seCUriTY WiTh hUMan righTs ‘The biTTeresT of agonies’ End enforced disappearances in Pakistan We insist that states respect human rights in any actions they take in the name of national security or countering terrorism. Where states fail to respect human rights, governments and individuals responsible must be held to account. Amnesty International will work for the rights of victims of terrorism and armed groups, supporting them in their struggle for truth, justice and reparation. 2 ‘The biTTeresT of agonies’ enD enFoRceD DisAPPeARAnces in PAkistAn “This is the worst thing to happen to anyone. If someone dies you cry and people console you and after some time you come to terms with it but if someone disappears, you cannot breathe, it is the bitterest of agonies. ” Amina Masood Janjua, wife of Masood Ahmed Janjua, who has not been seen since he was apprehended along with Faisal Faraz during a bus journey to Peshawar in July 2005. Amina has been campaigning tirelessly for his release and is the founder and spokesperson for Defence of Human Rights, a Pakistani organization that provides support and advice to relatives of disappeared people in Pakistan. l a n o i t a n r e t n I y t s e n m A © Since Pakistan became a key ally in the In a welcome move in March 2009, the Abov e: Artwork by Humza, aged 16, son of US-led “war on terror” in late 2001, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was Dr Abid Shareef, who disappeared with a friend hundreds of people accused of links to reinstated, along with other judges deposed while waiting at a bus stop in Rawalpindi in terrorist activity have been arbitrarily during the 2007 state of emergency, many September 2005. detained and held in secret facilities. of whom were committed to tracing the Cove r: Artwork by Shirmeen, aged 16, niece They are victims of enforced disappeared. Despite the resumption of of Faisal Faraz, who has not been seen since disappearance: denied all access to the hearings in November 2009, neither the he was taken during a bus journey to Peshawar outside world, including lawyers, families government nor the courts have been able on 30 July 2005. © Amnesty International and courts, and held outside the to resolve the disappearance crisis or to protection of the law. Since last year, provide redress in all the cases presented the government has convened two before it. (This campaign digest updates commissions to investigate cases of Enforced disappearances: Disappeared alleged disappearances, but there has justice in Pakistan , Index: ASA been little progress in resolving the 33/022/2008, August 2008.) hundreds of outstanding cases, even as new incidents of enforced disappearance The clandestine nature of the arrests and are reported around the country. detentions makes it impossible to know exactly how many have been subjected to Dozens of missing individuals have been enforced disappearance. Many relatives transferred from US detention or have remain silent for fear of repercussions to 965 disappearance cases for which there reappeared in Pakistan during the past 10 against their loved ones or themselves. was some record, although there are years, but the whereabouts of hundreds of Many cases never reach the courts or differing claims on figures made by families, others, possibly held in secret detention in attract media attention. Inaccuracies and human rights groups and the state, ranging Pakistan or other countries, remain confusion on the part of the authorities from 200 to 7,000. Failure by the unknown. Their families continue to fear for regarding the names of released detainees government to resolve disappearance cases the lives of their loved ones, aware that further hamper the task of compiling has continued from its election in 2008 until torture and other ill-treatment is routine in accurate statistics of those still missing. In the present, with new incidents being Pakistani prisons and jails. 2010, the Ministry for the Interior admitted reported throughout Pakistan. amnesty international september 2011 index: AsA 33/010/2011 3 e t a v i r P © sHAMs bAlocH shams baloch ( above ), balochistan national Front member and a former tehsil nazim (Head of District Municipal Administration) of balochistan’s khuzdar district, was abducted on 1 July 2010 while travelling in an ambulance with his 80-year-old mother to a hospital in balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta, according to members of his family who were travelling with him. An investigation team comprising police and intelligence agency Widespread praCTiCe province’s natural resources, principally officials was set up, and confirmed that shams As well as those accused of involvement in natural gas. Despite promises by federal and baloch had been stopped at a checkpost terrorism after September 2001, domestic provincial governments to offer a greater share operated by the Frontier corps, a federal political opponents of the Pakistani of these resources to the Baloch community, paramilitary force, who did not intervene as government were also increasingly subject these groups claim these resources he was beaten up and abducted by unidentified to enforced disappearance, in particular disproportionately benefit other provinces. men in front of his family. the commission of members of Pakistan’s Sindhi and Baloch The confrontation between Baloch nationalists inquiry on enforced Disappearances is nationalist groups advocating greater and the state is characterized by human investigating his case but to date has failed autonomy in Balochistan, in the south-west rights abuses committed by both sides. to trace him. of the country. The Baloch community has been especially targeted for abductions, Previously, the bodies of missing people enforced disappearances and extrajudicial were rarely recovered. But the bullet-riddled executions. Non-Baloch communities in bodies of people who have been abducted, Balochistan have also faced the same many showing signs of torture, are being human rights violations, although in smaller found in increasing numbers across Relatives of individuals subjected to enforced numbers. Balochistan. During the period from 24 disappearance have suffered hardship, October 2010 to 31 May 2011, Amnesty isolation and despair, in some cases made Baloch political and human rights activists, International recorded 73 cases of alleged worse by threats and false promises from lawyers, journalists and student leaders are enforced disappearances and 108 cases of government officials. their anguish is among those who have been targeted for possible extrajudicial executions of Baloch exacerbated by the knowledge that torture enforced disappearance, abduction, arbitrary activists, teachers, journalists and lawyers. and other ill-treatment of suspects are arrest, and torture and other ill-treatment. The At least 93 people out of the total 108 routine in Pakistan. inflicting such suffering violence takes place in a context of increasing victims of alleged extrajudicial execution on family members of disappeared people is, political unrest and Pakistani military had reportedly disappeared before being in itself, a human rights violation that operations in Balochistan. The province has found dead. The victims’ relatives and amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading a long history of insurgency, with local groups Baloch groups blame the Pakistani security treatment, and means that relatives are also advocating greater autonomy and a bigger forces, particularly the Frontier Corps, for victims of enforced disappearance. share of the revenue generated by the perpetrating these “kill and dump” operations. index: AsA 33/010/2011 amnesty international september 2011 4 l a n o i t a n r e t n I y t s e n m A © DisAPPeARAnces in tHe 2008 in the north-west, or their current “My life is as if there’s a vacuum FeDeRAlly ADMinisteReD whereabouts, but credible media reports without him and there is total tRibAl AReAs suggest that some 2,500 people were in detention in the first half of 2010. Amnesty darkness without him… I used Pakistani government forces have detained international and other human rights groups to feel as if I’m living, now I feel hundreds, if not thousands, of residents of believe that the numbers subjected to as if I’m dead.” the Federally Administered tribal Areas (FAtA) enforced disappearances could be much on suspicion of co-operating with the higher. these detainees are not held under Amina Masood Janjua ( above ), founder of Pakistani taleban. Amnesty international has any clear legal framework under Pakistan’s the group Defence of Human Rights, in corroborated media reports that Pakistani law, given FAtA’s exceptional legal status and June 2010 conveyed to Amnesty security forces detained individuals the inapplicability of many laws to the region. International the impact of her husband’s suspected of being taleban fighters, as well Given the well-documented record of abuse by disappearance on her life. as more senior leaders, in sweeps in late Pakistan’s security agencies, there are ample 2009 and early 2010 and held them in grounds to fear that these detainees have in unofficial detention facilities on military some cases been subjected to torture or other bases in the region. there is no public ill-treatment. information on the number of insurgents detained from the operations conducted since amnesty international september 2011 index: AsA 33/010/2011 ‘The biTTeresT of agonies’ 5 enD enFoRceD DisAPPeARAnces in PAkistAn l a n o i t a n r e t n I Ghulam Murtaza and his wife hold a photo of y t s their son Mohammad Mazar ul Haq who, aged e n m 24, went missing in Islamabad in 2007. A © MAzAR ul HAQ still MissinG 10 other men were standing trial on charges of hopes raised again terrorism and were being detained in In March 2010, the Pakistan government zia ul Haq disappeared from his Rawalpindi Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.