Urgent Appeal Case

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) team killed a man on 16 March 2010. The witnesses told the AHRC that Major Kamruzzaman of the RAB-10 shot the man pointing a pistol at the person’s head in a staircase of a two-storied building. The authorities have […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that a man arbitrarily arrested by the police in General Santos City was tortured while in custody for seven days. The police had him severely beaten, subjected him to suffocation using a plastic bag and burned his thumb with lit cigarettes. When carrying […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 14 year-old girl was gang raped by armed men to punish her father for identifying them in a case of theft at his house. When the girl was being raped police in the vicinity heard her cries from a distance but did […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that another case of police brutality in Sri Lanka has yet to be investigated by the authorities. It involves the beating of a man by a large group of officers at Polpithigama police station when he tried to visit his cousins after their arrest. The […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to inform you of another raft of charges against a journalist in Burma who was sentenced to a long prison sentence and whose appeal against imprisonment has so far been unsuccessful. Young journalist Ma Hla Hla Win appealed at the end of April against her 27-year […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about an illegal arrest and assault by Panadura North police. A man was dragged from his house early in the morning without being shown a warrant or informed of the complaint against him and was beaten unconscious. Although the hospital arranged for a report […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned about the conduct of Trincomalee police officers following a police shooting. The victim was allegedly shot at his home during a botched arrest attempt and died in hospital shortly after. According to witnesses police did not follow police any form of procedure, delayed the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a teacher severely caned three young students in Kurunegala before forcing them to eat inedible produce as part of a punishment. One 13-year-old fell violently ill and has since been to hospital a number of times, missing a month of school. Corporal punishment in […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about two killings that took place during a police operation in Aceh. The men died after police arrested them and took them to an area that they believed was being used by an armed group. Both detainees were unarmed and in custody but were […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that Ambalanthotha police officers and a group of civilians broke into a house without a warrant, damaged furniture and took money during an illegal arrest; police then assaulted the house owner in custody and threatened to file fabricated charges against him. His brother, sister-in-law and […]

Dear Friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that charges have not yet been filed in court against soldiers involved in illegally arresting, detaining, torturing and threatening to kill five indigenous tribe members over a number of days. On December 1, 2009 the victims, one of them a minor, were arrested […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about another ‘encounter’ killing by Manipur security personnel that bears all the signs of being an extrajudicial execution. The man was abducted, unarmed, in front of his family, his house was searched and his were valuables stolen, although the incident report claimed that a […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is extremely concerned for the welfare of a young man who was badly beaten along with his family, then abducted illegally by soldiers. A former employer who owes him money was seen directing his abduction. Although police were able to find him, intervene and provide medical treatment, […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information concerning yet another case of abduction and extrajudicial execution in Manipur. After unidentified persons were seen abducting a man in April, the local police reported having killed him in an armed encounter later that evening. Given the widespread pattern of extrajudicial executions in the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man is still missing fifteen months after his arrest by plain clothed intelligence agents, and despite admissions by officials that he is in custody. Although the Supreme Court has made strong efforts to address the issue of disappearances in Pakistan it remains unable […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has gathered detailed information on the escalating harassment of criminal witness Saman Thialakasir by police before his murder in February. He was found dead the morning after he was picked up by officers. Saman had reported a case of illegal logging in his neighbourhood with suspected connections […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police and officials are refusing to respond to the abduction of a fifteen-year-old Hindu girl by a neighbour in December last year. Her parents found her captive in a Muslim seminary and were told that she was married and had converted to Islam. The […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned that police in Lahore made no effort to protect university staff from violent attacks by expelled students from a conservative Muslim organization earlier this month. One professor sustained serious head injuries and bone fractures. Local police then avoided filing an FIR for a week and when […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man was arbitrarily arrested, tortured and held in remand for more than two years before he was finally granted bail. Dehiwela police held him illegally for one month and ten days before his transfer to a remand prison and he reports that officers […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that Wellawatte police have taken no action during the two-year period since a young student was allegedly arrested by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). No information has been given to his family and his whereabouts are entirely unknown. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka […]