Uwazi

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.

On 20 June 2020, Saeed Ali Achakzai and Abdul Mateen Achakzai, media workers, were temporarily abducted and tortured by the military for reporting the poor conditions of a quarantine center in Chaman, Pakistan.

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.

On 10 June 2020, Dr. Arfana Mallah, WHRD and academic, was victim of an online smear campaign calling for her arrest led by fundamentalist groups for criticising the arrest of a colleague on blasphemy and sedition charges in Hyderabad, Pakistan.

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.

On 1 May 2020, Arif Wazir, minority rights defender, was shot dead by unknown assailants in Islamabad, Pakistan.

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�.

On 20 April 2020, Mohammed Ismail, academic and father of WHRD Gulalai Ismail, who is under trial, was summoned by the court in a bid to revoke his bail in Peshawar, Pakistan (Update)

Pakistani police have arrested an ethnic Pashtun rights activist and charged him with hate speech after he spoke during a visit to neighboring Afghanistan.

Police official Usman Wazir said Sardar Arif Wazir, a member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), was arrested on April 17 in South Waziristan, a tribal region located along the border with Afghanistan.

The police official said Wazir was accused of delivering an "anti-Pakistan" speech during his visit to Afghanistan. He did not provide any further details.

Jamal Malyar, a local leader of the PTM, said the charge against Wazir was "baseless."

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said the authorities have made allegations of anti-state activities "an expedient label for human rights defenders, particularly those associated with the PTM."

The PTM has campaigned for civil rights for Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic minority, 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 the militancy-hit tribal regions and the military's alleged connection with Islamist militants.

The PTM has been calling for the removal of military checkpoints in tribal areas and an end to "enforced disappearances," in which suspects are detained by security forces without due process.

Pakistan's government rejects allegations that its security forces and intelligence agents are responsible for forced disappearances.

Since the movement was formed in January 2018, 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.

Authorities in January arrested PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen on charges including sedition, hate speech, incitement against the state, and criminal conspiracy.

Pashteen was later released on bail.

On 17 April 2020, Arif Wazir, minority rights defender, was arrested by the police on hate-speech charge after his visit to Afghanistan in South Waziristan, Pakistan.

Pakistan authorities should take swift action to launch a thorough and credible investigation into the murder of journalist Aziz Memon, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Memon, who worked for the privately-owned Sindhi TV channel KTN News and the Sindhi-language Daily Kawish newspaper, was found strangled to death in an irrigation ditch yesterday near the town of Mehrabpur in the Naushahro Feroze District of Sindh province, according to news reports.

“The tragic murder of Aziz Memon deserves swift justice, which is something Pakistani authorities have repeatedly failed to deliver for journalists,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler. “Given the victim’s previous allegations of threats from local officials, it is essential that the investigation be free from political meddling.”

Months earlier, Memon released a video, now circulating on Twitter, in which he said officials of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party and local police had threatened him over his reporting. His reporting included allegations that individuals were paid to attend a widely publicized 2019 “train march,” in which PPP Chair Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stopped at train stations to give speeches. The PPP is the dominant political party of Sindh province.

Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s federal minister for science and technology and the former information minister, called in a Twitter post for the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the case, and for the Federal Investigation Agency to investigate the murder.

PPP Chair Bhutto Zardari issued a statement condemning the murder and called for a swift and impartial investigation. An email sent to the PPP asking for comment about the allegations against the party was not immediately answered.

Naushahro Feroze Senior Superintendent of Police Mohammad Farooq told CPJ that police were interrogating three individuals in connection with the murder. He added that while Memon had complained about police threats a year ago, Memon did not report any threat to police in the last six months.

Journalists in Sindh have been protesting for months against what they have called abuse by police, as CPJ reported in December. Pakistan ranked 8th on CPJ’s 2019 Global Impunity Index, with 16 unsolved killings of journalists in the past 10 years. Of the 34 journalists who were murdered for their work since 1992, when CPJ began keeping detailed records, partial justice has been achieved in only three cases, according to CPJ research.

On 16 February 2020, Aziz Memon, media worker, was tortured to death by unknow men, after he received death threats in relation to his investigative work in Mehrabpur, Pakistan.

Javedullah Khan, the bureau chief for Urdu language newspaper Ausaf, was gunned down on February 25 in Matta, 40-kilometres northwest of Pakistan's Swat Valley. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) condemn the brutal killing.

According to senior police official Muhammad Ijaz Khan, the 36-year-old journalist was killed when two gunmen opened fire on his vehicle. He died at the scene. A police guard accompanying him was unhurt in the attack. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. A local peace committee member Fatehullah Khan called this a "targeted attack."

PFUJ said the remote Swat Valley made efforts to gather information challenging, but investigations revealed Khan was also a member of the local peace committee and had received threats from terrorists prior to his death.

Khan was a former correspondent for Dawn in Mingora, also in Swat Valley and the younger brother of prominent Al-Jazeera journalist Hameedullah Khan. PFUJ said as many as 14 members of Khan’s family have been killed since 2008. According to reports, Khan's relatives were targeted for their involvement in anti-Taliban peace committees formed to help defend villages from militant atrocities. Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai was shot as a teenager by a Taliban gunman in the area in 2012.

Khan was laid to rest at an ancestral graveyard in Shakardarrah village on February 26. Large crowds gathered to attend the funeral, including many journalists.PFUJ president GM Jamali and secretary general, Rana Muhammad Azeem, consoled Khan’s family and demanded the Pakistan government provide justice.

PFUJ said: "The journalists working in far flung areas are facing problems to perform their duties in a dangerous atmosphere and they have to sacrifice their lives in the line of duty. The Government should pay compensation to the family of Javid Khan.”

Khan is the second journalist to be murdered in Pakistan this year, following the recent murder of Aziz Memon ten days ago. Memon was found dead in an irrigation channel in Southern Sindh with a wire wrapped around his neck.

IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said:“The IFJ mourns the tragic death of Javedullah Khan. The dangers of reporting in remote and complex regions such as the Swat Valley jeopardises the free flow of information when journalists are forced to live in fear. The IFJ condemns the brutal murder and urges authorities to conduct a review and reform the mechanisms in place to protect journalists.”

On 25 February 2020, Muhammad Ijaz Khan, media worker, was gunned down by two unknown persons riding a motorcycle near the Swat Valley, Pakistan.

Lawyer and human rights activist Jalila Haider was released on Monday after being detained by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for seven hours at the Lahore airport.

Haider, while talking to Dawn, said she was stopped by airport authorities when she was boarding a flight to the United Kingdom, where she had to attend a conference on feminism arranged by the University of Sussex. When she asked why she was being stopped from boarding the flight, she was told that her name was on the no-fly list because of her "anti-state activities".

Haider said she was made to wait for seven hours but no one came to see her, after which authorities returned her passport and told her that she can book another flight to the UK.

The activist said she will not leave until she meets her mother, who was worried since news of her detention spread on social media. She added that she had not been involved in any "anti-state activity".

Haider hails from Balochistan and belongs to the minority Hazara community. She is an advocate and the founder of We The Humans — a non-profit organisation which works to lift local communities by strengthening opportunities for vulnerable women and children.

She is also vocal about the persecution of the Hazaras in the country. In 2018, she went on a hunger strike, demanding the state to address the violence against the people of the Hazara community, who she said faced persecution due to ethnicity and sectarianism. Haider had demanded Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to visit Balochistan and console the thousands of widows and orphaned children left by the killing of Hazaras in Pakistan over the past two decades.

Last year, she was listed as one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women across the world by the BBC.

News of her detention spread on social media after the activist posted on her Facebook page that she had been stopped at the Lahore airport. Her sister — who had come to see her off — and social media activists gathered at the airport, demanding Haider's release and holding placards.

"[I was] not told the reasons behind it (placement of her name on the no-fly list), but they said that it was because of my anti-state activities. I said 'I haven't been involved in any anti-state activity'," Haider told BBC Urdu. "Anyway, they [...] impounded my passport and CNIC and told me to sit down and that they'll hold further investigation and try to find out who placed my name on the list and why."

The activist said that only names of people who are suspected in a case and are named in a first information report can be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). She further said that people whose names are placed on the ECL should be served with a show-cause notice, adding that she was not issued one.

Haider's lawyer Asad Jamal, who said he was not allowed to meet her while she was being detained, called it "an act of harassment", AFP reported.

Pakistan's interior ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment by AFP.

On 20 January 2020, Jalila Haider, WHRD, lawyer and minority rights defender, was stopped by the airport police and impeded from travelling abroad to attend a feminist event in Lahore, Pakistan.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) strongly condemns the arrest of at least 23 civil society activists and political workers in Islamabad, during a peaceful protest held yesterday to demand the release of civil rights activist Manzoor Pashteen. There is no indication that the protestors resorted to violence at any point, although video footage shows several of them being manhandled by the police.

HRCP believes that these actions were unconstitutional and have violated citizens’ right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The arbitrary use of the charge of sedition under an archaic law to curb political dissent – that has in no way incited hatred or violence – indicates how little regard the state has for its citizens’ civil and political liberties. This is cause for concern: the measure of a state is the treatment it metes out to citizens who choose to disagree peacefully with its actions.

HRCP demands the immediate and unconditional release of all those still detained, including Ammar Rashid, Nawfil Saleemi and Saifullah Nasar, among others. We also urge the authorities to refrain from such high-handedness when dealing with peaceful protests.

On 28 January 2020, at least 23 minority rights defenders were arrested by the police while staging a rally to demand the release of a fellow detained defender in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen was sent to Peshawar's Central Jail on a 14-day judicial remand by a magistrate hours after he was arrested from the city's Shaheen Town on Monday.

The PTM leader was produced before a magistrate in Judicial Complex, Peshawar, where strict security arrangements were made prior to his arrival.

The court will hold a hearing tomorrow to decide whether a transitory remand can be granted in order to move Pashteen to Dera Ismail Khan, where a first information report (FIR) has been registered against him.

According to police, a case was registered against the PTM chief at the City Police Station in DI Khan on Jan 18 under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 124 (sedition), and 123-A (condemning the creation of the country and advocating the abolishment of its sovereignty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Pashteen and other PTM leaders had attended a gathering on Jan 18 in DI Khan where the PTM chief had allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights.

The FIR added that Pashteen also made derogatory remarks about the state.

Police had also arrested nine other PTM workers who were identified as Muhammad Salam, Abdul Hameed, Idrees, Bilal, Mohib, Sajjadul Hassan, Aimal, Farooq and Muhammad Salman.

Tahkal police station official Shiraz Khan had confirmed the arrests.

Taking to Twitter, senior PTM leader and MNA Mohsin Dawar said: "This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful and democratic manner. Manzoor's arrest will only strengthen our resolve. We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen."

He urged PTM workers and supporters to remain calm in the wake of the arrest. "We will devise a strategy after consultations. We are up against those who are most troubled by demands for constitutional rights, and we will continue doing that."

He announced that PTM will hold an emergency press conference at the Islamabad Press Club at 3pm and urged party workers to show their support. PPP, senators call for immediate release

The PPP, in a statement today, demanded that Pashteen be released immediately and that a dialogue be initiated between the government and the youth of tribal areas. The statement said that PTM's demands were "legitimate" and "will not be swept aside by arresting Manzoor Pashteen".

The statement, issued by General Secretary of PPP's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter Faisal Kundi, said that "political arrests only aggravate the situation and [do] not help resolve political issues"

"It is most foolish and highly condemnable that the voice of tribal youth is being silenced through brute state force at a time when there is urgent need for a dialogue," the statement read. Kundi further said that Pashteen was arrested just days after Defence Minister Pervez Khattak offered to hold dialogue with the activists.

Senators Usman Kakar and Hasil Bizenjo, during the Senate session today, demanded the release of Pashteen.

"Manzoor Pashteen is an internationally popular leader," Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party's Kakar said. "His arrest will garner a major reaction."

Kakar said that for the past two years, Pashteen had carried out a "democratic struggle" for "democratic demands".

Following Pashteen's arrest, #ReleaseManzoorPashteen started trending on Twitter with various politicians and human rights activists calling for his release.

Human rights group Amnesty International also called for Pashteen's "immediate and unconditional" release.

Taking to Twitter, the group said: "Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally." 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 alleges the party of running an anti-national agenda and for playing into the hands of the state's enemies.

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

On 26 January 2020, Manzoor Pashteen, minority rights defender, was arrested by the police and charged by the local court for an assembly he participated the week before in Peshawar, Pakistan.

A reporter for the Urdu-language newspaper Nai Baat, Nasrullah Chaudhry received the jail sentence from an anti-terrorism court in the southern city of Karachi on 26 December. He was also fined 15,000 rupees.

After his arrest in the night of 9 and 10 November 2018 in alleged possession of documents “inciting religious hatred and Jihad,” Chaudry was accused of links with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. He has always denied any connection with terrorist activists or possessing documents inciting hate crimes.

“After an investigation lasting more than a year, the prosecution was unable to produce any evidence of Nasrullah Chaudhry’s guilt,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“We call on Karachi’s courts to quash this grossly unfair conviction and, in the absence of any additional supporting evidence, to dismiss all further proceedings against him. The best way to prevent any acts of terrorism is to allow journalists to do their investigative reporting.”

Ever since his arrest, he has accused the authorities of fabricating the case against him. He has worked as a journalist for 20 years and has the unanimous support of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Karachi press club.

Pakistan is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

In 26 December 2019, Nasrullah Chaudhry, journalist, was sentenced to five-year prison term for fabricated terrorism charges by a court in Karachi, Pakistan.

Police have registered cases against the organisers and participants of the recently held Student Solidarity March on sedition charges and arrested Alamgir Wazir, one of the participants.

The Civil Lines police on behalf of the state registered a case on sedition charges against the march’s organisers, including Ammar Ali Jan, Farooq Tariq, Iqbal Lala (father of Mashal Khan who was lynched over allegation of blasphemy in Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan), Alamgir Wazir (nephew of MNA and Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement leader Ali Wazir), Mohammad Shabbir and Kamil Khan, besides 250-300 unidentified participants.

Interestingly, the action flies in the face of the recent statements by several ministers and government representatives who supported the students.

The students took to the streets in 50 cities of the country to voice their demands, including restoration of student unions.

According to the FIR, complainant Sub-Inspector Mohammad Nawaz said he was on patrol when he received information that a rally of 250-300 people led by Ammar Ali Jan, Farooq Tariq, Iqbal Lala, Alamgir Wazir, Mohammad Shabbir and Kamil Khan was being taken out. He said he had reached Faisal Chowk on The Mall where the protesters were forcibly blocking the road to set up a stage to deliver speeches.

“The speakers incited the students against the state and its institutions and speeches and slogans were recorded on mobile phones and can also be checked through PPIC3 cameras,” he claimed.

Capital City Police Officer Zulfiqar Hameed told Dawn that one of the suspects, Alamgir Wazir, was arrested two days ago in the case. He said the case was registered on behalf of the state because the students were delivering provocative speeches and chanting slogans against the state and its institutions. He said police would arrest the other people involved in the case as well.

Alamgir Wazir, a former Punjab Uni­versity student who went on to become chairperson of the Pakhtun Council, had gone missing from the campus two days ago. He had completed his BS Gender Studies from the university last year and was there to get his degree. He was staying at hostel No 19 with his cousin Mohammad Riaz.

The Pukhtun Council students protested against the arrest of Alamgir Wazir outside the Punjab University vice chancellor’s house. The protesters condemned the arrest and demanded his immediate release. Social media is abuzz with the news of his disappearance and demand for his recovery.

This is not the first case registered against students and activists on sedition charges. In February, an FIR was lodged in Multan where police arrested Progressive Youth Alliance activist Rawal Asad and kept him in jail for a month.

Ammar Ali Jan tweeted: “We have been nominated in an FIR. We met Governor who assured us of support. Ministers tweeted in our support. Protesters gathered & dispersed peacefully. Do we even have a govt in our country? Can we trust anybody’s words? We are peaceful citizens & will remain undeterred.”

Talking to Dawn, he said thousands of students were protesting in the country for restoration of student unions and their other rights, but sedition case had been registered against them. The government, he said, was using the colonial-era law to penalise them just as the British would book natives for chanting slogans against their King.

“Are we living in democracy or under any kingship? Its inhuman law in a democracy and it’s a message of the state that they can use draconian laws against its people but can’t give them their rights,” he deplored.

On 1 December 2019, a group of six social rights activists was acused of sedition for organising a nationwide student protest by the police in Lahore, Pakistan.

Student organisations in Pakistan had organised a countrywide student march on Friday to demand the revocation of a 35-year ban on student unions in colleges and university campuses.A day after the Students Solidarity March in Pakistan on Saturday, student activist Alamgir Wazir from the Punjab University in Punjab Province’s Lahore has gone missing.

A gender studies’ student, Wazir came into the limelight due to his “fierce” speech at the march. A video of his speech has gone viral on social media. He says in the video: “We are asking for education, justice, and roads but they are giving us guns".

​Students from Punjab University have been protesting outside the vice chancellor’s office since Wazir went missing, demanding his release. They are saying he has been arrested for chanting slogans against the authorities.

​Wazir has reportedly been vocal about racial discrimination against Pashtuns.

Netizens are condemning the “abduction” of the student leader for voicing his opinion against the Pakistani government. #ReleaseAlamgirWazir is also trending on Twitter, demanding the student’s release.

"This is extremely condemnable & sharamnak we demand immediate release of Alamgir and the perpetrators must be charged for this unlawful act," tweeted MNA Mohsin Dawar. His fellow colleague from the former federally administered tribal areas, Ali Wazir, is related to Alamgir Wazir. The missing Wazir is the MNA's nephew.

Wazir was last seen outside a hostel on the Punjab University campus, when unidentified men in a vehicle took him away at 5 PM on Saturday.

On 30 November 2019, Alamgir Wazir, student leader, was abducted by unknown men after he gave a speech during a student protest in Lahore, Pakistan.

Rights activist Idris Khattak was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified men while on his way from Akora Khattak village to Swabi, his driver Shahsawar told police, DawnNewsTV reported on Monday.

In a complaint filed in Anbar police station, Shahsawar said that he was driving Khattak to Swabi when about four unidentified men stopped the activist's car at Swabi Motorway Interchange and kidnapped him. The incident took place on November 13, according to the complaint. Though complaints have been lodged by Khattak's driver and family, police are yet to register a first information report (FIR).

Officials did confirm that Khattak was missing but said an FIR will be lodged after an initial investigation.

Politician Jibran Nasir claimed that the activist was "abducted by intel agencies six days ago on Islamabad Peshawar highway near Swabi Interchange". Nasir said that the driver was abducted along with Khattak but was released after three days. However, the application filed by Shahsawar did not mention any such occurrence.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) demanded Khattak's "immediate recovery", saying that he had "remained associated with progressive politics since his student days".

"HRCP condemns arbitrary detentions and urges the Pakistani state to fulfill its constitutional obligations towards its citizens," the organisation said in a tweet.

On 13 November 2019, Idris Khattak, social rights activist, was abducted by four unknown men in Swabi, Pakistan.

Rights activist Gulalai Ismail's father, Professor Muhammad Ismail, was sent to jail on 14-day judicial remand on Friday, a day after his daughter alleged that he had been picked up from outside the Peshawar High Court (PHC) by "men wearing Malitia (sic) dress".

Professor Ismail's lawyer, Fazal Khan, told DawnNewsTV that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Peshawar had arrested his client after registering a First Information Report (FIR) against him under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016.

Khan said that his client was produced before judicial magistrate Naveedullah today, where the court rejected FIA's request for physical remand and instead sent him on a 14-day judicial remand. He added that they would soon file a bail application.

The lawyer said that on Thursday his client was at the PHC for another case.

"At around 4:30pm he left the high court building and was picked up by some unknown men and shifted to [an] unknown location," Khan claimed. Case registered

The FIR, a copy of which was seen by Dawn.com, was registered against Professor Ismail under Sections 10 and 11 of Peca 2016 read with Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code at FIA Cyber Crime Circle in Peshawar.

The case was registered after a complaint was received against Ismail by persons namely Sajid Iqbal, Ali Ahmad, Riazur Rehman and Walid Mir on October 8.

“The complaint is regarding ... hate speech and fake information against government institutions of Pakistan on Facebook and Twitter,” according to the FIR.

It said the professor's Facebook and Twitter IDs, passwords and a mobile phone were seized by the FIA. US 'concerned'

Earlier on Friday, Gulalai via Twitter said she had received information that her father had been brought to the court premises.

On Friday morning, US Assistant Secretary of State Alice G. Wells, who is also the in-charge of South Asia affairs at the US State Department, had expressed concern over "reports of the continued harassment" of Gulalai's family and her father's detention.

"We encourage Pakistan to uphold citizens’ rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and due process," Wells said in a post shared on Twitter.

In September, the New York Times reported, Gulalai escaped Pakistani authorities the previous month and had reached the United States, where she applied for political asylum.

Read: Activist Gulalai Ismail 'escapes' to New York, applies for political asylum

Gulalai is an international award-winning activist and a prominent member of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) group who had been campaigning for the rights of women and the ethnic Pashtun minority.

She had not disclosed how she managed to leave the country. All she revealed was: "I didn’t fly out of any airport."

"I can’t tell you any more," NYT quoted her as saying during an interview. "My exit story will put many lives at risk."

According to NYT, no government officials were willing to make a public comment on the matter. Security officials had said that they had suspected Gulalai had left the country.

On 24 October 2019, Professor Muhammad Ismail, father of prominent WHRD Gulalai Ismail, was temporarily abducted by unknown men, and the following day he was arrested for sharing alleged anti-Government social media posts by the police upon order of the High Court of Peshawar, Pakistan.

Pakistan’s immigration authorities barred entry of Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) Asia Programme Coordinator Steven Butler, saying that his name had been placed on a 'stop list', a press statement issued by the body said on Thursday.

"Last [Wednesday] night, Pakistani immigration authorities denied entry to CPJ Asia Programme Coordinator Steven Butler, citing a blacklist managed by the Ministry of Interior," the CPJ statement said.

"A border officer at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore told Butler that his journalist visa was valid, but it was voided because his name was 'on a stop list of the Interior Ministry'," it quoted Butler as saying.

According to the statement, Butler's passport was "confiscated" by airport authorities and he was forced to board a flight bound for Doha. When he arrived in Doha, authorities there placed him on a flight to Washington, DC, the statement read further.

While on the flight, Butler told the CPJ that the flight crew had seized his passport and boarding pass and that he was in "a kind of restrictive custody".

"Pakistani authorities’ move to block Steven Butler from entering the country is baffling and is a slap in the face to those concerned about press freedom in the country," the statement quoted CPJ’s executive director Joel Simon as saying.

"Pakistani authorities should give a full explanation of their decision to bar Butler from entering and correct this error. If the government is interested in demonstrating its commitment to a free press, it should conduct a swift and transparent investigation into this case."

Butler had landed in Lahore to participate in the Asma Jahangir Conference — Roadmap for Human Rights in Pakistan, said the statement.

In September, CPJ had expressed concern about a plan to form "media courts" in the country.

Last year, the organisation released a special report after recording testimonies of journalists in various cities of Pakistan. They said that the climate for press freedom in the country had been deteriorating, even as overall violence against and murder of journalists declined.

CPJ said that journalists, including freelancers, had "painted a picture of a media under siege". 'Alarming sign'

Rights organisations Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Amnesty International expressed alarm over Butler's deportation and said that the decision should be "reevaluated" and "reversed".

In a tweet, HRCP said that it was "disappointed by the government's decision" to deport Butler, adding that the decision "must be reevaluated".

"On one hand, the government claims to be building a softer image of Pakistan. On the other, it refuses entry to a reputed international journalist with a valid visa," HRCP said in a tweet.

Amnesty International also criticised the move, saying that the deportation of the CPJ official was "an alarming sign that freedom of expression continues to be under attack in Pakistan".

"The decision must be reversed immediately," the rights group demanded in a tweet.

On 16 October 2019, Steven Butler, Committee to Protect Journalists' Asia Programme Coordinator, was barred from entering Pakistan by the imigration authorities in Lahore Airport, ahead of a human rights conference he went to attend.

Police blocked a march Sunday by thousands of protesters in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir who wanted to move toward the highly militarized Line of Control that divides the territory between Pakistan and India. The marchers are protesting the lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Police placed shipping containers on the road and deployed a large contingent of officers near Jaskool, 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the frontier to stop the supporters of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, which announced it intended to cross the frontier to help Kashmiris under Indian oppression.

India imposed a strict curfew on Aug. 5 after stripping Indian-controlled Kashmir of its statehood.

JKLF wants Kashmir to be independent from from both India and Pakistan. The group has a history of attempts to cross the de facto frontier in the last three decades, including once in 1992 that ended in violence.

Abdul Hameed Butt, a leader of the JKLF, said the protesters would stage a sit-in until the blockade was removed.

The JKLF march, termed the "Freedom March" began Friday and reached the blockade after two overnight stops.

Police officer Arshad Naqvi said protesters won't be allowed to continue because of the threat of "unprovoked enemy fire" from the Indian side.

"We want to go and [the Pakistani administration] should let us go to help our people," said Tahir Hussain, a college student.

Also on Sunday, the main religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, held a protest march in the eastern city of Lahore with thousands protesting against the situation in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Maggie Hassan, along with Ambassador Paul Jones, charge d' affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, visited Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

A Foreign Ministry statement said the purpose of the visit was to see the ground situation and gauge public sentiment following Aug. 5 ``illegal Indian actions'' in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Hollen and Hassan met with President Masood Khan and Prime Minister Farooq Haider of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, who both urged the senators to play a role in saving the people of Kashmir from India's repressive measures and pressing India to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions.

On 6 October 2019, thousands of Pakistani protesters were prevented by the police to continue their peaceful rally in Jakool, Pakistan, towards the militarised Line of Control that de facto divides Pakistan and India.

A Pakistani lawyer and activist who had complained about receiving death threats after he took on a controversial blasphemy case, has been shot dead by gunmen who stormed into his office. Rashid Rehman was shot and killed by two men who entered his office at 8.30pm on Wednesday in the city of Multan and opened fire. Two others in the office were seriously injured by the gunmen, who then fled. Mr Rehman, a well-known lawyer and a regional coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), said he had been threatened after taking on the case of a university lecturer accused of blasphemy. At the first hearing of the case in March, held inside a prison for security reasons, Mr Rehman was apparently threatened by lawyers representing the complainant. "He was a dedicated activist from the very beginning. All his life he was helping the downtrodden," senior HRCP official Zamal Khan told The Independent. "He was fearless and never gave any time to the threats. He said he would live for the struggle and die for the struggle." Pakistan's blasphemy laws, introduced under British rule and then tightened during the years of military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, have become increasingly controversial. Campaigners say that the laws, which carry the death penalty, are routinely used to settle personal scores and grudges that have nothing to do with Islam. While no one has ever been executed for blasphemy, several accused have been attacked and killed and lawyers and judges have been threatened. A recent report by a US government advisory panel said there were 14 people on death row in Pakistan and 19 others serving life sentences for insulting Islam. Among those on death row is a 70-year-old British citizen, Muhammad Asghar, who was sentenced in January after being convicted of claiming he was a prophet. His lawyers and family said he has been suffering from mental health issues for several years. Efforts to reform the laws by Pakistan's previous government were scrapped in the aftermath of the murder in January 2011 of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, where Multan is located, who had spoken about the misuse of the laws and the need to reform them. Mr Rehman, who had a family, took on the case of Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at Multan's Bahauddin Zakariya University who was accused of defaming the prophet Mohammed on social media last year. Reports said the accusations were levelled by hardline students who pushed for him to be charged. Apparently no one was wiling to take on Mr Hafeez's defence until Mr Rehman stepped forward. After the hearing in March, when he was allegedly threatened, the HRCP issued a statement which said: "During the hearing the lawyers of the complainant told Rehman that he wouldn't be present at the next hearing as he would not be alive." The HRCP said that Mr Rehman was threatened in the presence of the judge but that the court took no action. After the incident, Mr Rehman complained to the District Bar Association. Mr Rehman's colleague, Mr Khan, said the lawyer had also complained to the police but that they had taken no action. "They were totally indifferent." Mr Rehman's funeral service is due to be held in Multan on Thursday afternoon.

Late on 7 May, Rashid Rehman Khan, a Pakistani human rights lawyer, was shot dead by unknown assailants in his office in Multan. Mr. Khan had lodged a complaint with the police about death threats he received after stepping forward to defend a university professor accused of blasphemy, but according to sources, police were unwilling to offer him any protection. UPDATE 3/08/2014: sources within the police department have revealed that the police have effectively "buried" the case by failing to investigate persons who publicly threatened him shortly before his death and whom Mr. Rehman explicitly named as a threat to his life, and instead assign blame to fugitive terrorists whose whereabouts are unknown.

On 13 August 2013, Ghulam Fatima, owner of a small grocery shop in Sahimal, Punjab, was severely beaten and almost killed by a group of men attempting to force her to sell her property. According to the allegations received, Ms. Fatima was previously allegedly threatened and harassed a number of times by this same group of persons. Human rights defenders and journalists, some of whom are members of the Press Club of Kamir - learned that the police refused to file a FIR because they claimed they needed to investigate the incident first. Soon after, what happened to Ms. Fatima was widely reported in the print and electronic media, including live broadcasting in local TV channels. According to reports, on 14 August 2013, journalists and human rights defenders visited the police station to inquire about the status of the FIR. A police officer allegedly threatened them indicating that a "fake encounter" could be conducted against them for interfering in the official work of police. A day later, a case was reportedly filed against persons to interfering with police business, although the identities of these persons are unknown. In this connection, Mr. Barkat Ali Gulzar, President of the Press Club, and Mr. Sabir Shehzad, Director of the International Human Rights Commission were reportedly informed that should they continue reporting the case, they would be "booked in the open FIR". On 4 September 2013, a Joint Urgent Appeal was issued by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.

On 13 August 2013, Ghulam Fatima, owner of a small grocery shop in Sahimal, Punjab, was severely beaten and almost killed by a group of men attempting to force her to sell her property. Ms. Fatima had previously been threatened and harassed a number of times by this same group of persons. Human rights defenders and journalists attempting to publicise the story and help the victim seek redress were intimidated by local police. On 4 September 2013, a Joint Urgent Appeal was issued by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. On 4 September 2013, Pakistan acknowledged receipt of the communication.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - In the latest blasphemy case to highlight growing intolerance in Pakistan, the police in Punjab Province said Tuesday that they had filed blasphemy charges against a group of 68 lawyers at the instigation of a Sunni extremist leader. The mass charging was an unusually wide application of Pakistan's colonial-era blasphemy law, which carries a potential death sentence. But it was consistent with what human rights groups call an increasingly frequent abuse of the law to settle scores, silence opponents or persecute minorities, and comes at a time when freedom of expression in Pakistan is under concerted assault from extremists. "Blasphemy has become a political battle," said I. A. Rehman, a veteran human rights activist. "It's no longer just a criminal or religious problem - it's become a political issue that is used to silence voices and create a climate of fear." Mr. Rehman's family suffered directly from the blasphemy laws last week. His nephew, a prominent defense lawyer and rights activist named Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in the southern city of Multan, weeks after he received death threats for defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy. The case against the 68 lawyers occurred in Jhang, a district in central Punjab that has a history of sectarian upheaval and is the birthplace of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, one of the country's most virulent Sunni extremist groups, which has since been renamed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and was banned in 2012. On May 7, dozens of lawyers, mostly from the country's Shiite minority, staged a street protest against a senior police official, Umar Daraz, according to the police and lawyers. The lawyers said Mr. Daraz had detained and beaten a lawyer after arguing with him. The police removed Mr. Daraz from his position in response to the complaints. But the lawyers continued their protest for several days, urging the police to arrest Mr. Daraz and several of his subordinates. The lawyers shouted insults at Mr. Daraz, sometimes calling him a dog, a frequent occurrence in Pakistani protests. They also referred to him by his first name - one that is common in Pakistan but is also shared by Umar Farooq, a revered historical figure in Islam who was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad in seventh-century Arabia. The leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, was at the police station during one of the protests. He claimed the lawyers were shouting and insulting the name of the religious figure, not the police officer, said the town police chief, Zeeshan Asghar, in a phone interview. Mr. Ludhianvi recently entered electoral politics, and though he has said he renounced violence, critics of his group say he has continued to whip up anti-Shiite sentiment. A few days later, one of his associates lodged a formal blasphemy complaint against the 68 lawyers. Eight of the lawyers were named in the police report, but the other 60 were unidentified, a common practice in Pakistan aimed at giving leverage to the complainants. "Call it our bad luck," said Mr. Asghar, referring to the presence of Mr. Ludhianvi during the protest. Muhammad Afzal Sial, president of the local bar association, insisted the lawyers had not intended any offense to Islam. "Our lawyers only named only the police officer, but certain elements tried to exploit the situation," he said in a phone interview. Blasphemy cases have become more frequent in Pakistan, often in absurd circumstances, underscoring how a law intended to protect against religious intolerance has become a tool of bigotry. That also makes it a minefield for judges, journalists, police officers and lawyers, for whom one wrong step can have life-threatening consequences. In 2011, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, and Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minorities, were shot dead in separate attacks after advocating changes to the law. Such killings have created a tinderbox atmosphere in parts of the country with a history of sectarian problems. The Jhang police chief, Mr. Asghar, said the lawyers' protests had stirred up wider tensions in the community and at one point led to an altercation between Sunni and Shiite lawyers. He had been forced to bring the blasphemy case, he said, to restore public order. "Armed clashes could have erupted in the city otherwise," he said. The police hope to end the standoff by persuading Mr. Ludhianvi to withdraw his complaint. In Multan, police officials reported no progress in the case of Mr. Rehman, who was shot several times by unidentified gunmen who broke into his office on May 7. At the time, Mr. Rehman was the lead defense lawyer in a blasphemy case that others had rejected, fearing for their lives. Weeks before his death, Mr. Rehman publicly complained of receiving a death threat in open court from lawyers for the prosecution, but the police and judiciary did not follow up. "He did not fail anyone, everybody who mattered failed him," his uncle, I. A. Rehman, wrote in the newspaper Dawn. "What matters more now is the sight of a society that seems to have lost all sense of shame or responsibility."

On 13 May 2014, Punjab police filed blasphemy charges against 68 lawyers on the request of a Sunni leader in connection with protests they held demanding the arrest of a senior police official. The lawyers had been protesting the beating and detention of a lawyer following an argument with the official. The lawyers have been charged because they allegedly called the official -whose name happens to be shared by a revered Islamic historical figure- a dog during the protest. The charges demonstrate the way in which blasphemy laws can be used by power holders as a tool to silence rights defenders (or anyone with whom they have a quarrel).

On 4 June 2013, at approximately 4 p.m., Ms. X was brutally attacked in her own residence in Hyderabad. It is reported that the alleged perpetrators cut off her hands, ears and fingers, gouged both of her eyes and robbed valuable jewelry. She was later found in her apartment by a family member, Mr. Z, who brought her to a civil hospital where she soon died as a result of her injuries. Ms. X was a human rights defender working for women's rights with a local non-governmental organization, named Social Welfare Organization, which provided social services in Tando Jam. It is reported that Ms. X recently conducted activities to raise awareness on the case of the murder of a Hindu man in the Gulashan Hali police station, who allegedly died as a result of severe injuries sustained while he was being tortured by the local police. According to reports, Ms. Y, the younger sister of Ms. X, and a family member, Mr. Z, held a protest in front of the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police of Hyderabad. They allegedly placed the body of Ms. X on the ground and urged authorities to identify and detain those responsible for her killing. It is reported that a Station House Officer threatened them with arrest should they continue with the protest and urged them to remove the body from the road. Ms. Y's intention was for the police to file a First Information Report (FIR). She carried evidence materials, including pictures and video clips that she recorded at the scene of the alleged murder of her sister. On 5 June 2013, it is reported that a police officer received 3,300 Rupees from Ms. Akhter's family to lodge a FIR against two accused men, including a police officer. The FIR, which received a code number 44/2013, was registered under sections 302, 380 and 34 of the Penal Code. It is alleged that an internal inquiry was launched which exonerated the accused based on fabricated grounds, as prosecution witnesses denied the murder. As a result, Hyderabad police refrained from launching an investigation into the killing of Ms. X. According to reports received, both Ms. Y and Mr. Z received death threats for pursuing the case of Ms. X. Mr. Z allegedly challenged the police inquiry denying the murder. His case is currently being considered by a civil judge and judicial Magistrate in Hyderabad (number 8). Moreover, on 29 June 2013, at around 11:30 a.m., Ms.Y was fatally killed by three armed men. She was shot as she and Mr. Z returned from a court hearing for the petition to demand an inquiry into the murder of Ms. X. Allegedly, Ms. Y was dragged out of her rickshaw as they approached the vegetable market at Sabzi Mandi, and was shot at close range. While the assailants left the area, Ms. Y managed to stand up despite her injuries. One of the men, who allegedly had been involved in the murder of her sister,reportedly went back to the scene and shot eight bullets into the body of Ms. Y. Ms. Y died immediately. Mr. Z reportedly managed to survive the attack despite being shot at by the assailants. It is also reported that another family member, Mr. Q, took the body of Ms. Y and placed it in front of the Office of the Senior Superintendent of Police in Hyderabad . He held a protest demanding justice and the arrest of those responsible for the murder of Ms.Y. Mr. R managed to make the police file a FIR and received a permission to carry out anautopsy. It is reported that Mr. R is also receiving death threats for pursuing the case of Ms. Y.

On 4 June 2013, Ms X was brutally attacked in her private residence in Hyderabad. She reportedly died shortly after the attack from her injuries. The killing is reportedly connected to her work as a woman human rights defender in Sindh province. On 29 June 2013, three armed men shot her sister, Ms Y, as she returned from a court hearing for a petition to demand an inquiry into the murder of her sister. Other family members have been attacked and received death threats in response to making similar demands. On 12 July 2013, a Joint Urgent Appeal was sent by the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. On 18 July 2013, Pakistan acknowledged the communication. .

On 25 February 2013, the Home Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan, upon reception of a letter from the Home Department of Gilgit-Baltistan, issued an order to deputy commissioners and police officers of various districts to put a halt to all activities of AGHE-Pakistan. In this letter, the Home Department informed that AGHE-Pakistan was no longer a registered NGO, and that a "No Objection Certificate' was required from both the economic division and the Government of Gilgit in order for the NGO to continue its activities. AGHE-Pakistan was reportedly never informed of this decision, which is believed to have been taken due to pressure from religious extremist groups, who previously made threats to members of the NGO to compel them to stop working on women's rights and girls' education. AGHE-Pakistan has reportedly been the target of a defamation campaign by sectarian and fundamentalist groups which publicly labeled the NGO as a foreign organization which "implements the agenda of Western countries". Furthermore, it is reported that a number of governmental agencies exerted pressure on the organization to stop its project called "Citizens' Voice for Effective Legislative Governance", funded by USAID, as well as some other activities partially funded by USAID and the Aurat Foundation's Gender Equity Program.

On 25 February 2013, the Home Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan (Pakistan) issued an order to halt the activities of AGHE-Pakistan, a women's rights NGO. It appears that the order was the result of pressure on the authorities from religious extremist groups. These groups had previously threatened AGHE-Pakistan members and mounted a defamation campaign against them. On 22 March 2013, a Joint Allegation Letter was sent to Pakistan by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice. On 25/03/2013, Pakistan responded with an acknowledgement of receipt.

Classified documents given to the Post by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden reveal that "US spy agencies for years reported that senior Pakistani military and intelligence leaders were orchestrating a wave of extrajudicial killings of terrorism suspects and other militants". Other US intelligence documents indicate that Pakistani officials weren't targeting just suspected insurgents, the daily said. "In May 2012, US intelligence agencies discovered evidence of Pakistani officers plotting to 'eliminate' a prominent human rights activist, Asma Jahangir," the Post said citing the summary of a top secret Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) report. The DIA report did not identify which officers were plotting to kill Jahangir, who had been a leading critic of the ISI for years, the Post said. But it said the plan "included either tasking militants to kill her in India or tasking militants or criminals to kill her in Pakistan". The US agency said it did not know whether the ISI had given approval for the plot to proceed. Although the report speculated that the ISI was motivated to kill Jahangir, "to quiet public criticism of the military", the DIA, according to the Post, noted that such a plot "would result in international and domestic backlash as ISI is already under significant criticism for intimidation and extra-judicial killings". "News of the alleged plot became public a few weeks later when Jahangir gave a round of interviews to journalists, revealing that she had learned that Pakistani intelligence officials had marked her for death. The plot was never carried out," the Post said.

In May 2012, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) discovered that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had plotted to murder Asma Jahangir, a prominent Pakistani lawyer and rights activist who was a vocal critic of the Pakistani intelligence and defence authorities. The plot was never carried out, but the leaked DIA report contains reference to numerous cases similar to this one.

The central character who exposed the 2012 Kohistan video scandal, first to the media and then the court, was killed in Abbottabad on Wednesday evening, police said. Afzal Kohistani, was shot dead in the densely populated area of Sarban Chowk at around 8:10pm by unidentified gunmen who managed to flee afterwards. According to witnesses, Afzal was shot multiple times and died on the spot. Three passers-by were also injured and were taken to the Ayub Medical Complex Hospital. They were identified as Kaleemullah, Said Karam, and Sabir. Afzal's body, meanwhile, was taken to DHQ Hospital where an autopsy was conducted. Abbottabad District Police Officer Abbas Majeed Marwat and Superintendent of Police Investigation Aziz Afridi reached the spot with a heavy contingent of police and started an investigation into the killing. According to Station House Officer Ghafoor, of the Cantt police station, Afzal was accompanied by his nephew at the time of the incident. The nephew shot back at the gunmen and remained unhurt. The scandal The Kohistan video scandal made headlines in 2012 when eight boys and girls were killed by members of their tribe after a mobile phone video of them at a wedding in a remote village in Kohistan emerged on social media. The video showed five females singing and clapping along as the male family members danced. The mixed gathering had taken place in a village located in an extremely conservative part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the eyes of the locals, the youngsters had violated tribal norms and brought dishonour upon them. After the video was leaked, a jirga was held by the girls' tribe which decreed the killing of the boys and girls under "riwaj' (a tribal custom). Afzal, the brother of one of the boys in the video, was the one who made the news public, alleging that the girls had been killed on May 30, 2012, on the orders of a cleric who led a 40-50 member tribal jirga. Officials in the area, however, had claimed that the murders did not take place and the girls were alive. Former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhary had taken a suo motu notice of the case on June 7, 2012, and constituted a fact-finding mission on July 17 the same year to investigate the case. The commission went to Kohistan and investigated the matter, producing a report on July 20, 2017, which stated that the girls were alive. Rights activist Farzana Bari, also part of the commission, had expressed doubts at the time that the girls produced before the commission were not the same and some other burqa-clad and veiled girls were, in fact, presented. Three of Afzal's brothers named Shah Faisal, Sher Wali, and Rafiuddin were also killed inside their home on January 3, 2013, by the girls' tribesmen and a year earlier, a child was also killed due to the burning of Afzal's home. On July 31, 2018, a new case was registered at Palas police station on the Supreme Court's orders. Four suspects namely Umar Khan, Saber, Mohammad Sarfraz and Saeed were arrested. Upon interrogation, the suspects confessed to killing three of the girls - Begum Jan, Sireen Jan and Bazgha - by firing, saying they had disposed of the bodies in Nala Chorh. Afzal had been of the firm view that the suspects were lying. "They killed all five girls by severe torture and are not identifying graves as it will reveal their brutality," he had said at the time. Constant threats Afzal had been receiving constant death threats, prompting the Supreme Court to direct the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to provide him security, but the orders were reportedly not followed. In January this year, while talking to media representatives in Bisham, Afzal had said that during the last court hearing he was scared as his rivals had informed their group about his arrival at the civil court in Kolai-Palas Kohistan. "After the court convicted the accused for killing the five women seen in the video on the order of a jirga, my life is under threat and I am seeking security," he had said. He had alleged that a jirga held in Palas had planned to kill him wherever he was spotted. "They think that I have defamed the honour of the people of Kohistan, and killing me is their target, but I will continue the fight against the so-called culture in which animals are more valuable than human beings," he had vowed. "I have submitted several applications to the Hazara division's regional police officer for my security, especially when I visit Kohistan and Bisham for court hearings because my family and I are receiving threats by those angered by the court decision." Afzal had warned that if anything were to happen to him, the onus would be on the Hazara police.

On 7 March 2019 Afzal Kohistani, HRD, who exposed 2012 Kohistan video scandal was shot dead in the densely populated area of Sarban Chowk at around 8:10pm by unidentified gunmen who managed to flee afterwards.

On March 8, International Women's Day, thousands of women in Pakistan came out and marched to show solidarity with their fellow women to push for accountability and restorative justice against violence, harassment, and injustice. The rally was called Aurat (Women) March. it was open to all and no organization or society tried to own it. The women gathered for the march under the banner of "hum Auratain" (we women), which is not an organization or group but a label which they have given to all women of Pakistan. Aurat March started last year in Karachi and spread to the whole country this year. It has emerged as a new wave of feminism in Pakistan - and with that, the march organizers have been receiving rape and death threats online. Nighat Dad, founder of the Digital Rights Foundation, is one of the organizers in Lahore. She received rape threats on Twitter in reply to one of her posts on the Aurat March. Five other women reached out to her nonprofit organization, which works for digital rights in Pakistan and runs a cyber-harassment helpline, to complain of receiving rape and death threats. Dad took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce that complaints had been filed against dozens of social media accounts that were inciting violence against women marchers and organizers of Aurat March. Complaint has been filed against more than dozens of fb, Twitter and YouTube accounts who incited violence against women marchers and organisers of @AuratMarch. DG FIA has ordered Inquiry immediately. We have already identified few people behind some accounts. U know who you are. - Nighat Dad (@nighatdad) March 18, 2019 A number of established politicians, religious scholars, and actors also attacked the Aurat March, calling it against Pakistani cultural values. Minister of the National Assembly Aamir Liaquat Hussain requested that Prime Minister Imran Khan run an inquiry to discover the actual actors behind the march and their agenda. Sindh Assembly lawmaker Abdul Rashid registered a complaint with the police against the organizers of the Aurat March for promoting vulgarity. He also protested in the assembly against placards displayed at the march, demanding that the provincial government take action. A video of a well-known Islamic cleric is making the rounds on social media, in which he is visibly furious over a placard at the Aurat March. The sign read, "Mera jism meri marzi" (my body, my choice). He threatened women with rape, saying that if they claim to right to their bodies, men can also claim that right to rape women. This video has more than 67,000 views on YouTube. What Is the Aurat March? Last year, more than eight NGOs working for the rights of women in Karachi came together with a plan to organize a march on International Women's Day open to all women and transgender and non-binary people. They decided to keep their role anonymous and to not take over the march's agenda. When contacted, they said simply that the women of Karachi arranged it. This year, similar marches were held in other cities too - mainly Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi. Thousands of young girls and women came out and marched with many others to smash the patriarchal norms and demand a balanced society for all. Lawyer and women's rights activist Shumaila Hussain Shahani is one of the brains behind the Aurat March. She said that last year, when they opened the call for the march, women who had not been out in politics were very skeptical about the idea. "Many of my friends who hadn't been to a march before were skeptical about the idea of a march. But after its success, we saw excitement and an acceptance towards the women. Many women who otherwise are not seen actively taking part in political activities also joined the march this year," she said. Aurat March released a manifesto a day before Women's Day, in which they demanded economic justice, implementation of labor rights and the Sexual Harassment Against Women in the Workplace Act 2010, recognition of women's unpaid labor, and the provision of maternity leave and daycare centers to ensure women's inclusion in the labor force. The World Economic Forum ranked Pakistan as second worst in its 2018 Global Gender Gap Report, which gauges economic opportunity, education, health, and political empowerment. The manifesto also focused on climate change and how it affects women. Gender rights activists demanded access to clean drinking water and air, protection of animals and wildlife. Other demands covered nearly every aspect of social justice: recognition of women's participation in the production of food and cash crops, access to a fair justice system, equal representation of women with disabilities and transgender people, reproductive justice, access to the public, the rights of religious minorities, promotion of an anti-war agenda, and an end to police brutality and enforced disappearances. The Controversy Though the manifesto addressed very important issues women face in Pakistan, anti-march critics slammed the organizers for not focusing on the "real issues" of women and using their platform to promote nudity, vulgarity, and anti-Islamic norms in the country. The Aurat March had been making more headlines in local media for the backlash and criticism it received than for its actual purpose. Last year, two placards from the Aurat March Karachi chapter particularly attracted the ire of people on the internet. One placard read "khud khana garam kar lo!" (Heat up your own food) and other "Mera Jism, Meri Marzi" (My body, my choice). Both placards were badly criticized on every forum - mainstream media, social media, and religious gatherings. Pictures of both women with their placards were widely shared on the internet. Some social media pages also made memes on them. One of the women contacted DRF after her picture went viral and someone tracked down her identity. She had not told her family that she was going to the march. DRF reached out to Facebook and requested that the social media giant remove some of the most liked pictures on their website. While struggling with the conservative structure of Pakistani society, women seemed more prepared for the Aurat March this year. Most of the criticisms were again leveled at the placards the women brought to the march, which some found provocative. Renowned feminist poetess Kishwar Naheed also criticized some of the slogans used at a Women's Day celebration event. Naheed had written a provocative poem "Hum Gunahgar Aurtein" (We Sinful Women) that earned her fame both as a feminist and poetess. Her comments on the Aurat March left the entire feminist circle in shock. Some doctored images of Aurat March placards also went viral on social media, which the organizers consider an attempt to harass women. Shahani counts the backlash as a dent in the patriarchal structure, indicating that it is resisting. "We have gained support from the ruling party of Sindh. I do not think such petty right-wing tactics will deter the marchers. Marches will continue, our struggle for a gender-just world will continue," she said. Aurat March organizers are asking lawmakers with a pro-women approach to come and support their cause. Chairman the Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Zardari Bhutto has assured his support to them. This March, the female humor depicted through the placards has exposed the fragility of the patriarchy and kicked off a new feminist movement in Pakistan. Farida Shaheed, executive director of the non-profit organization Shirkat Gah - Women's Resource Center, pointed out that the feminist movement had received the same sort of criticism in the past too. Even Begum Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, wife of Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, was not spared from a vilification campaign by the bigoted clerics. They called her a prostitute for supporting the women's movement. "It is just the start of a new era. We need to be proactive, not reactive," she said. Tehreem Azeem is a digital media journalist based in Lahore, Pakistan. She reports on women rights, minority issues, blasphemy, and media censorship. She tweets @tehreemazeem

On 18 March 2019, Nighat Dad, founder of the Digital Rights Foundation, announce that complaints had been filed against dozens of social media accounts that were inciting violence against women marchers and organizers of Aurat March.

Jan was protesting against the death of Arman Loni from the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan. An academician in Pakistan was arrested on Saturday after police raided his house for protesting against the death of ethnic Pashtun leader earlier this month, according to a media report. Ammar Ali Jan was arrested from his residence and taken to the Gulberg police station, the Dawn News reported. Mr. Jan was protesting against the death of Arman Loni from the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan. Loni died on February 2 after baton charge by the police to disperse protesters of PTM while holding a peaceful protest against the terrorist attacks on security forces in Loralai in country's Balochistan province. In the FIR, Mr. Jan has been accused of leading a group of 100-150 people which was blocking the roads. "The gathering was blocking roads and Jan along with some others were chanting slogans against state institutions and intelligence agencies," the paper reported, quoting the FIR. Mr. Jan said that his house was raided prior to the arrest. "There is an FIR against me for participating at the protest in Liberty against the killing of Professor Arman Loni. I was taken into custody at 4 am which is when "the police raided my house," he said in a Facebook post. In April 2018, Jan was removed from the visiting faculty post at the Punjab University, for what the administration says, "failing to meet contract requirements", according to the report. It was however alleged that Mr. Jan was sacked over his political views and activism.

On 9 February 2019, Ammar Ali Jan, academic and activist, was arrested and had his house raided for protesting against the death of ethnic Pashtun leader earlier this month

Loni died on February 2 after baton charge by the police to disperse protesters of PTM while holding a peaceful protest against the terrorist attacks on security forces in Loralai in country's Balochistan province. Eyewitnesses told RFE/RL that a police officer struck the college teacher on the neck with a gun after stopping him as he returned from a sit-in protest in the Loralai district of Balochistan on February 2. Yet the police claim that a postmortem revealed no signs of injury. Balochistan's interior minister told RFE/RL that an "initial investigation suggests Arman Luni died of a cardiac arrest." Loni was a leader in the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), which has been holding rallies across Pakistan since the beginning of 2018 to protest against what it says are human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings by security forces in the tribal regions. Mohsin Dawar, a lawmaker and a PTM founding member, said that the police singled Loni out and deliberately beat him to death because of his "association with PTM." "It was a targeted attack on him by police," he told the Reuters news agency. Context is key. Against a backdrop in which several high-profile extrajudicial killings have cast a sustained spotlight on excessive force by state authorities, the risk of tensions spiralling out of control is high. Monday's strike in several areas across Balochistan - with its widespread support from political parties across ethnic lines and sections of society including traders and lawyers - is indicative of Loni's popular standing in civil society as well as how widespread the public disaffection is. The provincial chief minister took notice of Loni's death the very next day, perhaps in recognition of these delicate sociopolitical implications. Concurrently, in the wake of a brutal attack on the DIG police complex in Loralai last week, vigilance on the part of law enforcement and the provincial government is understandably necessary. However, in question here is not only the issue of whether or not Arman Loni was indeed a victim of police brutality, but the very nature of "vigilance' being distorted by public servants to evade accountability and justify curtailing people's rights. Paranoid, overreaching measures taken in the interest of "maintaining public order' are counterproductive. Thus, statements by the provincial home minister seeking to blame those who contest the official version of events (as it currently stands) while in the same breath promising a fair investigation will hardly serve to dispel such perceptions. Loni's death demands an unbiased and transparent probe. But it also requires that the provincial and federal governments be responsive to the public's mood and work to de-escalate a potentially volatile situation.

On 2 February 2019, Arman Loni, progressor and activist leader, was killed

Rights activist Gulalai Ismail was released by Islamabad police late Wednesday, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat told DawnNewsTV. However, according to the senior official, 17 of the 25 Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) workers arrested a day earlier along with Gulalai for holding a protest demonstration outside the National Press Club were sent to Adiala jail after the completion of a verification process by police. The official said that the workers were sent to jail under Section 3 (1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) of 1960. Under the order, the 17 will remain jailed for a period of 15 days. Gulalai, meanwhile, was released by Islamabad police, DC Shafqaat confirmed. Earlier in the day, Gulalai's father, Professor Muhammad Ismail, told Dawn.com that his daughter had been arrested on Tuesday. According to Professor Ismail, the activist was picked up from outside the National Press Club in Islamabad while she took part in a protest against the controversial death of PTM leader Arman Loni in Balochistan on Saturday. Police had initially shifted Gulalai to the G9 Women's Police Station, Ismail told Dawn.com. According to Gulalai's father, she was shifted to an unknown location a few hours after the arrest. "We are trying to trace her whereabouts but the police is not ready to share Gulalai's location," he had said, adding that so far no First Information Report (FIR) of the arrest had been registered at the time. In October last year, Gulalai had been detained by airport officials in Islamabad following her return from London. She was later released on bail but her passport was withheld by airport officials. The detention had been in connection with an FIR that Swabi police had registered on Aug 13, 2018 against 19 PTM leaders, including Gulalai, for their involvement in a public gathering in Swabi where PTM's Manzoor Pashteen and Gulalai both addressed the crowd. 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. Gulalai, a Pashtun and women's rights activist, was in 2017 awarded the 'Reach all Women in War' Anna Politovskaya Award. She co-founded a non-governmental organisation, Aware Girls, with sister Saba Ismail in 2002. The organisation aims to strengthen the leadership skills of young people, especially women and girls, enabling them to act as agents of change for women empowerment and peace building. 'Immediate and unconditional' release In a statement shared on Twitter, Amnesty International South Asia called on Pakistani authorities to "immediately and unconditionally" release PTM protesters. The rights group called on Pakistani authorities to "disclose the whereabouts" of Ismail who they said, "may have been subjected to an enforced disappearance". They also called on the authorities to investigate the "killing" of Loni.

On 5 February 2019, 17 of the 25 Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) workers were arrested with Gulalai, WHRD, for holding a protest demonstration outside the National Press Club and sent to Adiala jail.

A prominent Pashtun rights activist has been presented in a Pakistani court after being arrested on charges of rioting and inciting hatred at a protest demonstration, rights activists say. Alamzeb Mehsud, 26, was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, on Monday evening, video footage taken by activists from the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) showed. Mehsud's vehicle was intercepted by police on a busy thoroughfare, with armed police officers forcing him to disembark and be taken into custody, the footage showed. An unidentified man, wearing plain clothes, was seen waving a pistol at Mehsud in the footage. "He was presented in court today[Tuesday] and the court has ordered he be kept in police custody for four days," said Mohsin Dawar, a PTM leader and member of parliament. Since early 2018, the PTM has organised dozens of mass protests against rights abuses allegedly committed by the Pakistani military in its war against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its allies. READ MORE Pakistan's Pashtuns get rights, will it lead to peace? The country has been battling the Pakistan Taliban, an umbrella organisation of armed groups targeting the state and aiming to enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law, since 2007. A series of military operations since 2014 has seen the group displaced from its erstwhile headquarters in the country's northwest and pushed into neighbouring Afghanistan. Violence has dropped drastically, although sporadic large casualty attacks targeting civilians and security forces still occur. The PTM and other rights groups allege the military has carried out a campaign of thousands of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings as part of its war against the TTP. Mehsud, a founding member of the group, has been instrumental in gathering data on missing persons and victims of landmines in the northwest tribal districts, where the military's fight was focussed. On Tuesday, images from his court appearance showed Mehsud in handcuffs, his face hooded. He has been charged under anti-terrorism laws with inciting a riot, defamation and "promoting enmity between different groups", according to the police report filed on his arrest. On the weekend, Mehsud had addressed a PTM-organised rally of hundreds of protesters in Karachi, repeating the group's calls for justice to be done for victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. The police report named him and 15 others, including Ali Wazir, a PTM leader who is also a member of parliament, in the case. Amnesty International, a UK-based rights organisation, said it was "concerned" after news of the arrest broke. We are concerned about reports of the disappearance of PTM activist Alamzeb Mehsud. His whereabouts must be disclosed immediately. Either produce him in court or release him without delay. - Amnesty International South Asia (@amnestysasia) January 21, 2019 "Freedom of peaceful assembly must be protected. Activists must never be attacked," the group said in a tweet. The PTM has been subject to widespread repression since it launched its movement last year, with leaders regularly named in treason and rioting cases, and coverage of its rallies all but blacked out on local news media. Dawar, the member of parliament, said the group was undeterred by the government's actions against them. "If they think that[police cases] and arrests will stop the PTM, they are mistaken," he told Al Jazeera. "They can put as much pressure as they want, we will stick to our demands."

On 21 January 2018, Alamzeb Mehsud, a prominent Pashtun rights activist was presented in a Pakistani court after being arrested on charges of rioting and inciting hatred at a protest demonstration.

Younis Iqbal is the founder and chairman of Anjuman Muzareen Punjab (AMP), a long-standing movement that seeks to protect the land rights and welfare of landless peasants and small farmers in Pakistan's Punjab province. Such disadvantaged communities have been tilling the land for centuries, but recent decades have seen the land being transferred to the military. AMP, which started out in 2000 by lobbying against unfair sharecropping arrangements, has been engaging with the provincial government over land ownership rights. On 16 April 2018, Pakistani land rights defender Younis Iqbal was officially arrested after being in illegal detention for four days.\tOn 12 April 2018, Younis Iqbal was taken away by six plainclothes policemen as he tried to enter the Anti-Terrorism Court for his trial in the city of Sahiwal in Okara. He had been charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 in April 2016 for having protested the illegal detention of farmers in Okara district. The human rights defender was taken to an unknown location where he was kept in illegal detention for four days before officially being arrested on 16 April. On the same day, Younis Iqbal's father was threatened when he went to the police station to inquire about his son's whereabouts. The following day, the family filed a petition in the Sessions Court of Okara district against the short-term enforced disappearance of the human rights defender. On 16 April, Younis Iqbal was officially arrested and has been remanded in custody for fifteen days. He was arrested under multiple sections of Pakistan Penal Code, Maintenance of Public Order Punjab (MPO Act, 1960), and Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, which include the trumped-up charges of "attempted murder, obstructing a public servant in carrying out their duties, rioting while in possession of a deadly weapon".

On 12 April 2018, Younis Iqbal, land rights defender, was taken away by six plainclothes policemen as he tried to enter the Anti-Terrorism Court for his trial in the city of Sahiwal in Okara. He was formally arrested days after