown destination. The by-standers on the scene were threatened to remain calm; AK-47 rifles were pointed at them. On the road where he was arrested, there are CCTV cameras. But, after the incident, police refused to check the cameras.

The brother of the disappeared man, Mr. Fayyaz Ali Khamisani, went to police station of A-section, Khaipur, to meet the Station House Officer of Counter Terrorism Depatment (CTD) to file his compalint, but the police and CTD refused to entertain the complaint. Fayyaz has immediately filed a case in the High Court of Sindh for his abducted brother’s recovery.

The high officers of Sindh police, including the IG, DSP and SHOs, appeared in the High Court on January 11, and denied having Khamisani in their custody and stated that he has no criminal record. DIG Sukkur and SSP khairpur requested the court to grant one-week time to find out Fayaz Khamisani and they took responsibility that they bring him from anywhere.

Court formed a GIT which will report every step to honorable court. DIG, SSP, two members of bar council and Fayyaz Khamisani will be the member of GIT. Next hearing.

However, the police officers have privately told the victim’s elder brother that the victim has been abducted by intelligence persons on the information of an already detained person, who had the telephone number of the disappeared lawyer. The detained person is also in the custody of State intelligence agencies, who claim he is involved in subversive activities, including blasts of railway lines.

Another blogger and human rights defender, Mr. Samar Abbas, who is also in charge of the Shia disaster cell of Ansar Burni, a prominent human rights organization, has been missing since the afternoon of January 7.

His brother Qamar Abbas told the BBC that, on January 3, Samar Abbas went to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, for some work, and he remained in contact with his family on the night of January 6. But, since January 7, his cell phone is not working and has remained switched off. He says that his brother has been taken in custody by the secret agencies, like Mr. Salman Haider, who has been missing since January 4, after he was arrested on a highway. Abbas became very active in the wake of the continuous killings of Shia Muslims and the massacre of schoolchildren at the Army Public School in 2014.

It is apprehended that missing persons will be extrajudicially killed following torture in custody in the process of the officials extracting information about their blogging and other activities.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The UN Working Group (WGEID) has asked the government of Pakistan to criminalise enforced disappearance and the government of Pakistan promised in 2012 to make a law. However, the government betrayed UN because of pressure from the Military establishment, which is itself involved in disappearances. The reality is Pakistan Military introduced the phenomenon of disappearances following arrest during the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf.

The disappearances and extrajudicial killings have become endemic and are seen by the State as the best solution to deprive the people of their fundamental rights and right to life. The “disappeared” individuals are not charged with any crime, and they never appear before any magistrate to challenge their detention or plead their innocence. They are not registered by State authorities, their whereabouts are kept unknown, each intelligence agency is unaware about the people disappeared by the other, and the victims are held indefinitely.

Pakistan is under obligation to eliminate enforced disappearances under international customary law as codified in the United Nations General Assembly Declaration on Enforced Disappearance 1992 and other instruments. However, the State continues its nefarious design of disappearing political activists. According to a report by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, during the year 2016, 56 cases of enforced disappearance were reported in January this year, 66 in February, 44 in March, 99 in April, 91 in May, 60 in June and 94 in July. That is, 510 cases in the last seven months, or an average of 72.86 cases per month.

Disappearances following arrest have become a part of law enforcement in Pakistan. No inquiry from the government so much as begins. Although courts take up some of the cases and certain persons have thus been recovered, not a single person has been tried for the crime of enforced disappearances because of the absence of any law against disappearances and the prevailing state of the justice system.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the following authorities calling on them to immediately recover the missing persons, Mr. Fayyaz Ali Khamisani and Mr. Samar Abbas. If there are cases against them the government must produce them before the court of law. Any further delay in their production will harm the lives of these missing persons. The police must be asked to file the complaints of family members. Those that abducted these persons must be prosecuted for kidnapping and keeping people in custody illegally.

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappeared (WGEID) for its intervention into this matter.

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