PAKISTAN: More than 400 activists arrested within 72 hours prior to President’s visit to Balochistan 

[NOTICE: The AHRC have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of many of the Pakistan authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Pakistan authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

PAKISTAN: Violation of the freedom of assembly; persecution of political and human rights activists; arbitrary arrest and detention; abuse of rights in the pretext of maintaining public order; un-rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that the Pakistani government has arrested more than 400 political and human rights activists within 72 hours from the night of 27 November 2006 to stop the planned protest during President Musharraff’s two day visit to Balochistan province from 30 November 2006. We were also informed that the government has imposed the maintenance of Public Order Ordinance throughout the province and also arrested the former chief minister of Balochistan. This is clear violation of freedom of assembly and expression of people in Balochistan and we call for your urgent intervention into this matter.

CASE DETILAS:

Balochistan National Party (BNP) has planed to organize a protest called “Long March” from 30 November 2006 on the same day when President Musharaff will begin his two days visit to Balochistan province. The protest aims at raising voice against the ongoing military operations, the establishment of military cantonments and alleged arrest, detention and forced disappearances of political and human rights activists by the military in the province. The protesters also had a plan to protest during the march against the killing of a political leader Mr. Akber Bugti in an air attack on 27 August 2006 and the construction of the mega project at Gwader, which will lead large scale of eviction of indigenous people in the area.

The 1200-kilometer long march was scheduled to start from the coastal city of Gwader on November 30 and end at Quetta on December 11. The BNP also planned to hold several meetings during the march in different cities to mobilize people of Balochistan against the military operation, killings and disappearances in the province.

However, the Pakistan government began to arrest the political and human rights activists in order to stop this march and within 72 hours from the night of November 27 more than 400 activists were arrested by the police and military personnel. During the debate in the Senate sessions, the opposition parties accused the government of arresting 158 activists including the former chief minister of Balochistan and other leadership of the BNP within 24 hours only on November 28 in the pretext of the maintenance of Public Order Ordinance. The minister for parliamentary affairs confirmed to the upper house about such arrests but instead of positively dealing with this matter, simply told advised opposition parties to bring the cases to the court for the release of the arrested people.

Meanwhile, many people voluntarily went on strike and closed their shops in different cities of Balochistan in order to protest against such large scale arrest. The people fear that there may be more severe actions against people Balochistan by the military.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Balochistan is the most under developed province of Pakistan, despite the fact that it has very rich mineral resources including gold, silver, copper, oil, natural gas, iron ore and uranium. However, all the resources in the province are controlled by the federal government and only minor royalties or compensation is paid to people in Balochistan. It supplies natural gas to the whole of the country yet three quarters of the province does not have the access to natural gas. The Government of Pakistan pays a meager 5% of the total income from natural resources as royalty to Balochistan.

Also, the country’s most populous province, Punjab, is controlling the military, the administration and utilitieses of all the resources. In addition, the government has provided little resources towards social welfare in comparison with other provinces. People in Balochistan blame the federal government for their plight and point out that the benefits derived from the province’s natural wealth have not been returned to it.

Besides, poverty levels in Balochistan are believed to be the highest in the country. Every second person in Balochistan are believed to live below the poverty line and only 50 percent of the province’s seven million people have access to clean drinking water, only half the children attend primary schools and only a third of children between 12 and 23 months are immunised.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan government continues to conduct military operations and aerial bombardments in the province from 2001. Since December 2005 the Pakistan government has been conducting aerial bombings in several parts of the province. During this period the army has conducted about 12 bombardments and has killed more than 300 people. Besides, the intelligence agencies such as the I.S.I, Military intelligence (M.I.), along with the Intelligence Bureau (I.B), the Navy Intelligence, the Pak Rangers Intelligence, and the Central intelligence Agency of Pakistan (CIAP) are operating very actively. The Police department is also not allowed to go in the torture camps of these with out the permission from military authorities.

To know further details, please also refer to our previous appeals:
UG-013-2006: PAKISTAN: Urgent help is needed for 200,000 displaced victims of military operations in Balochistan province
UA-144-2006: PAKISTAN: Government shuts down websites in an effort to suppress news on Balochistan

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the letter to the Pakistan authorities listed below and express your grave concern about the mass scale arrests of political and human rights activists in Balochistan.

 

 

 

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