PAKISTAN: A former Jihadi was disappeared after his arrest by a secret agency of the army for refusing to join future jihad activities 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a former militant (a Jihadi) was abducted by persons from intelligence agencies of the military and was later disappeared from Pakistani Kashmir. He was tortured and suffered a heart attack during the illegal custody. He was disappeared at the time he had the heart attack and his whereabouts remain unknown. His wife has been threatened by plain clothed persons and men in uniform that she would be treated very badly if she does not stop contacting the media.

The victim was from time to time sent to Indian held Kashmir for militancy but then when he refused to join the jihad (holy war) inside India. According to BBC news a woman in Pakistani-administered Kashmir has taken the unprecedented step of publicly accusing the intelligence services of kidnapping her husband.

The local administration and military officials are, as usual, denying his arrest. It is feared by his wife that he would be killed in military detention and his body will be thrown on the road side.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Mr. Khushal Hussain Qazi, 36, a former Jihadi, was taken into custody, in the evening of October 6 by persons from the intelligence agency of the Pakistan army when he was passing from outside the military camp in Lipa, Azad Kashmir (the Pakistani part of Kashmir) on his motor bike after attending a condolence of one of his relatives. On October 8, a family friend told his wife that her husband was lying in the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Muzaffarabad, in serious condition. When his wife, Shahnaz, a school teacher, went to see him, she was told that he had suffered a heart attack and had torture marks on his body. Shahnaz caused a scene by shouting and was able to meet her husband. She found him in chains and in the custody of two plain clothed persons and two army men. Qazi had marks of torture on his body. She tried to talk to her husband but she was refused and at one point an army man covered her mouth with his hand and pushed her away from her husband. Another soldier in military uniform threatened to slap her.

The next day she again went to see her husband but the staff told her that he had been shifted to some unknown place as the military men were afraid that the victim’s whereabouts were leaked. After that the victim’s wife held a press conference at Muzarffarabad Press Club. However, the media was instructed not to project the press conference and minimise the coverage. After the press conference she was threatened not to contact the media again otherwise she would be treated badly.

Mr. Khushal Hussain Qazi’s whereabouts are unknown and it is feared that he is being subjected to torture to confess that he was an Indian agent as he refused to go for Jihad inside that country where the Pakistan army have much at stake.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Mr. Qazi was a Mujahid, a term which is used for holy insurgents by the Pakistan establishment, and was an activist of Tehreek Al-Jihad which was fighting inside Indian Kashmir for the merger of Indian Kashmir with Pakistan. His wife says that he has made many sacrifices. Qazi’s father, Maulana Saeed Uddin, was a renowned religious person; he was arrested by the Indian army and killed in 1992 during the Indian military’s custody because of severe torture. His face was broken and his nails were taken out during the detention which ultimately resulted in his death (martyrdom).

Qazi’s elder brother, Mr. Irshad Hussain Qazi, was arrested in 1993 on charges of insurgency in India in the name of Jihad and remained for 3 years in Indian detention. The family then migrated to Pakistan but his family was always pressured by the intelligence agencies of Pakistan to go inside Indian Kashmir and conduct sabotage activities. However, he stopped going inside India through Kashmir to conduct Jihad which infuriated the military of Pakistan.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

It is widely known and reported that the intelligence agencies arrest persons and torture them in their secret detention centres. It is also generally accepted that the ISI is very active in Pakistani held Kashmir and virtually acts as the only law enforcing authority in the area. The AHRC has documented many cases of abduction, torture and murder committed by the ISI to spread terror in the valley, please see the link: PAKISTAN: An army colonel has had four men abducted and tortured due to a personal dispute, in Pakistan-held Kashmir and PAKISTAN: Disappearances in Pakistani Kashmir need the attention of legislators.

A report of the atrocious torture of a soldier by the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) on the false charges of working for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of the Indian intelligence agencies in Pakistani held Kashmir. He was arrested by the ISI and then disappeared for five years during which period he was tortured. He lost his teeth, his spine was fractured, his legs were burnt and he had a large injury mark on the head. He cannot walk without the help of at least two persons. The Asian Human Rights Commission released a statement on this matter, which can be read at: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-137-2010/.

The intelligence agencies, particularly the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), is accused of training and sending people inside Indian held Kashmir for Jihad or providing information of militants working inside other parts of Kashmir. The family members of the disappeared people are also stating that when people, who worked for intelligence agencies, leave the Jihad and return to their normal lives they are nabbed by the ISI and shifted to unknown places as punishment for not working in the interests of national security. There are also reports that some missing persons, who were sent to collect information from Indian Kashmir, were also hired for smuggling liquor and other Indian items when they come back to Pakistani Kashmir after completing their assignments.

There are hundreds of complaints, even, before the higher courts, where it is alleged that people were abducted by the state intelligence agencies particularly by the ISI and military intelligence and were kept in different torture cells for many months on charges of working against Pakistan or involvement with Indian agencies. It is an established fact that the intelligence agencies are running their own parallel governments where the real government and its agencies are not allowed to interfere. Even the jurisdiction of the courts has little value when it comes to inquiring about the involvement of any intelligence agencies in the legal affairs of the country.

The government’s and higher judiciary’s inability to control the state intelligence agencies particularly, the ISI, to contain itself in to its own professional duties have given them impunity to run their illegal detention centres and torture cells. In the cases of disappearances the families of the disappeared persons generally accuse the state intelligence agencies. This is confirmed by the disappeared persons themselves when they resurfaced. Many have testified in court that they were tortured in various torture cells run by the state intelligence agencies. But the courts have consistently shown their inability to call the officials of the intelligence agencies.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the following authorities calling them to ensure the safe recovery of Mr. Khushal Hussain Qazi, who was arrested and disappeared by military intelligence and men in uniform. Please urge them that the victim is a heart patient and he should be released immediately otherwise all responsibility will be on the military authorities. The authorities must be urged to stop such practice of forced Jihad by using the innocent persons and when they refuse to join they are harassed and disappeared for taking confessional statement through the severe torture.

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment calling for urgent intervention into this matter.

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