Uwazi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No one immediately claimed responsibility.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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�.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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."

Two journalists in Pakistan, Shaikh Rizwan and Bashir Malik, were physically attacked in two separate incidents. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joined its affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in condemning the assault and calls on authorities to prosecute those responsible for the crimes against journalists. Shaikh Rizwan is a local journalist working for Sargodha Khabrain in Sargodha city, 185 km from Islamabad, in Punjab province. He was beaten up by the local land grabbing mafia in Sargodha. In a different incident, Bashir Malik, a local journalist with 24 News in Khushab, also in Punjab, 218 km from Islamabad was beaten and received death threats from local miscreants. PFUJ demanded strict action and the prompt arrest of those involved in incidents it described as "blatant terrorism and brutality". PFUJ has also requested journalists be given protection in performing their duty. PFUJ said: "It is the responsibility of the authorities to take strict legal action against the criminals in society. We demand the authorities to give justice to the journalists and if this is not done we will have protests across the country. The IFJ said: "Safety in Pakistan remains a serious concern as journalists and media workers continue to face deliberate attacks. We urge Pakistan's authorities to ensure that all those crimes against journalists do not go unpunished."

Gulalai Ismail is an award-winning woman human rights defender and co-founder of Aware Girls who has been forced into hiding following at least two First Information Reports (FIRs) being filed against her on 22 May and 23 May by police in Islamabad. On 4 July, the family home was raided three times, by a large number of armed men in both plainclothes and police uniform. On the first two occasions, only Gulalai's parents were at home. However, at around 4 pm, the police raided the house for the third time and questioned Gulalai's brother and family driver who had arrived home a few minutes earlier. Gulalai's brother, a US citizen, had returned to Pakistan a few days prior to the raid in order to support his parents and family, who have been under tremendous pressure and fear for their safety. The police and intelligence officers questioned Gulalai's brother and arbitrarily detained the family driver who was held at an unknown location for around 8 hours before being released. The family believes that the driver was targeted and tortured due to his association with Gualali.

The suspect used a dagger to kill him, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar Malik Naeem said, adding that some people heard gunshot firing as well. A 22-year-old Pakistani blogger and journalist known for criticising the country's military and the spy agency ISI was killed by a man in Islamabad, the police said today. Muhammad Bilal Khan, having over 16,000 followers on Twitter, 48,000 on his YouTube channel and 22,000 on Facebook, was with a friend on Sunday night when he received a phone called to go from the Bara Kahu area in Islamabad to G-9, where a man took him into the forest, Dawn news quoted the police as saying. The suspect used a dagger to kill him, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saddar Malik Naeem said, adding that some people heard gunshot firing as well. Mr Khan's friend was also injured in the incident. Apart from being a social media activist, Mr Khan was also a freelance journalist. Soon after his killing, #Justice4MuhammadBilalKhan started trending on social media websites. Several Twitter users said that his criticism of the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) led to his killing. "Pakistani activist and journalist Mohammad Bilal Khan was shot dead last night in Islamabad. Khan was known for his criticism of the all-powerful military and its notorious spy agency," a man said in a tweet. The man's father Abdullah said his body had marks of a sharp tool. "My son's only fault was that he spoke about the Prophet," he said. "The incident has created fear among people," he added. A case was registered under various sections including the Anti Terrorism Act.

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Gulalai Ismail was arrested from Peshawar on Monday on the charges of delivering anti-state speeches. Two cases were registered against Gulalai under terrorism provisions. The cases against the PTM activist were registered in Shehzad Town and Koral Police Stations. Gulalai was arrested during a raid under the supervision of the Koral station house officer (SHO) in Peshawar. A case was registered against Gulalai for making anti-state speech and inciting Pashuns against the government and the armed forces. The case also included Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1999. It was stated in the First Information Report that Gulalai delivered an anti-state and hate speech during a protest rally organised in Islamabad against the murder and alleged rape of 10-year-old girl Farishta.

Reports from northwestern Pakistan indicate that the authorities have arrested a journalist and 22 activists of a civil movement campaigning for rights and security for Pakistan's Pashtun minority. The arrests took place amid calls by domestic and international human rights watchdogs for probes into the recent violence involving the group. On May 28, Pakistan's Independent Urdu news website reported that journalist Gohar Wazir had been arrested along with 22 activists from the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in the northwestern city of Bannu. The city is the administrative hub of a district by the same name that borders the North Waziristan tribal district, where the PTM says the Pakistani military killed 13 of its supporters on May 26. The Pakistani military, however, blames two PTM lawmakers for leading an attack on their checkpoint in Khar Qamar. The military said at least three people were killed when soldiers opened fire on attackers in the remote region near the border with Afghanistan. Requesting anonymity because of a possible clampdown, several PTM activists confirmed to Radio Mashaal that 20 of their comrades, including several leaders, were arrested in Bannu. A police official also confirmed the arrests. Another PTM leader told the BBC that the movement's supporters are facing a wider government crackdown across Pakistan. Roofan Khan, a local journalist, told Independent Urdu that Wazir and the PTM activists were moved to a prison in Haripur, a town nearly 400 kilometers north of Bannu in the same province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "I don't know why my brother was arrested, but I feel it was connected to the PTM" Wazir's brother Anwar Kamal told Independent Urdu. On May 27, Wazir had interviewed PTM lawmaker Mohsin Dawar. In YouTube videos posted by Wazir, Dawar offered his account of the May 26 incident. Dawar claimed the military had fired on the group soon after it reached the protest site after crossing two military checkpoints in Khar Qamar. He said 13 PTM protesters were killed while scores more were injured in the shooting. But in a press statement on May 26 the military said troops had responded to "direct firing" at the post, killing three attackers and wounding 10 others after a group led by lawmakers Dawar and Ali Wazir attacked the Khar Qamar checkpoint. The military acknowledged arresting Ali and said Dawar was at large. In another statement on May 27, the military said it was trying to identify five more bodies found with gunshot wounds near the site. But the PTM's supporters rejected the military's version of events. Activists staged protests in several towns and cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the neighboring southwestern province of Balochistan to demand an independent probe into the killings. In Peshawar, senior PTM leader Rahim Shah told the BBC that since May 26 many PTM activists have been arrested across Pakistan. The authorities, however, have said nothing about the arrests or a current crackdown against the movement. Speaking to the BBC from Miran Shah, the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan, Dawar said they have already launched a sit-in protest. "We will decide on our demands after our comrades reach here, but we will definitely demand that the Pakistani Army must leave Waziristan" he said. But Pakistani and international media reports suggest the authorities are not allowing PTM supporters to join the protest in Miran Shah by blocking access to the region through the only road connecting it to Bannu. The region is also under a curfew that prohibits any movement. According to VOA's Deewa Radio, the authorities also imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in neighboring South Waziristan tribal district. This law is often invoked in Pakistan to prevent protests and political gatherings. Global rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a domestic nongovernmental rights group, have called for an independent probe. "HRCP demands the release of MNA Ali Wazir and any other activists taken into custody" the HRCP said on May 27. "It also calls for a parliamentary commission to be set up immediately to inquire into the matter and establish the truth." AI backed the call. "The Pakistan government must immediately order an independent and effective investigation into the killing of activists on Sunday in North Waziristan" said Rabia Mehmood, an AI South Asia researcher. "If the reports are correct that the army killed protesters by unlawfully using live ammunition, this would be a very serious violation of international law." The violence is one of the most serious incidents in a long-running confrontation between Pakistan's powerful military and the PTM. The movement emerged last year to demand Islamabad probe illegal killings, enforced disappearances, and other excesses while taking steps to clear landmines from the country's western Pashtun regions along the border with Afghanistan. With some 35 million people, Pashtuns are the largest minority among Pakistan's 207 million population. PTM leaders maintain that Pashtuns, particularly those living in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), paid a heavy price for Islamabad's domestic war on terrorism after 9/11. Officials and independent observers agree that Pashtuns were a majority of the more than 70,000 civilians killed in militant attacks and military counterinsurgency campaigns since 2003. The conflict has also displaced more than 6 million Pashtuns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. The PTM maintains that it is speaking out on behalf of such victims. But in a veiled reference to neighboring India and Afghanistan, the military accuses the PTM of being funded by foreign spy services. Military leaders have accused the movement of stroking unrest in the Pashtun homeland after the security forces defeated the Pakistani Taliban. The PTM rejects the military's accusations and says it is struggling to gain basic human rights for the Pashtun people after they have suffered years of conflict between the security forces and Islamist militants.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Human rights groups have called on Pakistan to investigate the killing of three people by the military during a protest by ethnic minority Pashtun people against heavy-handed treatment by the security forces. The army said its troops exchanged fire with protesters on Sunday when they assaulted a security post in the northwest, near the Afghan border. The protesters were complaining about the mistreatment of a woman by soldiers. The violence is the most serious incident in a long-running confrontation between the authorities and the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which campaigns for civil rights for the Pashtun people. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was alarmed by the use of military force and called for a parliamentary commission to investigate. "The Pakistani government should immediately order an independent and effective investigation into the reported killing of at least three activists" the rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. The army said 10 protesters and five soldiers were wounded. The PTM said 30 people were wounded. Pashtuns live in northwest Pakistan and southeast Afghanistan, divided by a colonial-era border that Afghanistan has never recognized. The military has accused the PTM of being funded by foreign intelligence agencies - a veiled reference to old rival India and its Afghan allies - to stoke unrest in Pakistan's Pashtun lands after the Pakistani army defeated Islamist militants there. The PTM rejects the accusation, saying it is a grassroots movement working for the rights of Pashtun people, who it says suffered through years of conflict between the security forces and Islamists. Two Pashtun members of parliament were at the protests and one was arrested and the other wounded. "They were shooting at everyone" the wounded politician, Mohsin Dawar, said in a video posted on social media. "They opened fire on us from behind. We saw that people were collapsing around us."

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an impartial investigation into the past weekend's murder of Ali Sher Rajpar, a journalist in Pakistan's southeastern Sindh province, who was well known for his investigative coverage of local municipal corruption and had just requested police protection. A reporter for the Awami Awaz press group (which publishes the leading regional Sindhi-language daily) and president of the local press club in Padidan, in Naushahro Feroze district, Ali Sher Rajpar was slain in a chilling fashion on the evening of 4 May, when he was shot five times at close range just after locking the press club gate. The complaint (known as a First Information Report) that his brother filed with the local police the next day names Padidan town committee chairperson Shakeel Ahmed Rajpar as the leading suspect. In several of his recent stories, Ali Sher Rajpar had linked this official to local corruption and had repeatedly been threatened by him. Padidan press club members confirmed to RSF that Ali Sher Rajpar felt threatened in connection with his work and had unsuccessfully requested protection from the Naushahro Feroze district police just three days before being murdered. "It is unacceptable that a journalist has been murdered after clearly informing the authorities of the threats being made against him" said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "There are many suspicions surrounding this shocking murder and the possibility of complicity in more than one quarter cannot be ruled out. We therefore urge the highest Sindh province authorities to order a completely independent investigation so that nothing is left unclarified." Two journalists killed in space of four days The newspaper Dawn has quoted unidentified local police sources as saying that the police arrested the reporter's cousin, Habeeb Rajpar, the next day and were blaming the murder on a family quarrel. Ali Sher Rajpar was murdered just four days after another journalist, Malik Amanullah Khan, the president of the local press club in the Parowa area of Dera Ismail Khan district, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, was fatally shot four times in Parowa on 30 April. The police have not yet made any arrest. After falling three places, Pakistan is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index that RSF published last month, voicing concern about the "cycle of fear" that has taken hold in many countries.

The police investigation has made absolutely no progress and no suspect had been identified in the week since Malik Amanullah Khan, a reporter for the online daily Meezan-e-Adl and president of the press club in the town of Parowa, in Dera Ismail Khan district, was shot four times on 30 April by two gunmen on a motorcycle. In the initial police report, of which RSF has obtained a copy, the journalist's family said they were not aware of any personal hostilities or conflict that could account for Khan's execution-style murder. When reached by RSF, Meezan-e-Adl editor Muhammad Sohail Gangohi described Khan as an "extremely brave" reporter who was never afraid to expose social or political problems in the region he covered. "His last report [on 20 April] was about the law and order situation in Parowa, where political leaders have allegedly been influencing police investigations into criminal gangs" Gangohi said. A fellow Parowa-based journalist confirmed that Khan was a "pugnacious reporter." Protecting journalists "Malik Khan's profile and the nature of his published stories constitute clear grounds for thinking that he was targeted because of his investigative reporting" said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "Impunity for crimes of violence against journalists is an alarmingly persistent problem in Pakistan. We call on the government in Islamabad to order an independent investigation. Above all, it is time that Pakistan's legislators finalized a law guaranteeing the protection of journalists, for whom working in the field is especially dangerous." Located between the border with Punjab province to the east, the former "Tribal Areas" where the Taliban operate to the northwest, and the unstable province of Balochistan to the south, the district of Dera Ismail Khan where Khan worked embodies the many dangers to which Pakistani journalists are exposed. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a journalist who recently fled Parowa told RSF: "I moved out of the area because I didn't feel safe. It is backward, there is little respect for press freedom and you can easily be targeted and killed." Four days after Khan's murder, another journalist, Ali Sher Rajpar, was fatally shot five times at close range outside the gate of the press club he presided in the town of Padidan, in the southeastern province of Punjab. After falling three places, Pakistan is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index that RSF published last month, voicing concern about the "cycle of fear" that has taken hold in many countries.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the trumped-up charges of online terrorism and defaming "respected institutions" on which a Pakistani reporter is due to appear in court in the southern city of Karachi tomorrow. The case has been designed to intimidate and silence Pakistan's journalists, RSF said. Shahzeb Jillani, an investigative reporter who has worked for the BBC and Deutsche Welle, and works regularly for the Urdu-language TV channel Dunya News, is accused of violating four articles in the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and two criminal code provisions. The charges include "defamatory remarks against the respected institutions of Pakistan" and "cyber-terrorism." The case is based on the complaint filed on 6 April by a self-described "loyal citizen" " who turns out to be a lawyer attached to the supreme court " who said he was offended by the "audacious remarks" that Jillani made during a TV broadcast on 8 December 2017, almost a year and a half ago. "We urge the court to dismiss these charges against Shahzeb Jillani because, from the legal viewpoint, the case is completely inadmissible" said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "Via the all-powerful Federal Investigation Agency, Pakistan's authorities are yet again manipulating the laws in order to silence a journalist who dared to cross a red line by criticizing certain institutions. It is shocking to see how, little by little, case by case, the Pakistani security agencies are tightening their vice in order to intimidate the entire media profession into censoring themselves." Constant harassment Jillani, who was freed on bail after being charged, told RSF that he had been surprised by the case and believed that the real reason for the charges was his recent story on missing persons, and his 24 March tweet criticizing the decision to decorate a senior military intelligence officer "widely accused of political engineering" during the July 2018 election. In the run-up to those elections, RSF gave a detailed account of the various methods that the military establishment was using to put pressure on Pakistani media executives in order to impose its viewpoint and to silence reporters. Jillani told RSF that he has so far received little support from his own bosses at Dunya News. "The senior management has been told of the case but their response is very cold" he said. Pakistan is ranked 139th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2018 World Press Freedom Index.