Uwazi

Police in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province have fired tear gas at protesters as they attempted to reach Islamabad to press their demands over the killing of four teenage boys in their region near the border with Afghanistan.

About 3,000 demonstrators from the rural area around the town of Jani Khel launched a protest caravan early on March 28 that was composed of cars, trucks, motorcycles, and the bodies of the four boys.

But the group was stopped by a police blockade on a bridge across the Tochi River, about 15 kilometers south of the town of Bannu.

The standoff is taking place in former tribal regions of Pakistan that were merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in 2018.

Mohsin Dawar, a deputy who represents North Waziristan in Pakistan’s national parliament, was detained by local police in the city of Karak as he tried to travel to the scene of the standoff at the Tochi River bridge.

Dawar had complained on March 26 that "instead of listening to the demands of the protesters, the state has chosen to block roads around the area to stop them from moving out if they choose to take their protest to Islamabad."

Meanwhile, in the city of Domail about 25 kilometers east of Bannu, hundreds of demonstrators threatened on March 28 to block the Indus Highway between Peshawar and the city of Dera Ismail Khan unless the protestors were allowed to proceed to Islamabad.

A government negotiating team has been meeting in recent days with protest leaders and tribal elders from Jani Khel, which is on the border of the former tribal region of North Waziristan.

The angry residents want a government guarantee that the Taliban and other militants would not be allowed to operate in the area any more. They are also demanding an investigation into a military official responsible for security in the area, and for that official to be transferred.

The government team has agreed to a demand for the families of the four slain teenagers to receive compensation funds from the government.

But protest leaders told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on March 28 that the government team was unable to offer the security guarantees they are demanding.

Many of the demonstrators in the blocked protest caravan were part of a sit-in protest that began in Jani Khel on March 21 after the bullet-riddled corpses of four teenagers were discovered in a field.

Relatives said their bodies bore signs of torture when they were dug out of the ground after reportedly being found by a shepherd's dogs.

The boys – aged between 13 and 17 years old -- had disappeared three weeks earlier when they went out to hunt birds.

RFERL

A local court in Karachi has directed the police to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the organizers of the Islamabad Women’s March.

The court’s order comes a day after a local Peshawar court ordered the registration of an FIR against the organizers of the march for allegedly making insulting posters with degrading words.

Karachi Additional District and Sessions Judge South passed the order on an application to the Station House Officer (SHO) City Courts Police Station against Advocate GM Arain under Section 22A of the Pakistan Penal Code against the SHO of the same police station, who allegedly refused to grant application for an FIR against the organizers of the Aurtat march.

Section 22A gives the courts the power to make orders under Justice for Peace and may order the filing of an FIR for failure to register a case.

Petitioner said he and other members of the Karachi Bar Association watched the march on a TV channel that was being broadcast from the federal capital.

He said that during the march, inappropriate words were used against religious saints and their spouses and provocative slogans were chanted.

The petitioner added that obscene and anti-Islamic slogans were raised during the march.

He said that the members of Karachi Bar Association had passed a resolution condemning such measures in the name of women’s emancipation and women’s rights by the organizers and participants.

A local court in Peshawar ordered the registration of a first information report (FIR) on Thursday against organisers of this year's Aurat March in Islamabad for allegedly making "derogatory remarks" against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Hazrat Aisha and displaying "obscene posters".

Judge Syed Shaukatullah Shah passed the order on a petition filed by five lawyers — Ibrar Hussain, Israr Hussain, Kashif Ahmed Tarakai, Siyad Hussain, and Adnan Gohar.

The petition was filed under Section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers the court to act as 'Justice of Peace" and order the registration of an FIR against an offence in case of the police's failure to do so.

In their petition, the lawyers alleged that during the Aurat March 2021 which was held on March 8, "derogatory remarks were used in respect of Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) and Bibi Aisha beside display of un-Islamic and obscene posters on the instructions of organisers which hurt the feelings and sentiments of all Muslims including [them]."

They claimed they had watched the "derogatory and un-Islamic material" while they were on the court's premises in Peshawar and had later filed an application with the SHO East Cantt but he was "reluctant" to register an FIR.

The judge stated that the petitioner's arguments were heard and the record was examined. He directed the SHO East Cantt to "register FIR of the occurrence as reported by the petitioners under the relevant law".

Doctored videos Earlier this month, a video from the demonstration held in Karachi was doctored to falsely show participants raising blasphemous slogans and widely shared online.

The orga­ni­sers of Aurat March clarified that the participants of the march did not raise such slogans and their video was edited to defame their struggle.

People also mistook flags of the Women Democratic Front (WDF) at the Islamabad March for the French Tricolour after which the organisers issued a clarification.

After protests in the capital calling for registration of FIRs against organisers and participants of the Aurat March, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri had said that "controversial material" shared on social media concerning the march was being investigated.

Aurat March has become an annual feature since 2018 and every year faces backlash from certain religio-political parties, who have been opposing the event.

The marches are organised in major cities to highlight issues facing women and condemning incidents of violence against them as well as gender discrimination, economic exploitation and misogyny.

Following this year's march on International Women’s Day, heated debates were once again seen on social media for and against the march.

Bolnews | Dawn

Authorities have closed a key road outside a major population center in northwestern Pakistan after residents threatened to take their protest over the violent deaths of four teens to Islamabad.

Angry locals from the rural town of Jani Khel are in negotiations with local authorities to demand greater security guarantees and a thorough and credible investigation into the killings, which are at the center of a weeklong sit-in protest.

The residents said on March 26 that security forces placed heavy shipping containers on a local bridge, closing it to traffic.

The bridge links Jani Khel to the nearby city of Bannu, a major population center in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A lawmaker from a nearby area accused state authorities of blocking the road to keep the protest from spreading.

“Instead of listening to the demands of the protesters, the state has chosen to block roads around the area to stop them from moving out if they choose to take their protest to Islamabad,” lawmaker Mohsin Dawar, who represents North Waziristan, which borders Jani Khel, tweeted on March 26.

Many of those same residents began the sit-in on March 21 after the bullet-riddled corpses of four teenagers were discovered in a field some three weeks after they disappeared while hunting birds.

The bodies of the youngsters -- where were between 13 and 17 years old -- were reportedly dug out of the field after a shepherd's dogs found them.

The protesters' primary demand is a government guarantee that Taliban and other militants won't be allowed to operate in the area.

The protesters also want an official complaint filed against a specific security official posted to the town.

Police have already announced a murder investigation.

Mahmood Khan, the chief minister, the most senior elected official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, assured protesters on March 25 that the government will investigate.

“I want to promise you that we will hunt those criminals responsible for this heinous act,” he tweeted on March 25.

Authorities have also agreed to pay compensation to the families of the slain teens.

RFERL

Media union leader Rana Muhammad Azeem, secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), received a death threat after exposing a mafia gangster in a television appearance. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its Pakistan affiliate to call for an urgent investigation into the threat.

Media union leader Rana Muhammad Azeem, secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), received a death threat after exposing a mafia gangster in a television appearance. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its Pakistan affiliate to call for an urgent investigation into the threat.

The PFUJ said on March 26 that its Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem received death- threat from a gangster after exposing mafia in a recent TV talk-show broadcastedon 92 News Channel. Earlier ,the Karachi-based Urdu newspaper had published the warrant notice against Rana Muhammad Azeem on February 28 leveling allegations of criminal conduct against the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).

The PFUJ said threats to working journalists had become more common in Pakistan despite repeated protests and activism by journalists. It also accused the Pakistan government of failing to provide security to the journalists.

IFJ

The 31-year-old journalist received bullet injuries to the stomach, arm and knee as he waited in line for a barber shop on March 17 in Saleh Putt Sakhar, a town in interior Sindh province. According to the PFUJ, the assailants came by motorcycle and car and fled from the scene after the attack. The seriously injured journalist was rushed to Civil Hospital Sakhar for the treatment but died the next day on March 18.

According to police, an investigation team under the Deputy Superintendent of Police / Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Rohri, Hazoor Bux Solangi, was formed to investigate the case. Police also informed they were collecting evidence from the scene and recording statements from witnesses as part of the investigation.

Following the brutal murder of Lalwani, the journalist community in Pakistan held protests demanding the Pakistan government launch a probe on the case.

Lalwani was a vocal journalist and frequently raise issues of the Hindu minority in Pakistan. He also wrote critically that Pakistani Government policies were biased against minorities.

PFUJ Secretary General, Rana M Azeem, said: “Sindh government has failed to protect the journalists while the local police are not paying attention despite repeated requests. We demand the government to take action and arrest the killers otherwise a country wide protest will be launched.”

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger, said: “The IFJ urges the Pakistan government to carry out the impartial investigation into the murder of Ajay Lalwani.”

IFJ

A court notice published in The Daily Jang newspaper on February 28 has levelled allegations of criminal conduct against the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) express concern at attempts to silence the voice of the union leader.

The Karachi-based Urdu newspaper published the warrant notice against Rana Muhammad Azeem, which according to the daily newspaper was a paid notice by the court. The notice also detailed the personal address and telephone number of the leader.

The PFUJ strongly condemned the alleged registration of a case against its secretary general and urged the concerned authorities to look into the “allegedly false case made in an effort to silence the leaders’ voice for the rights of the media workers”. It also said that Rana Azeem had been tagged with some other renowned persons for criticism on the national media channel during a talk show.

The notice with the signature of second Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ashraf Hussain Khawaja, alleges that Rana Azeem committed a crime or is believed to commit a crime ‘punishable’ under Pakistan Penal Code yet fails to detail the alleged crime. The notice also refers to the leader as a guest and analyst of the television show “Kahra Sach”, which he has been a regular commentator on over several years.

IFJ

Pakistani authorities have expelled the leader‏ of a civil rights movement campaigning for the country's ethnic Pashtun minority from the southwestern province of Balochistan after he attended a condolence ceremony for a slain political leader despite a ban on entering the region.

Activists of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) said Manzoor Pashteen and other PTM leaders traveled to the town of Chaman on March 1 and that security forces escorted them out of the province after he secretly attended the ceremony.

Asad Khan Achakzai, spokesman for the secular Awami National Party (ANP) in Balochistan, was laid to rest in Chaman the previous day amid province-wide protests by party supporters.

Achakzai's body was discovered on February 27 on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Quetta, five months after he went missing.

Police has said a member of the paramilitary forces had confessed to the kidnapping and guided the investigators to the place where the body was found.

In December, Balochistan’s government banned Pashteen from entering the province for a period of 90 days citing security reasons. The ban was later extended for an unspecified period.

The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, many of whom live near the border of Afghanistan where the military has conducted campaigns it says defeated the Pakistani Taliban.

The movement has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed tactics that have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes since 2003.

International rights groups say authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also faced charges of sedition and cybercrimes.

RFERL

In a brazen daylight attack, masked terrorists shot dead four women vocational trainers and injured their driver near Mirali in North Waziristan tribal district on Monday.

Police said a vehicle carrying five women was driving through a village near Mirali when the gunmen opened fire on it, killing four of them on the spot.

The slain trainers were identified as Naheed Bibi, Irshad Bibi, Ayesha Bibi and Javeria Bibi. They belonged to the nearby Bannu district. The driver of the vehicle, Abdul Khaliq, suffered bullet injuries in the attack. He is under treatment at a local hospital.

District Police Officer Shafiullah Gandapur issued a press release after the killing of the four women trainers, stating that the four were targeted and killed by terrorists in Eppi village near Mirali.

The police statement said that the driver suffered injuries in the attack while one woman trainer, Mariam Bibi, survived as she took shelter in the village. Bodies of the four women were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital in Mirali town.

Earlier, police had said that the women were working for an NGO to give vocational training to local women in Eppi village.

Later, the DPO changed his statement and said that the women were working for a technical institute based in Bannu to develop vocational skills of the local women. He said that the NGO had signed a memorandum of understanding with the institute to give vocational training to women of the area.

The NGOs office in Peshawar said that the women killed in the attack were not affiliated with the organisation. An official of the NGO told Dawn that the four women were attached to a technical college in Bannu.

He said that the women trainers had proceeded from Bannu to Eppi village to give vocational training to the local women. He said that his organisation had been working on a project for skill development of the womenfolk of the area.

In September last year, some unidentified gunmen had killed a lady health worker in Khaisur area near Mirali. Mirali was the bastion of local and foreign insurgents before operation Zarb-i-Azb was launched in June 2014.

A police official said that on Sunday night gunmen opened fire on a vehicle in Shewa area near Mirali and killed its driver named Wali Gul. The gunmen also kidnapped 10 people including six non-locals.

Unicef condemns attack

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund has expressed shock over the killing of the four women.

“UNICEF condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless attack on women and aid workers and joins the families in mourning this tragic loss of lives. The perpetrators must be brought to justice,” said Unicef Representative in Pakistan, Aida Girma.

“Unicef is saddened and shocked at the reported killing of four women who were reportedly staff members of Bravo College, Bannu, and they were travelling to North Waziristan, one of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s merged districts, earlier on Monday. Their driver was reportedly injured in the attack after unidentified assailants fired on their vehicle,” Unicef said in a statement issued in Islamabad.

Dawn

On 1 February 2020, the Peshawar High Court dismissed human rights defender Idris Khattak's petition challenging the jurisdiction of the Field General Court-Martial on his case. The verdict means that the human rights defender’s trial, which was paused in the Military Court, will now resume. While Pakistan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the military courts have not met their obligations under ICCPR, with the right to a public hearing not guaranteed, the death penalty being handed out after unfair trials and the absence of right to appeal to civilian courts.

The human rights defender was forcibly disappeared on 13 November 2019. His whereabouts were not known until 17 June 2020, when the Joint Investigation Tribunal in Islamabad, tasked with inquiring into cases of enforced disappearance, informed the human rights defender’s family that he was being held by the Pakistan Military Intelligence and was being tried under the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

FLD

On 2 February 2021, human rights defender Muhammad Ismail was arrested at the Anti-Terrorism Court-III in Peshawar, following the cancellation of his interim pre-arrest bail in a case lodged by the Counter-Terrorism Department. The First Information Report (FIR) brought against the defender charges him under Sections 11-N, 124-A, 120-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, which relate to sedition and criminal conspiracy, and 7(g)(i) of the Anti-terrorism Act of 1997. These charges carry heavy prison sentences. It is believed that Muhammad Ismail is currently in the custody of the Counter-Terrorism Department.

Muhammed Ismail is the Secretary-General of the Pakistan NGO Forum (PNF), an umbrella body of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Pakistan. He has been critical of human rights violations in the country, particularly the ill-treatment of his daughter, human rights defender Gulalai Ismail.

Muhammad Ismail has been the target of ongoing police and judicial harassment for over two years. The human rights defender’s prosecution is a reprisal for his work, and the human rights work of his daughter Gulalai Ismail – an outspoken critic of human rights abuses by Pakistani authorities. Gulalai Ismail was forced to flee Pakistan in September 2019 due to threats to her safety. Ever since, her family and colleagues in Pakistan have been targetted. Multiple FIRs have been filed against Muhammad Ismail and his wife Uzlifat Ismail, including on anti-terror charges. In October 2019 Muhammad Ismail was abducted by unidentified men from outside the Peshawar High Court. He was later found in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crimes Unit. Muhammad Ismail and his wife have been placed on an exit control list preventing them from leaving Pakistan.

Despite being released on bail in at least one case, authorities have continued to to target him. The State has consistently objected to bail and sought to file new charges against the defender in an attempt to further harass him, despite his ill health. Muhammad Ismail contracted COVID-19 in late 2020 and has not fully recovered. He requires constant care and medical supervision, neither of which will be available in an overcrowded jail.

Front Line Defenders, along with other human rights organisations, has previously condemned the targetting of Muhammad Ismail. Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Pakistan to immediately drop all charges and unconditionally release Muhammad Ismail, as it believes that the human rights defender is being targeted solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights. It urges the authorities to remove all restrictions on the free movement of Muhammad Ismail and his wife Uzlifat Ismail, and cease all further forms of harassment against the defender, as it is believed that these measures constitute a direct transgression of his rights.

FLD | FLD

Pakistani security forces have detained and forcibly expelled a prominent ethnic Pashtun rights activist, Sanna Ejaz, from the restive province of Balochistan.

Ejaz is a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a civil rights movement that has come under a growing government crackdown.

Video footage uploaded on social media showed security forces ushering Ejaz into a vehicle on January 17.

Moments before she was detained in the district of Zhob, Ejaz told RFE/RL that paramilitary forces notified her that she was barred from entering Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

“They are saying my presence could cause unrest,” she told RFE/RL.

Ejaz, a resident of the neighboring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said she had travelled to Balochistan to launch a library for women.

The library was established by Waak, a movement cofounded by Ejaz and dedicated to promoting women’s rights and education.

Police said the provincial government in November 2020 issued a notice banning PTM leaders, including Ejaz, from traveling to Balochistan for 90 days.

Balochistan is the scene of a separatist insurgency and a brutal state crackdown that has killed thousands of people since 2004.

Activists claim Pakistan’s powerful military has committed widespread abuses in Balochistan, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings of political activists and suspected separatists, arbitrary arrests, and torture. The province is home to a sizeable Pashtun community.

Ejaz was among several PTM leaders charged with making anti-state speeches during an unsanctioned rally in the port city of Karachi, in Sindh Province, on December 6, 2020.

Among them was Ali Wazir, a lawmaker and PTM leader, who was arrested on sedition charges over accusations he made anti-state comments during the rally.

Wazir remains in police custody. He is expected to be presented before an anti-terrorism court.

The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, many of whom live near the border of Afghanistan where the military has conducted campaigns it says defeated the Pakistani Taliban.

The movement has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed tactics that have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes since 2003.

International rights groups say authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also faced charges of sedition and cybercrimes.

RFERL

Pakistani authorities have rearrested a prominent ethnic Pashtun rights activist who is facing sedition charges almost a week after he was released on bail.

Police and the civil rights group say Said Alam Mahsud, a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), was taken into custody in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on January 18.

He was first arrested early this month in the city of Peshawar before being released on bail on January 13.

A PTM leader, Alamzeb Mehsud, said Mahsud had been charged with "sedition, making anti-state comments, and addressing unsanctioned rallies" in two cases registered in 2019.

Mahsud’s arrest comes a day after another PTM leader, Sanna Ejaz, was detained and forcibly expelled from the southwestern province of Balochistan, amid a growing government crackdown on the movement.

The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, many of whom live near the border with Afghanistan where the military has conducted campaigns that it says defeated the Pakistani Taliban.

The movement has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed tactics that have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes since 2003.

International rights groups say authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country.

Some members have also faced charges of sedition and cybercrimes.

RFERL

Thousands of Pakistani Internet users have called for boycotts of these two Urdu-language services and have threatened their journalists in the course of a two-week-old hate and defamation campaign.

A video posted on 2 January on Siasat.pk, a news and discussion site that supports Pakistan’s ruling party and armed forces, attacks the “personal opinions and political inclinations” of BBC Urdu’s journalists. Shared by thousands of people on Twitter, it also accuses the BBC of pursuing an editorial policy that is “against the army and the government.”

The surnames, first names, jobs and Twitter account details of ten BBC Urdu journalists were posted online at the same time as the video. Analysis of the comments indicates that this campaign is being orchestrated in reprisal for several editorials and op-ed pieces regarded as overly critical of the authorities.

“Surprise”

One of the 10 journalists attacked in the video is Asma Shirazi, who received the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism in 2014. “I’m told to be less critical,” she told RSF. “This is not the first time I’ve received such threats. I’m being bombarded because of my opinions. This online vilification is part of a grand design to silence professional and independent journalists.”

Shirazi said she had received threatening calls. By way of a threat, one caller told her that she could “get surprise” if she did not stop writing critical op-ed pieces for BBC Urdu. “I don’t know what surprise they could give me,” she said. ”One surprise might be the discovery of drugs or explosives in my car during a roadside search.”

Threats were also made against Pakistani journalists working for The Independent in late December after its Urdu website posted a story about the deaths of four Pakistani soldiers in a helicopter crash. They were criticized for not referring to the dead soldiers as “martyrs” – the term that the Pakistani armed forces try to impose in such cases.

When reached by RSF, the editor of The Independent’s Urdu-language news site confirmed that his staff were concerned about this hate campaign. Thousands of Internet users have been calling for the site to be banned using the #BoycottIndyUrdu hashtag.

“Extremely dangerous”

“These online hate campaigns, orchestrated by trolls at the military high command’s behest, not only threaten press freedom but are also extremely dangerous for the journalists who are the targets of the death threats,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“Calling for journalists to be murdered, with the aim of intimidating and silencing anyone critical of the authorities, is completely unacceptable. We urge the federal government to disown such calls, and we ask the prosecutor’s office to initiate proceedings against all those responsible for these threats.”

RSF accused the Pakistani authorities of complicity by failing to take action to stop the online harassment of outspoken women journalists in August 2020, when the harassment was condemned by a women journalists collective.

Pakistan is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

RSF

Pakistani police have arrested another member of a civil rights movement campaigning for the country's ethnic Pashtun minority amid an apparent crackdown on the group.

A member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) told RFE/RL that Muhammad Sher Mehsud was taken away late on December 20 when officers raided his house in the port city of Karachi.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrest but could not provide details about the charges against Mehsud, who was one of the organizers of an unsanctioned rally in Karachi on December 6.

The day after the gathering, police filed a case against as many as 19 PTM members, including a lawmaker and leader of the movement, Ali Wazir, who faces sedition charges over accusations he made anti-state comments during the Karachi rally.

Wazir is to remain in police custody until December 30 when he will be presented before an anti-terrorism court.

His family have said his life is in danger in custody, a claim that the police officials reject.

Police on December 18 arrested another PTM leader, Noorullah Tareen, hours after thousands of supporters of the rights’ group protested in a dozen cities and towns of Pakistan against Wazir’s arrest.

The PTM, which has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed tactics in its fight against the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups in the country's northwest.

International rights groups say Pakistani authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also faced charges of sedition and cybercrimes.

Ali Wazir, a lawmaker and leader of a civil rights movement campaigning for Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun minority, has appeared before a judge following his arrest in the northwestern city of Peshawar on anti-state charges.

Another leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), Said Alam Mehsud, told RFE/RL on December 17 that the judge granted a request by Wazir’s lawyers to let their client fly to the port city of Karachi, where he is facing charges.

It was not immediately clear when Wazir would be taken to Karachi.

Earlier, police officials in Karachi told RFE/RL that Wazir, PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen, and two other leaders of the movement, lawmaker Mohsin Dawar and Sanna Ejaz, had been charged with making anti-state speeches during an unsanctioned rally in the city on December 6.

Wazir was arrested in Peshawar on December 16 after he attended a gathering marking the sixth anniversary of the massacre of more than 150 people at a Peshawar school in December 2014.

It was not immediately clear why police had not arrested the other PTM leaders accused in the case.

Under Pakistani law, lawmakers are immune from arrest until the National Assembly speaker or the Senate chairman approves it.

Police officials in Karachi told RFE/RL that Wazir’s arrest was sanctioned by the lower house’s speaker, Asad Qaisar, who has not commented on the matter.

The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, many of whom live near the border of Afghanistan where the military has conducted campaigns it says defeated the Pakistani Taliban.

The movement has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed tactics that have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes since 2003.

International rights groups say authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also faced charges of sedition and cybercrimes.

Another prominent ethnic Pashtun rights activist, Said Alam Mahsud, has been arrested in Pakistan on charges of making “anti-state” and “anti-military” comments.

Sanna Ejaz, a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), told RFE/RL that Mahsud appeared before a court in Peshawar on January 4 where a judge ordered him remanded in custody for four days.

Mahsud was arrested at his home in the northwestern city late on January 3 after he attended a protest earlier in the day demanding the release of other PTM leaders and activists from custody.

In a video widely circulated on Facebook and Twitter, Mahsud is seen greeting the policemen in Pashto and then asking, “Am I being arrested?” After a policeman says “yes,” he responds “no problem” in English and then accompanies them.

PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen called Mahsud’s arrest an “extremely oppressive” act while Mohsin Dawar, a lawmaker and PTM leader, denounced what he called an “undeclared crackdown" against the group.

PTM activists staged demonstrations on January 3 in several cities and towns in Pakistan, demanding the release of recently arrested leaders and members of the PTM, which has campaigned since 2018 for the civil rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns.

Ali Wazir, a lawmaker and PTM leader, has been arrested on sedition charges over accusations he made anti-state comments during an unsanctioned rally in Karachi on December 6.

His arrest triggered mass protests in dozens of cities and towns across Pakistan on December 18. After the protests, two other PTM members were arrested in Karachi.

The PTM has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed tactics in its fight against the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups in the country's northwest.

Gandhara

Activist Ammar Ali Jan on Friday narrowly escaped arrest from Lahore's Charing Cross, where he was attending a student protest.

The activist had left the protest venue along with his friends in a car which was followed by a police van. Jan's vehicle was stopped by law enforcement officials at Gulberg Main Boulevard, from where he was taken to a police check post.

Following negotiations with policemen, Jan and his friends were allowed to leave with the assurance that they would appear before the station house officer of the Civil Lines police station within two hours.

In a statement to Dawn, however, Jan said that his lawyer would appear on his behalf and the activist will approach the court for pre-arrest bail on Monday.

Jan's arrest orders were issued by the Lahore deputy commissioner on Thursday under Section 3 (power to arrest and detain suspected persons) of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance. According to the order, Jan was a "potential danger to public peace, law and order situation" and must be detained "in order to keep the law and order situation in the city". Under the charge, the activist would remain under arrest for 30 days.

"There is credible information that [Jan], along with his accomplices, will create law and order situation and cause harassment among the general public," the order read. Jan was the only person whose arrest orders were issued.

The Lahore-based academic was attending a protest, which was being held to highlight the issues being faced by students in Pakistan. Every year, students and activists come together to arrange a Student Solidarity March across the country, however, this year a protest was held due to Covid-19.

Dawn

On 9 November 2020, transgender rights defender Nayyab Ali was physically assaulted androbbed at her home in Islamabad by two unidentified, armed men. The defender, after a struggle,was able to fend off the attackers but suffered serious injuries. Nayyab Ali had recently been vocalabout the increased targeting of the transgender community in Pakistan through her social mediapages, and had since been receiving death threats. A First Information Report (FIR) was filedregarding the attack at the Golra police station on 10 November. Nayyab Ali is a transgender rights defender and Chairperson of the All Pakistan TransgenderElection Network. She also manages the ‘Khawaja Sira Community Centre’ in Okara, which offersa basic literacy and numeracy programme, vocational training, life skills education and drivingclasses for the transgender community. In 2018, Nayyab was one of four transgender candidateswho ran for Pakistan's general elections. Nayyab has also been leading the advocacy efforts forthe approval of the Pakistan’s National Transgender Rights Protection Policy. She is a winner of theGalas Award in 2020, for her human rights work. The day prior to her attack, Nayyab wasnominated for the APCOM Hero award for her work on transgender rights. On 9 November 2020, two unidentified men, armed with knives, entered Nayyab Ali’s home inIslamabad. The defender was bound and beaten for nearly three hours. The attackers forced her tosign her cheque book and took her identity card, bank cards, jewellery, and devices, includingphone and laptop. The men threatened to kill the defender if she continued to raise her voice forvictims of violence in the transgender community. An FIR was lodged by the Golra police only thefollowing day (10 November), after much pressure from civil society.Over the past several months, there have been increasing physical attacks on transgender personsand defenders in Pakistan, including in the national capital Islamabad. Nayyab Ali has been vocalabout an attack on another transgender rights defender in Islamabad on 31 October 2020. Shelaunched a campaign on social media demanding justice for this case, and denounced the lack ofpolice action and impunity afforded to those responsible for such attacks. The human rightsdefender believes that the attack against her is due to her vocal campaign for justice. So far, theattacks against transgender community members has gone unpunished due to entrenchedstereotypes and a lack of will to protect those most vulnerable. Front Line Defenders condemns the attack, intimidation and death threats against transgenderrights defender Nayyab Ali, and the transgender community in Pakistan, as it believes she is beingtargeted for her legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights, specifically on the issueof transgender rights, in Pakistan.

FLD

Unidentified gunmen have killed a local union leader in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.

Police said on November 10 that Allah Dad Tarin was shot dead while on his way home after offering evening prayers in a mosque in Pashin district.

The assailants fled the scene after the attack, police added.

No one immediately claimed responsibility.

As general-secretary of the Balochistan Traders Association, Tarin was known for his struggle to protect the rights of traders and shop owners in Balochistan.

He was also a member of a Pashtun nationalist party, the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party. The union said shops and markets would remain closed in the provincial capital, Quetta, on November 10 in protest of Tarin’s slaying.

Balochistan government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani pledged that Tarin’s killers would be brought to justice.

Resource-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has been plagued by sectarian violence, Islamist militant attacks, and a separatist insurgency that has led to thousands of casualties since 2004.

RFERL

Authorities in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan have arrested a local social-media activist and newspaper columnist on charges of interfering in the work of police.

Bayazid Kharoti appeared before a court in the provincial capital, Quetta, on November 5 that ordered him remanded in custody for five days, his lawyer, Enayat Kasi, told RFE/RL.

Kasi said he had filed a bail application and that the request would be heard the next day.

The Pakistani media watchdog Freedom Network denounced what it called Kharoti's "unlawful arrest."

Kharoti's friends and family sources have said he went missing in Quetta at noon on November 4.

A spokesman for the Balochistan provincial government announced Kharoti's arrest on Twitter after news of his disappearance spread on social media.

The spokesman, Liaquat Shahwani, said that Kharoti is accused of illegally entering the headquarters of the paramilitary Levies forces in Quetta and of using inappropriate language after being ordered to leave.

"My brother is Kidnapped by unknown people I would like to request all the social activist and journalist to raise your voice," his younger brother, Basit Khan Kharoti, earlier wrote on Twitter.

Kharoti runs a Facebook page and WhatsApp group called "Choti Chiri" (Little Bird) and writes columns in Pakistani newspapers.

He often criticizes the government and security forces in Balochistan and reports on alleged corruption.

Balochistan's government issued a statement on August 5 ordering government employees to stay away from social media pages and WhatsApp groups that allegedly spread "misinformation and propaganda" against the provincial government.

Kharoti at the time told RFE/RL that he was raising issues Balochistan is facing because Pakistan's national media did not pay enough attention to the province's problems.

RFERL

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Front Line Defenders, FIDH, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the World Organisation Against Torture(OMCT), and the International Service for Human Rights strongly condemn the deliberate targeting of human rights defender Muhammed Ismail and his wife Uzlifat Ismail, the parents of woman human rights defender Gulalai Ismail. The authorities must halt the ongoing judicial harassment against Gulalai Ismail and her family, which is a direct reprisal due to her human rights work. Gulalai has multiple criminal complaints filed against her, including under regressive anti-terror laws. Since she was forced to leave Pakistan due to concerns for her safety, her parents have been targeted under the Penal Code, anti-terrorism laws and cyber security legislation. In the most recent incident, Pakistan authorities approached the Anti Terrorism Court in Peshawar, and filed a new case with charges that include sedition and terrorism. On 30 September 2020, the court charged the three defenders.

Muhammed Ismail is the Secretary-General of the Pakistan NGO Forum (PNF), an umbrella body of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Pakistan. He has been critical of human rights violations in the country, particularly the treatment of his daughter, human rights defender Gulalai Ismail. The woman human rights defender and her family have been targeted by Pakistani authorities in response to a speech she made in 2019, criticising the state/military response to the rape and murder of a minor girl. Since then, several First Information Reports have been subsequently filed against them, forcing Gulalai Ismail to leave Pakistan for her safety.

On 2 July 2020, the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Peshawar had acquitted Gulalai Ismail and her parents, Muhammad Ismail and Uzlifat Ismail, of charges related to financial terrorism. Two months since, the authorities moved the court and filed the same case with additional charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy against the State.

On 30 September 2020, the Anti-terrorism court in Peshawar heard the case and charged Muhammad Ismail, Uzlifat Ismail and Gulalai Ismail under Sections 11-N, 124-A, 120-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, which relate to sedition and criminal conspiracy, and 7(g)(i) of the Anti-terrorism Act of 1997. These charges carry heavy prison sentences. The defenders pleaded not guilty and are to appear for their next hearing on 26 October 2020.

Further to the court case, the Federal Bureau of Revenue has sent over ten letters to Muhammad Ismail and his wife, Uzlifat Ismail, asking them to file taxes for the past six years. However, Muhammad Ismail has not been running any business and does not have a regular monthly income and his wife is a home maker. The last date to file the tax was mentioned as 31 August 2020, however, the letters were only received on 1 September 2020. The family believe that this delay was intentional to further target them with additional legal proceedings.

Less than a year ago, on 24 October 2019, Muhammed Ismail was forcibly abducted from outside the Peshawar High Court by unidentified men. He was later found in the custody of Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crimes Unit. He was charged under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act for “hate speech” and “spreading false information against government institutions”. The defender was granted conditional bail after spending a month in detention. However, on 20 April 2020, the defender was summoned for a court hearing after the Federal Investigation agency filed an appeal at the Peshawar High Court to revoke the conditional bail that was granted to the defender on 25 November 2019.

Muhammad Ismail and Uzlifat Ismail have also been placed on a government Exit Control List (ECL), preventing them from leaving Pakistan. Uzlifat Ismail has been unable to renew her passport as a result of her being placed on an ECL. Both, Muhammad and Uzlifat Ismail, suffer from serious medical conditions including hypertension, diabetes and kidney issues.

The actions of the Pakistani authorities in its targeting of the family are an attempt to silence Gulalai Ismail and punish her for advocating on human rights in Pakistan. Front Line Defenders, CIVICUS, FIDH, the World Organisation Against Torture(OMCT) and the International Service for Human Rights urge the authorities in Pakistan to immediately drop all charges against Muhammad Ismail and Uzlifat Ismail, as we believe that the human rights defenders are being targeted solely as a result of their legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights. We urge the authorities to remove all restrictions on the free movement of Muhammad Ismail and Uzlifat Ismail, and cease all further forms of harassment against the defenders, as it is believed that these measures constitute a direct violation of their rights.

OMCT

Shaheena Shaheen Baloch, a Baloch woman journalist, was shot and killed in Kech, Balochistan on Saturday. Shaheen was a morning host at at PTV and was the Editor of Balochi magazine Dazgohar.

She had been getting death threats and warnings by the Baloch militants to leave her job. However, she did not submit to the threats.

The police has started an investigation in the matter. Turbat police has now claimed that Shaheen was killed by her own husband in what appears to be a case of ‘honor killing’. The suspect has not been arrested yet. A case has been registered and the area has been sealed for further investogations.

As per the local reports, the incident took place at a housing quarter in Turbat and unidentified men left her body at a private hospital. However, these reports have not been confirmed by the local police yet.

The body was dropped off to a a government hospital for medical formalities by an unknown person.

A supporter of gender equality, Shaheen was known to campaign for women’s empowerment in Balochistan.

Before Shaheen, another Pakistan's journalist Sajid Gondal, too, went missing from Islamabad who was being questioned on social media for his rumoured ties with Ahmed Noorani.

WION News

Marvi Sirmed, Pakistani journalist and the human right defender has once again got into controversy for making sarcastic comments about the state’s practice of enforced disappearance in Balochistan.

She referred the Balochis with Hazrat Isa (A.S) that people have started to take her comment in blasphemy context.

Netizens started a trend on Twitter asking the government to arrest Sirmed for violating Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Section 295-C applicable use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and other prophets. It is a crime to violate section 295-C and the only punishment is “death”.

After netizens started a trend on Twitter of #ArrestMarviSirmed_295C for making fun of prophet Hazrat Isa (A.S).

After the trend sparked on social media, Marvi Sirmed tried to clarify her statement and asked people how her tweet is referred to as blasphemy?

“The tweet which is generating a lot of abuse, blasphemy allegations, and threats. For those who don’t read Urdu: Mullah told Jesus Christ didn’t die, he was picked up by God. A simpleton asked: Was Jesus a Baloch? For Pete’s sake, how it is blasphemous? How????”

BOL News

A social media activist in Barkhan district of restless Balochistan province was shot and dead on 23 July 2020 (Thursday evening) and a provincial government minister and his bodyguards were booked in the citizen journalist�s murder case.

�We are shocked at this brutal murder of citizen journalist Anwar Kethran,� Islamabad-based media watchdog organization Freedom Network said in a statement on 27 July 2020.

�The provincial government in Quetta must condemn this murder and make sure the accused minister and his bodyguards did not influence their positions to deny the bereaved family justice in the court of law,� the statement urged Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal.

Anwar Jan Kethran, who highlighted social injustices and challenged powerful landlords on his Facebook and Twitter handles, was on his way home on his motorcycle when unidentified gunmen opened fire at him, his family confirmed to Freedom Network, Islamabad-based media watchdog.

Akbar Khan, late Kethran�s brother, accused Balochistan government�s minister for food and population Abdur Rehman Kethran and his bodyguards were nominated in the police�s First Information Report (FIR).

The minister denies the allegation and says the late Kethran was �using social media platform to blackmail� him.

In his 12 July 2020 tweet (see screenshot below), late Kethran accused Abdur Rehman of �ruining� all government departments in his Barkhan district.

It is the first such murder of citizen journalist in Balochistan where citizens are taking to social media platforms as mainstream media of the country is not reporting Balochistan because of �self-censorship.�

�Both the accused in the FIR are bodyguards of the provincial minister, Abdur Rehman,� said the late Kethran�s brother. �The minister is also among the accused.�

The brother said: �The cause of my brother�s murder is journalism. The minister warned my brother to stay away from journalism.�

Late Kethran was a social media activist, younger brother Ghulam Sarwar told online news portal Urdu News. �He (Kethran) was working with Daily �Naveed-e-Pakistan� newspaper in Punjab province. He was very active on social media highlighting social issues and challenged strong feudals openly through his writings, the younger brother was quoted as saying.

Akbar said: �I am sure Kethran was killed at the minister�s instigation. My brother received threats over telephone for writing on social media platforms.� He said his family was told to �stay quiet� otherwise would face �consequences.�

FNPK

Dozens of protesters have staged a demonstration in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar to condemn an assassination attempt on Fazal Khan, an ethnic Pashtun rights activist.

Khan has been a vocal critic of both the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group and Pakistani authorities, which he accuses of turning a blind eye to militants.

Khan, a lawyer, told police that he was on his way home from the Peshawar High Court on July 21 when two motorcyclists opened fire on him. Khan said he got away unharmed.

Protesters on July 22 urged the government to protect citizens from militant groups.

Khan lost his son in a Peshawar school massacre carried out by TTP militants in 2014 and has campaigned for justice for the nearly 150 students and teachers who were killed.

Khan is a member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), which defends the rights of Pashtuns, Pakistan�s largest ethnic minority.

The PTM has campaigned for civil rights for ethnic Pashtuns since 2018.

The group has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies to denounce the powerful Pakistani Army's heavy-handed operations in tribal regions impacted by militant operations and the military's alleged connection with Islamist militants.

International rights groups say authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also faced charges for alleged sedition and cybercrimes.

RFERL

A prominent Pakistani journalist known for his harsh criticism of the military and the ruling party was seized from the heart of the capital, Islamabad, and held for 12 hours Tuesday, according to his family.

A brother of the journalist, Matiullah Jan, confirmed to VOA shortly after midnight that Jan had been released. Details of his detention were not immediately available.

CCTV footage shows a group of men, some in plain clothes, others in black uniforms used by elite counter terrorism units of the police, forcing Matiullah Jan into a car as he resisted. During the scuffle, Jan, who was parked outside a school where his wife taught, threw his mobile phone inside the compound. One of the men in uniform walked over to the closed gate and asked people standing inside to hand the phone back. �The teacher standing with me handed the mobile to him. We thought a thief was running with the phone and the police were following him, so he threw the phone inside. We heard loud noises, but our gate was high and we couldn�t see anything,� said Kaniz Sughra, Jan�s wife, who happened to be standing in the building�s garage at the very moment that her husband was being forcibly picked up from the other side of the gate.

The men left in several vehicles, including at least one double cabin white truck with police lights on its roof. An ambulance followed the convoy.

Jan has been attacked twice before. In one incident, he was driving with his son when someone hurled a brick at the windscreen of his car.

�We reported that to the police. It was investigated. In the end police said they knew who was behind it, but they could not tell us,� Sughra said.

She said her husband had received threats recently but told her not to worry about them.

Jan�s brother, Shahid Akbar Abbasi, also received a call from someone claiming to be a fan of his brother and asking for his phone number.

�My hunch is that they confirmed that I was not with my brother and that the number I gave them was still being used by my brother,� Abbasi said.

The reaction to Jan�s alleged abduction was swift. Pakistan�s opposition parties walked out of a session of parliament in protest, as did the journalists covering the proceedings.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned Jan�s disappearance on Twitter, adding: �The government's campaign to muzzle the media & critical voices is simply shameful. If something happens to Matiullah, PM will be held responsible.�

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and leader of one of the main opposition parties, Pakistan People�s Party, tweeted: �Extremely concerned at news that @Matiullahjan919 has been abducted from Islamabad. The selected government must immediately insure his safe return. This is not only an attack on media freedoms & democracy but on all of us. Today it is Matiuallah, tomorrow it could be you or I.�

Within hours of the news breaking, #BringBackMatiullah racked up more than 100,000 tweets and started trending on Twitter in Pakistan.

Journalists and human rights bodies issued statements condemning the alleged abduction.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists issued a statement threatening countrywide protests if Jan was not �released� within 24 hours.

�This has become a norm in the country to suppress voices of dissent for controlling media, imposing censorship and denying freedom of speech and expression in the country,� the statement said.

The press association representing journalists covering the nation�s Supreme Court urged the chief justice to take note of the incident.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent body, also demanded Jan�s �release.�

�We are deeply concerned at increasing attempts to control the media, suppress independent voices, and curb political dissent, thereby creating an environment of constant fear,� the HRCP statement read.

Amnesty International for South Asia tweeted: �We are extremely concerned for the fate and wellbeing of @matiullahjan919. He has been the subject of physical attacks and harassment for his journalism. The authorities must establish his whereabouts immediately. #ReleaseMatiullah�

Pakistan�s information minister, Shibli Faraz, said the government had taken note of the abduction and was investigating.

�Unacceptable abduction of @Matiullahjan919 from Islamabad today, have spoken with IG @ICT_Police and instructed for immediate action for retrieval and registration of FIR,� tweeted Shahzad Akbar, a special assistant to the prime minister, Imran Khan.

Cases of enforced disappearance are widely documented in Pakistan. Journalists and human rights bodies have repeatedly investigated such incidents and often found the country�s intelligence agencies involved, especially when it comes to critics of the military or members of nationalist groups.

�The scourge of enforced disappearances continued unchecked across the country in 2018. Political activists, students, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, members of religious groups, and various ethnic minorities have all fallen victim in recent years,� HRCP wrote in its latest annual State of Human Rights report.

The human rights committee of the country�s Senate took up the issue several years ago and issued seven recommendations that were endorsed unanimously by the entire chamber in 2016. None of those recommendations was ever implemented.

Farhatullah Babar, who was part of the Senate committee, said they had no doubt institutions of the state were involved in these disappearances.

Babar also said that regardless of which party was in power, political governments were �totally helpless in this issue. They cannot do anything,� he added.

The country�s official Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances claims to have recovered thousands of victims but has so far not filed cases against any responsible party.

In 2018, the chairman of the commission, Justice Javed Iqbal, told the Senate human rights committee that they have identified more than 150 security officials involved in the forced disappearance of people. No action, however, was ever reported against any individual or institution.

�The abductors know they�re so powerful and have impunity that they did not even care for the abduction to be in view of a CCTV camera,� tweeted activist Usama Khilji.

VoA

Media rights groups are calling for accountability after two Pakistani journalists accused paramilitary forces of torturing them for their reporting on poor conditions at a coronavirus quarantine center on the Afghan border.

Saeed Ali Achakzai, a reporter for the Urdu-language Samaa News TV, and Abdul Mateen Achakzai, a reporter for the Pashtun-language Khyber News TV, said they were beaten while under detention for three days in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

Photos released on June 23 by the men, who are not related, show red marks on their backs.

Saeed Ali told RFE/RL�s Radio Mashaal that the two were reporting on the lack of food, water, and other basic facilities at a coronavirus quarantine center near the border city of Chaman.

They were then allegedly called to the paramilitary Frontier Corps command center on June 20 and handed over to an anti-terrorism force that took them to a jail and beat them.

Bashir Barechi, deputy commissioner of Qala-e-Abdullah district in Chaman, accused the journalists of spreading fake news and insulting him on social media. He said the journalists were detained for disrupting public order.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists called on the Balochistan government to conduct a judicial inquiry into the incident and demanded the arrest of any government official involved.

In a statement, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said: �It is absolutely unacceptable that representatives of the security forces should commit acts of torture simply because they didn�t like what these two journalists reported.�

RSF says that journalists working in the Chaman area are constantly harassed for their work covering corruption and �every kind of trafficking� between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

RSF ranks Pakistan 145th out of 180 countries in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

RFERL

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the smear campaign against Dr. Arfana Mallah, a professor of chemistry at the University of Sindh Jamshoro, a prominent women�s rights activist, and a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), based in Hyderabad, Sindh Province.

According to the information received, on June 10, 2020, Dr. Arfana Mallah expressed her dismay on Twitter when a colleague at Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur, Sindh Province, was arrested on charges of blasphemy and sedition. Within hours, Dr. Mallah was subjected to a vicious campaign led by clerics with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party and, subsequently, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, who sought to have Dr. Mallah charged with blasphemy.

A hashtag #ArrestArfanaMallah, which trended for over a week, from June 11 to 19, appeared in some particularly disturbing tweets, including one that compared her to �the female version of Sulman Taseer� referring to the former governor of Punjab Province, who was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2011 for having spoken up in defence of a Christian woman charged with blasphemy.

Under pressure from radical religious groups and the police, Dr Mallah subsequently issued a written apology, explaining that her social media posts meant no disrespect to Islam or the Prophet. Meanwhile, radical religious groups have further insisted she video-record her apology.

The Observatory firmly condemns the smear campaign against Dr. Arfana Mallah and considers the attacks against her amount to incitement to violence and pose a serious risk to her safety. The Observatory calls on Sindh and Pakistani authorities to provide Dr. Mallah with immediate protection and to guarantee, in all circumstances, her physical integrity and psychological well-being.

FIDH

Arif Wazir, a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), died in Islamabad on Saturday after being attacked a day ago by unidentified assailants outside his home in Wana, South Waziristan.

Wana Station House Officer Usman Khan confirmed Wazir had passed away after being shifted to Islamabad for treatment.

The police official said a first-information report (FIR) of the incident had been lodged at the Wana police station.

According to another official, on Friday Arif Wazir was strolling outside his residence in Ghwa Khwa, near Wana, when armed persons opened fire from a moving vehicle. The official had told Dawn that Arif Wazir received life-threatening injuries.

He was initially admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Wana, but later shifted to an Islamabad hospital.

Arif Wazir is the first cousin of MNA Ali Wazir. Seven members of Arif Wazir�s family were killed in a clash with militants near Wana in 2007. His father, Saadullah Jan, and uncle, Mirza Alam, were among the dead.

Arif Wazir was released from jail on bail about one month ago.

Rights group Amnesty International in a statement on Saturday said authorities must carry out an independent and effective investigation into the attack on Arif Wazir, and that the suspected perpetrators must be held accountable. PTM movement

PTM is a rights-based alliance that, besides calling for the de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement in the latter, has insisted on an end to the practices of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, and for their practitioners to be held to account within a truth and reconciliation framework.

The party has been critical of the state's policies in the country's tribal belt, where a massive operation against terrorists was conducted in recent times leading to large-scale displacement and enforced disappearances.

PTM's leaders, in particular its elected members to the National Assembly, have come under fire for pursuing the release of individuals detained by authorities without due process. The army has alleged the party of running an anti-national agenda and for playing into the hands of the state's enemies.

The party while rejecting these allegations, has insisted that theirs is a peaceful struggle for the rights of people from the country's tribal belt.

Last year, MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir were arrested by police after a protest gathering in Kharqamar for allegedly using violence and clashing with army personnel.

This year in January, PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen was arrested from Peshawar's Shaheen Town for making a speech in Dera Ismail Khan during which he allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights. The FIR said Pashteen also made derogatory remarks about the state.

A day later, Dawar was arrested briefly from outside the Islamabad press club alongside several other individuals while protesting Pashteen's detention.

Pashteen was later released on bail on January 25.

Dawn

Mohammed Ismail, a professor of Urdu literature, well-known activist and vocal critic of human rights abuses in Pakistan, is being threatened with prolonged arbitrary detention.

Professor Ismail is the 65-year old father of Gulalai Ismail, a board member of Humanists International and herself a prominent activist. At 16 years old, Gulalai founded the charity Aware Girls, which works to eliminate violence and discrimination against young girls in Pakistan. Gulalai was forced to flee her home country in 2019 after being persecuted for speaking out against sexual assaults and disappearances carried out by the Pakistani military.

Ever since Gulalai successfully relocated to the United States, her family in Pakistan have been punished by association. The family have been subjected to increasing threats, harassment and intimidation from local security forces, including multiple raids on their home by armed men and constant military surveillance of their phones and private messages. Even the family driver has been brutally tortured and interrogated by officials seeking information on Gulalai.

Efforts to silence and punish Professor Ismail began in July 2019, when he was falsely accused of �funding terrorism�. On 24 October 2019, while attending court to defend himself against these charges, Professor Ismail was abducted and forced into a vehicle by the Cyber Crime Wing of Pakistan�s Federal Investigation Agency. He was then charged with new accusations of �hate speech� and �spreading false information against Government institutions� under Section 10 and 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, on the basis of his social media posts. If found guilty, he could face up to 7 years imprisonment. After a summary hearing on 25 October, he was taken into pre-trial detention for over a month. A small relief came when he was granted bail at the end of November 2019.

Amidst the confusion caused by the Covid-19 crisis, Pakistani authorities are now redoubling their efforts to imprison Professor Ismail by seeking to revoke his bail. On 20 April, he was summoned without warning to attend court for a hearing to revoke his bail. Only after attending court was he told the hearing was to be postponed to an unknown date in the future.

Forcing Professor Ismail to attend court and potentially detain him in one of Pakistan�s notoriously overcrowded prisons during this time poses an extreme and unnecessary risk to his health, and arguably violates his right to life. At 65 years of age and with multiple pre-existing health conditions, including hypertension, heart and kidney problems, he clearly falls within the category of people who are extremely vulnerable to Covid-19. Even the Supreme Court of Pakistan has recognised as much by approving an order allowing concessions to be granted to prisoners in vulnerable groups including those �who are 55 years and older�.

Humanists International