Threats and intimidation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a law student Mr. Dasanayaka Mudiyanselage Thushara Jayarathna of No: 4/8, Edirisinghe road, Nugegoda, a final year student of the Sri Lanka Law College, has complained to the Keselwatte Police Station and other law enforcement agencies of the country regarding a malpractice which […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information concerning a concocted criminal case registered against a journalist in India, Mr. Rahul Singh, for reporting a mass grave in Panderwada village within Panchmahal district of Gujarat. In December 2005, Rahul came to know about the mass grave in Panderwada from the local human […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a woman, who received a stay order from court over a dispute on ownership of her house, was picked up by policemen and their informers and taken to a private detention centre where she was gang raped for more than 50 days. The […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to share with you the interview it has conducted with Bernardino Patigas, one of the two human rights defenders whom we earlier reported to have been receiving threats on his life. In this interview, Patigas explained the nature of his human rights work which he […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the systematic discrimination faced by a Christian teacher in Lahore. She has now been threatened by the principal of the school and the chief security guard of the housing scheme which runs the school (For further details, please see our original appeal: AHRC-UAC-113-2010). […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the custodial death of Mr. Mizanur Rahman, who was extrajudicially killed by the Gulshan Police in Dhaka after having been kept in arbitrary detention for two days (For further details, please see our original appeal here: AHRC-UAC-107-2010). The AHRC has received the statement […]

Dear Friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the continuing threats to two human rights defenders. Both of them have received letters containing messages threatening to kill them in separate incidents. They are being told that their days are numbered and a hireling has been paid to kill them. These […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a mechanic died violently in the custody of Ramna Police in Dhaka, shortly after he refused to continue paying bribes. The police reportedly started extorting money from the victim after the Rapid Action Battalion seized the auto-rickshaw that he operated and the two men […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police kidnapped a businessman and forced his family to pay ransom after torturing him while in incommunicado detention on 18 May. After being released from police custody he has received numerous death threats from police following his […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) previously informed you that the Chatkhil police, of Noakhali district had tortured a man to death on May 13, 2010. This was followed by an update on the case regarding intimidation of the father of the deceased victim Robiul Islam Khokon (For further details, please see our […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that two Christian men are in imminent danger after they were arrested, without a legitimate investigation, for blasphemy. The police officers involved have not followed the penal code, which only allows such charges to be made after an investigation by the superintendent of police. Blasphemy […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights defender is under death threats from retired army men for arranging a love marriage for a girl from a higher caste with a person from a lower caste. The police of the area could not provide security for the couple […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture and extrajudicial murder of a young man in Pakistan. The man was reportedly beaten and abused in a number of police stations and Karachi central prison for not paying bribes in the lead up to Eid, and was beaten unconscious in […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has discovered that Koyra police are working to support a man who threw acid at a teenage girl, and have pressured her to marry him. The police investigator allegedly used intimidation to try and get the case withdrawn, following bribes from the accused, and the attacker appears […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that intimidation tactics are being used against a group advocating labour rights. Men giving a military impression have been openly surveying the office in shifts and photographing visitors to the building. Three of the men also beckoned a volunteer to them, late one night. These […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police and government officials have refused to look into a case of corruption and sponsored thuggery in a Varanasi village, where leaders are abusing a government scheme to relieve poverty. Human rights activists and villagers were beaten by an organised gang in a village […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that a Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Davao City, southern Mindanao, has denied a human rights lawyer temporary judicial protection via a Writ of Amparo petition. The court ruled that he failed to prove ‘by substantial evidence’ that the inclusion of his […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights lawyer who offers free legal counsel to victims of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, has escaped an attempt on his life and is receiving continual death threats from Muslim fundamentalist groups. Local police officers have repeatedly rebuffed his requests for […]

Dear friends, Though the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to note the start of a long-awaited investigation into the illegal arrest and torture of a rickshaw puller and a day-labourer after an Urgent Appeal was issued, the investigation is seriously flawed. The torture took place at Paikgachha police station in 2008 and the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Navsarjan, a human rights organisation based in Gujarat that the only Valmiki (lowest Dalit sub-caste) family living in Shampara (also known as Khodiyar) village is in danger of being forced out from their home. This action is due to a boycott imposed on […]