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January , : AM EST | News Release
Pakistan: Bloggers Feared Abducted
Government Needs to Investigate, Protect Journalists and Activists
Update 1/11/2017: Prominent social activist Samar Abbas, the head of the Civil Progressive Alliance Pakistan, reportedly
went missing in Islamabad on January 7, 2017, and is feared to have been abducted. The government has provided no
new information on the cases of the four apparently abducted activists.
“It’s premature for the government to be claiming that they are moving in the right direction when the whereabouts of
the missing activists remain unknown,” said Brad Adams. “In the meantime, another prominent activist is feared to
have been abducted, suggesting that those responsible feel little pressure to end their illegal methods.”
(New York) – The Pakistani government should urgently investigate the apparent abductions of four activists
who campaign for human rights and religious freedom, Human Rights Watch said today. The four men, Salman
Haider, a well-known poet and academic, and bloggers Waqas Goraya, Aasim Saeed, and Ahmad Raza Naseer,
went missing or were taken away from different cities between January 4 and January 7, 2017.
All four men were vocal critics of militant religious groups and Pakistan’s military establishment, and used the
internet to disseminate their views. Their near simultaneous disappearance and the government’s shutting
down of their websites and blogs raises grave concerns of government involvement. While the Pakistani
interior minister, Nisar Ali Khan, directed the police on January 7 to speed up efforts to locate Haider, whom
the government says it is not holding, a broader effort is needed to uncover the whereabouts and well-being of
all four men.
“The Pakistani government has an immediate
obligation to locate the four missing human rights
activists and act to ensure their safety,” said Brad
Adams, Asia director. “The nature of these apparent
abductions puts the Nawaz Sharif government on
notice that it can either be part of the solution or it
will be held responsible for its role in the problem.”
Goraya, an anthropologist who blogged on issues of
People chant slogans as they hold signs and pictures of Sabeen Mahmud,
religious freedom, and Saeed, a blogger and an
a human rights activist who was shot by gunmen, during a protest
administrator of a Facebook page hosting demanding justice outside the Press Club in Karachi, Pakistan. © 2015
progressive views critical of religious extremists and Reuters/Akhtar Soomro
Pakistan’s security policies, were reported missing
from Wapda Town, Lahore, on January 4.
Haider, a poet and professor at Fatima Jinnah Women University, went missing on the evening of January 6.
His wife received a text message telling her to pick Salman’s car from Koral Chowk, Islamabad. The family has
not heard from Salman or the abductors since.
On January 7, unidentified men took away Naseer, a blogger running a Facebook page broadcasting secular,
progressive views, from his family’s shop in Sheikhupura, Punjab.
“ The nature of these apparent
abductions puts the Nawaz
Sharif government on notice
that it can either be part of the
The government’s failure to provide information on
the fate or whereabouts of a person taken into
custody amounts to an enforced disappearance,
which is a serious violation of international human
rights law. “Disappearances” place individuals
solution or it will be held
outside the protection of the law and make them
responsible for its role in the
more vulnerable to torture and other abuses.
problem. ”
— Brad Adams
After the four activists went missing, messages on
Asia Director
social media have accused them of blasphemy and
other crimes, heightening concerns for their safety.
Pakistani journalists and activists face an
increasingly hostile climate due to harassment, threats, and violence from both state security forces and
militant groups. In August 2016, the Pakistani government enacted a vague and overbroad cybercrimes law
that threatens rights of privacy and freedom of expression. The law includes provisions that allow the
government to censor online content, criminalize internet user activity, and access internet users’ data
without judicial review.
Pakistan’s security establishment has a long history of intimidating critics. Pakistani and international human
rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have extensively documented the intimidation, torture,
enforced disappearances, and killings of activists and journalists. The Taliban and other armed groups have
also threatened media outlets and targeted journalists and activists for their work.
In April 2015, prominent rights activist Sabeen Mahmud was killed by militants. The principal planner of her
assassination later said that he killed her because, “she was generally promoting liberal, secular values.”
In May 2014, Rashid Rehman, a human rights activist and lawyer, was assassinated by militants in an apparent
reprisal for his willingness to represent people charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
In April 2014, unidentified gunmen attacked Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan’s most prominent television anchors
in Karachi. Mir survived the attack, and Jang/Geo – his employer and the country’s largest media conglomerate
– accused the director general of the government’s powerful Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency of
involvement in the incident.
Saleem Shahzad, a reporter for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and for Adnkronos International, the
Italian news agency, disappeared from central Islamabad on the evening of May 29, 2011. Shahzad’s body,
bearing visible signs of torture, was discovered two days later near Mandi Bahauddin, 80 miles southeast of the
capital.
“The government needs to reduce the insecurity faced by journalists and activists, which has a severe chilling
effect on their work,” Adams said. “This requires the government holding responsible the militants – and its
own security agencies – that threaten and attack them.”
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