Enforced disappearances and abductions

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 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 […]

(April 15, 2010) “It is playing with death to work as a journalist in Bajaur,” a journalist in this Tribal Area told Reporters Without Borders after yesterday’s attempted abduction of one of his colleagues, Imran Khan, in Khar, a town in Bajaur. Khan and his sister were both seriously injured when resisting the kidnap attempt […]

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 […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the illegal arrest, abduction and disappearance of two persons from the Baloch Nationalist Movement on two separate occasions in April. Eyewitnesses in both cases saw the arrests carried out illegally by persons in and out of uniform, and the family of neither man […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) team illegally arrested, detained and interrogated a number of men in February 2010. Though one was released without charge after nine days of being illegally held, three have been faced with allegedly concocted murder and arms charges, while another […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the enforced disappearance of two nationalist party leaders in October 2009. Although the men were seen being arrested and the case has been taken up by the Supreme Court, its directives to the officers involved have worryingly produced no further information or action. […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man who went missing nine months ago near Karachi has resurfaced this month in the custody of the Frontier Corp (FC). The man’s family were prevented from filing a report by police when he was abducted and so acted through the Balochistan High […]

Hong Kong, March 5, 2010 The Asian Human Rights Commission today launched an on line petition and web site on the issue of enforced disappearances in Pakistan to urge the President of Pakistan to ensure the immediate recovery of all the disappeared persons from all parts of the country including from Pakistani Kashmir, the Azad […]

On behalf of the Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), we would like to invite you to attend an “Art Exhibition on The Disappeared and Their Families” to mark the 6th anniversary disappearance of prominent Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit. The one-day exhibition commencing at 09:30 a.m. […]

Dear friends, On 2 March 2010 the main hearing will begin in the case of Kiettisak Thitboonkrong, who was one of the 28 victims of the Kalasin Killings. It will take place at the Criminal Court in Bangkok and is the first case in which the DSI has charged police for the murders that characterised […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is calling for a legitimate investigation into the trafficking of a 14-year-old girl in Jaitpura, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. We have learned that local police officers initially refused to register the case of kidnapping and trafficking but that the Director General of Police did so after being contacted […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda shortly after he wrote articles supporting the presidential opposition candidate. His office was ransacked shortly after, the website he writes for was blocked during the election, and there have been delays and flaws in the police investigation. […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young deaf girl has been missing since June 2006 and that police have refused to investigate the case; instead they have acted as brokers for the suspected perpetrators. The seventeen-year-old was hired by a well known politico-religious family in Punjab to assist […]

23 December 2009 His Excellency the Prime Minister CC: H.E. Minister of Justice Director General of Department of Special Investigation Since your ascension to the premiership, you have fervently declared to public your intention to set up a special committee to restore inquiries into important cases that have gained much attention from society. Previous governments […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission received information that a tribal leader of Sindh province has held three women and two children in his private jail and one woman has been continuously raped for more than three years. She has had two children whilst in custody. The Sindh High Court and the provincial police […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that four young men have been illegally arrested, detained and tortured by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials because of a minor personal dispute. The first victim was allegedly taken hostage by an ISI colonel so that his uncle would pay a debt, and the other three […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned that twenty days after the abduction of a high profile scientist in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), no official investigation has been held into his disappearance. Political agents in the federally administered tribal area have told the man’s family not to lodge a criminal complaint, […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that a trade union activist was abducted after making bail, following his support for a series of union protests. Since his abduction more than two weeks ago, various security staff at his bank have been absent from work, and the vehicle used to abduct him […]