Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan
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Pakistan “We Can Torture, Kill, HUMAN RIGHTS or Keep You for Years” WATCH Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan “We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years” Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan Copyright © 2011 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 156432-786-8 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 51, Avenue Blanc 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org JULY 2011 1-56432-786-8 “We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years” Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan Map of Balochistan .......................................................................................................................... i Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Key Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 6 Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 9 I. Background: Conflict and Abuses in Balochistan ...................................................................... 10 Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan ................................................................................................. 15 II. Enforced Disappearances under International and Domestic Law .............................................. 19 International Law ............................................................................................................................... 19 Pakistani Law ..................................................................................................................................... 21 III. Enforced Disappearances and Related Abuses ......................................................................... 24 Perpetrators ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Victims .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Modus Operandi ................................................................................................................................ 32 Secret Detention Facilities .................................................................................................................. 39 Fate of the “Disappeared” .................................................................................................................. 42 Torture and Ill-Treatment .............................................................................................................. 43 Extrajudicial Executions ............................................................................................................... 45 Prosecutions of the “Disappeared” .............................................................................................. 50 Abuses against Relatives, Witnesses, and Released Detainees ............................................................ 52 V. Pakistan’s Response to Enforced Disappearances in Balochistan ............................................. 55 Duty to Investigate and the Right to Redress ....................................................................................... 55 Duty to Investigate Enforced Disappearances ............................................................................... 55 Redress for Victims ...................................................................................................................... 56 Response of National Authorities ........................................................................................................ 58 Failure of Police to Investigate “Disappearances” ............................................................................... 60 Weak Judicial Response to “Disappearances” ..................................................................................... 64 Supreme Court of Pakistan ................................................................................................................. 67 Commission of Inquiry for Missing Persons ......................................................................................... 68 VI. Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 72 To the Government of Pakistan and the Provincial Government of Balochistan ......................................... 72 Regarding Accountability for Enforced Disappearances ................................................................. 72 Regarding Steps to Prevent Enforced Disappearances ................................................................... 73 Regarding Legal Reform ................................................................................................................ 73 Regarding Working with the United Nations to Address Disappearances ........................................ 74 To the Commission of Inquiry for Missing Persons (CIMP) .................................................................... 74 To Pakistan’s International Partners, in Particular the United States, United Kingdom, and Other Countries Working with Pakistan’s Security and Intelligence Agencies ....................................... 74 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... 76 Appendix I: Cases of Alleged Enforced Disappearances from Balochistan Documented by Human Rights Watch ............................................................................................ 77 Appendix II: ................................................................................................................................. 113 Appendix III: ................................................................................................................................ 115 Map of Balochistan i HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2011 Summary “Even if the president or chief justice tells us to release you, we won’t. We can torture you, or kill you, or keep you for years at our will. It is only the Army chief and the [intelligence] chief that we obey.” – Pakistani official to Bashir Azeem, the 76-year-old secretary-general of the Baloch Republican Party, during his unacknowledged detention, April 2010 “Disappearances of people of Balochistan are the most burning issue in the country. Due to this issue, the situation in Balochistan is at its worst.” – Supreme Court Justice Javed Iqbal, commenting on the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry for Missing Persons on May 4, 2010. “One of them pointed his gun at Abdul Nasir and shouted, ‘Get up!’ As soon as Abdul Nasir got off the ground the man walked him to their car. Since that time I have not seen Abdul.” – Witness to enforced disappearance of Abdul Nasir, June 2010 On December 11, 2009, a 39-year-old Baloch nationalist activist, Abdul Ghaffar Lango, and his wife were leaving a hospital in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi after her discharge from surgery when two white Toyota pickup trucks suddenly stopped at the main gate. Lango’s wife said that about 10 men in plain clothes approached the couple and one started beating Lango with the butt of an AK-47 assault rifle until he lost consciousness. The men then dragged him into one of the pickups and drove away. When the family went to register the abduction with the police, the police informed them that Lango had been detained because of his political activities, yet refused to provide further information on his whereabouts or specific charges against him. On July 1, 2011, Lango’s corpse was found in an abandoned hotel near Lakbado area of Gadani town in the Lasbela district of Balochistan. The local police represented by the Station House Officer (SHO) of Gadani Police Station told the local media that “the body bore multiple marks of brutal torture.” Lango’s case illustrates a disturbingly regular feature of the ongoing conflict in Pakistan’s western province of Balochistan: the practice of enforced disappearances, in which the authorities or their agents take people into custody and then deny all responsibility or HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JULY 2011 1 knowledge of their fate or whereabouts. Enforced disappearances inflict unbearable cruelty not just on the victims, but on family members, who often wait years or decades to learn of their fate. Many cases result in the extrajudicial killing of the victims. Under international law, “disappearances” are considered a continuing offense, one that is ongoing