Extrajudicial killings

Human rights defender and philanthropic educator Shahed Kayes knew there were serious risks involved in his work. He had to, as nothing in Bangladesh comes without associated risks. He knew that his attempt to educate impoverished children from the low castes was unacceptable to the deeply entrenched local power structure and those at the top […]

The Pakistan People’s Party took office in 2008, and shortly thereafter issued a moratorium on the death penalty, temporarily commuting thousands of death penalty cases to life imprisonment. The move was hailed by the UN and rights organizations worldwide, as it indicated a move by the Pakistani government to respect the right to life and […]

The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) is calling for justice four years to the day since a horrific attack on the Christian town of Gojra in Pakistan. It was on 1 August 2009 that a Muslim mob went on the rampage in the town, burning eight people to death, including children, and […]

The issue of minority rights in Pakistan is discussed often around the world these days, in parliaments, human rights groups like Amnesty International, religious freedom departments, foreign affairs committees and international organisations like the Commonwealth and the UN. By contrast, the Pakistani government hardly mentions it and pays very little attention to the repression minority […]

Mr Ban Ki-moon Secretary General, United Nation 1 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 Dated: 28/07/2013 Dear Sir, The Baloch Social Media Activists forum would like to draw your kind attention towards the heinous crimes that the occupying Pakistani army is committing against humanity in Balochistan on daily basis. In order to contain the […]

What happened on July 23, 1983 was not the event of a single day in history. The impact of that day lives on and with each passing year the situation of the rule of law in the country has become worse. The 1978 Constitution was quite incompatible with the rule of law and democracy. Since […]

The president of Burma, or Myanmar, U Thein Sein in his recent visit to the United Kingdom has made a commitment that all political prisoners in his country will be released by the end of the year. According to him, a committee is continuing to review all relevant cases and determine those persons who are […]

The Jihad to convert Hindu girls is continued unabated under the indifferent attitude of Pakistani authorities. In recent months, seven Hindu girls have been targeted in the conversion to Islam campaign. Of the seven, five have been abducted and converted by Muslim goons. One Hindu girl was abducted and forced to convert to Islam, but […]

(Hong Kong, 19 July, 2013) “If one innocent person is killed by [the] police or other security forces in a fake encounter, it creates tremendous upsurge of hatred…people always accurately know who was innocent. People even know whether an innocent person was killed by mistake or deliberately…” said the Commission of Inquiry constituted by the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report issued by a Christian organization, CLAAS (Center for Legal Aid, Assistance & Settlement), negating the stripping and parading of Christian women in what appears to be an attempt to exonerate those that violated the rights of  the women. Throughout the report, the organizations that joined […]

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Monthly Report (June 2013). By Mohammad Nafees   The month of June dawned with lots of hopes and expectations for the people of Pakistan as the new government was to take oath during this month and to offer peace, good governance, and rule of law in the country.  The hope of peace […]

The judgment of the Supreme Court of India delivered on 10 July 2013 in Civil Writ Petitions 490 and 231 of 2005, declaring Subsection (4) of Section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 as ultra vires the constitution, is a watershed event. The Court on the same day dismissed two other Civil Appeals, […]

The persecution of the Ahmadis, a minority sect, by police and fundamentalist Muslim groups is continuing unabated. In the month of June, two persons from the Ahmadiyya sect were gunned downed by ‘unknown killers’ in Karachi and Lahore. Another Ahmadi was shot and seriously injured. In the city of Sialkot, Punjab province, the Ahmadis were […]

The AHRC staff joins the international community in the celebration of Malala Day and sends sincere greetings to Malala for her 16th birthday “Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.” These words are from the well-known, young […]

Arifa, a mother of two, has been stoned to death on the orders of Panchayat (a tribal court) for possessing a cell phone. She was executed on 11 July in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province. The victim was stoned to death by her uncle and relatives on the orders of Panchayat […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that several Pakistani citizens currently incarcerated in Damman Prison in Saudi Arabia face death by beheading for allegedly trafficking drugs into Saudi Arabia. The Pakistanis in question, all hailing from poor families, were in fact forced to carry the drugs. In some cases the […]

To observe UN International Day in Support of Torture victims the Human Development Organization (HDO), a civil society organization that has been struggling for prevention of custodial abuses and rehabilitation of torture survivors in Hazara division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, arranged colorful program at Central Prison Haripur on June 26, 2013. The detainees, […]

As the allegations of illegal interference by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in the presidential election held in December last year drew increasing attention from the public, a search and seizure was carried out by the special investigation team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (DPO) on April 30, 2013. Based on the materials […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the murder of Ms. Shamim Akhter (50), who worked for the Social Welfare organization in Tando Jam, Sindh province. She was brutally chopped to death by her husband Mr. Sajid Mahmood and Police Constable Usman Lodhi on 4 June 2013 (For further […]

Two brothers, Javed, age 9 and Jameel, age 13 were taken against their parents’ will from their village, Kotla Rahm Ali Shah, to go work in Multan as servants in the home of Faheem Abbas Shah, the land-owner for whom the family works. The parents of the boys repeatedly asked for the return of their […]