SCHOLARS, JOURNALISTS, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS DISAPPEARED, TORTURED, IMPRISONED AND KILLED IN PAKISTAN

The Pakistani state is conducting a sweeping crackdown on scholars, journalists, and activists. They are being disappeared, imprisoned, harassed — and killed.

Amnesty International has already lodged a protest against the Pakistani government.

We, scholars, journalists, and activists undersigned, condemn the heavy-handed tactics of the state against our counterparts.

• We urge Prime Minister Imran Khan and the current government to release wrongfully imprisoned scholars, journalists, and activists immediately, and to investigate the countless number of disappeared persons to disclose their whereabouts.
• We further call on the government to enforce the February 6th judgment issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that rebukes the Armed Services and warns them against interfering in politics or curtailing freedom of expression. We demand that the government reaffirm the rights of all Pakistani citizens—including the democratic right to free speech and the right to peaceful protest. The government must demonstrate that its promise to change the established status quo, to uphold justice and the rule of law is not mere political rhetoric.
•  Finally, the government must create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the grievances of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) and heal the deep rooted rifts in the nation they are protesting.

Since the peaceful and nonviolent protests by the PTM, the Pakistani state intensified its extra-judicial practices against scholars, journalists and activists. PTM began as a mass movement in 2018 following the murder of a young Pashtun by a police officer in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Although the officer, Rao Anwar claimed that the dead man, Naqeebullah Mehsud was a ‘terrorist,’ it quickly became clear that Naqeebullah was, in fact, an aspiring fashion model with a large social media following.

Led by a generation of young Pashtuns who have seen the effects of the ‘war on terror’ first-hand, PTM has continued to struggle peacefully through sit-ins and mass protests to demand that the state recognize the dignity and rights of all of its citizens—including and especially Pashtuns who have been wrongly demonized as ‘terrorists’ and ‘militants.’

Rather than engaging with PTM, the state has responded by increasing disappearances, arrests on false charges, harassment and even murder:

Muhammed Ibrahim Arman Lunri, a college teacher and the leader of the PTM in Baluchistan, was reportedly beaten by the police during a protest sit-in on Saturday February 2nd, 2019 in the town of Loralai. He later died in hospital.

Gulalai Ismail, founder of the Seeds of Peace network, a renowned activist working especially on women’s rights, was arrested on February 5th while attending a PTM rally. Her whereabouts remained undisclosed until Prime Minister Imran Khan and Federal Minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari personally intervened ordering her release. She has been harassed by state authorities prior to this for her critique of the Pakistani state and put on the Exist Control List because of it.

Alamzeb Khan Mehsud, an active member of the PTM, was arrested on January 21st in Karachi on charges of rioting and inciting hatred. Mehsud has been documenting cases of enforced disappearances. He remains in prison.

Scores of other PTM rights activists have been imprisoned for merely attending peaceful protests. In addition to Alamzeb Khan, we know several others are imprisoned as of this writing, and we demand their immediate release.