Arbitrary arrest & detention

A Report by the Asian Human Rights Commission/Asian Legal Resource Centre to the 113 session of United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) are concerned about the increase in cases of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. The state has utterly and […]

This week Just Asia begins with Bangladesh, where police have arrested several persons involved in the rape and torture of a teenager, after pictures of the victim and her mother at hospital with shaved heads caused outrage. Tufan Sarkar, a unionist linked to the ruling Awami League party, has been charged with raping the 16-year-old at home on July […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the sudden increase of disappearances of activists including peasant leaders, human rights defenders and nationalists. Security Forces geared up their process of arrests and disappearances. It is based on information that the Sindhis, the indigenous people, will observe a Black Day on […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly condemns yesterday’s late evening attack on Narmada Bachao Andolan’s peaceful sit-in and fast by the Madhya Pradesh state police. The police forcibly arrested Ms. Medha Patkar and 11 others and have detained them. The activists were protesting against Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to submerge the area violating the Supreme Court of […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Love Commandos, a New-Delhi based volunteer organization dedicated to assisting couples who face familial or societal opposition to their marriages regarding the case of Uma Bharti and Ravi Kant Meena, who married of their own free will, and are now being violently separated […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the extra-judicial killing of Mr. Rajamuni Devage Gunadasa of second milepost, Rale Kanda, Alawwa, Warakapola in the Kegalle District of Warakapola Police Division. On 26 June 2017, while walking on the Kandy-Colombo main road, he was shot by Police Officers attached to the […]

The New York Times has published an editorial titled “The Opposition Disappears in Bangladesh” on 28 July 2017. Citing the United Nations human rights experts the New York Times editorial said that “. . . [T]he United Nations called in February for “Bangladesh to act now to halt an increasing number of enforced disappearances in the […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, our partner organization in West Bengal. It concerns the enforced disappearance of a civilian at the hands of Border Security Force (BSF) officers at the Indo-Bangladesh border. In the span of a decade, there have been over 1,000 civilian deaths at the […]

This week Just Asia begins with the case of Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan, who was detained by Malaysian immigration authorities for more than 12 hours at Kuala Lumpur airport last week. Without giving any reasons for the detention, the authorities finally deported him back to Dhaka. Just Asia speaks to […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the disappearance of a youth by the police and persons from intelligence agencies. His two older brothers were already extrajudicially killed earlier. Eighteen year old Sajjad went to Karachi city from his village to meet his assassinated brother’s family, and was abducted […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding the assault of Mr. Mohamad Ali and his daughter on 7 July 2017, by an influential businessman. When Mr. Mohamad made a complaint to the Hidogama Police Station, the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the police station illegally arrested and detained the complainant, while releasing the […]

There have been repeated outbreaks of cross-Line of Control firing in Jammu Kashmir, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians. Heavy weapons are killing innocent civilians, destroying homes, public and private property. The civilians are forced to flee on both sides of the LOC. Kashmiris of both the sides are leading a […]

This week Just Asia begins with India, where the Supreme Court passed a historic judgment last Friday, ordering the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the allegations of ‘fake encounters’ by uniformed personnel in the conflict ridden state of Manipur. To ensure an impartial investigation, the Court ordered that no member of the Manipur […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the Airport Immigration in Kuala Lumpur Airport has detained human rights defender Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan since 5:00 am today. Adilur is the Secretary of Bangladesh based human rights organisation Odhikar, and has received international awards for his work, like Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, International […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the abduction of a minor from the Bhutto family home. Previously, two brothers from this family were abducted, disappeared and extra-judicially killed. A video of their sister went viral on social and electronic media. She was narrating how persons from military intelligence […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been found guilty of corruption by the Supreme Court’s Joint Investigation Team. The team found the Sharif family wealth to be beyond their sources of income. The country’s political parties and Bar Associations are now demanding Sharif’s resignation. Moving to Burma, the […]

“Fr. Nandana Manatunga tortured the victim…” claims President’s Counsel, Mr. Nalin Ladduwahetty in his defence of a police constable in a torture case. The case of torture of Mr. Daundalage Pushpakumara came up today at the Court of Appeal in Sri Lanka. The court was considering a petition filed by Pushpakumara, seeking leave to appeal in […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a Hong Kong based Nepali investigative journalist and NepalKhabar Hong Kong Editor, Mr. JB Pun Magar, has been attacked and threatened for writing on issues relating to the Nepalese community residing in Hong Kong. Mr. Komal Gurung (Thapa), a Hong Kong based businessperson has been targeting JB […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where police brutality and violence continues. Three videos show how law enforcement officials regularly transcend their authority and abuse ordinary citizens, with a complete lack of accountability. In the most recently surfaced video, a group of police officers are baton charging unarmed women mill workers in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. […]

By Avinash Pandey The arrests of 31 Dalit activists in Lucknow, state capital of Uttar Pradesh, is an ominous marker of the things to come. Add the circumstances of their arrest and they also hint at an authoritarian regime lurching around, set for the takeover of whatever little is left of dissent, democracy and the […]