January 11, 2017

Four human rights bloggers abducted in Pakistan

located:	Pakistan
editor:	FAIRPLANET

Four campaigners for human rights and religious freedom have gone missing in Pakistan.

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.

All four were critical of militant religious groups and Pakistan’s military establishment, and used the internet to share their views.

As Human Rights Watch says, "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 government’s refusal to provide information on the whereabouts of a person taken into custody amounts to an enforced disappearance, says Human Rights Watch, which is a serious violation of international human rights law.

"'Disappearances' place individuals outside the protection of the law and make them more vulnerable to torture and other abuses."

Pakistan has a long history of intimidating or gagging dissenting voices.

Pakistani and international human rights groups have reported on the intimidation, torture, enforced disappearances, and killings of activists and journalists.