Tag Archives: AHRC

Human Rights, Life, News, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh

PAKISTAN: A Sindh nationalist and political activist killed by law enforcement agencies after severe torture

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By: ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that officers of the law enforcement agencies abducted a young activist who was tortured to death in illegal detention. After the incident officers of these agencies threw the tortured and bullet riddled death body near the Bharia Road City Railway Station of District Naushero Feroz of Sindh Province. They also scattered some weapons near his dead body to give the appearance that his death was due to an encounter as well as to make him look like a terrorist.

The agencies officers then started intimidating the victim’s brothers not to reveal the incident and were also warned not to register a case against them. They were told that many false cases would be registered against them.

CASE NARRATIVE: Mr. Sahib Khan Ghoto (40), a resident of village Jalal Ghoto, Taluka and District Ghotki, Province Sindh was tortured to death in the custody of  law enforcement agencies during his illegal detention of three days. (warning to the reader: the photo of the deceased victim is graphic and may not be suitable for all viewers: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/images/2014/ahrc-uac-021-2014.01). Sahib Khan, son of Mr. Dhani Bux was a political activist, nationalist and central member of the Executive Committee of Shehri Etihad (Citizens Unity) Ghotki. Shehri Etihad is a organization working in Ghotki for the people and in this organization all Non- Governmental Organizations, political parties and the civil societies of the Ghotki District are collectively working together.He was also the president of Jiye Sindh MutthahidaMahaz (JSSM) a nationalist party,Ghotki District.

Read more » Asian Human Right Commission
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-021-2014

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Religion, Sindh

PAKISTAN: Two young scheduled caste Hindu women were raped by Muslim landlords; one of them was later murdered

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION -Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-150-2013

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two scheduled caste, Hindu women were raped by their Muslim landlords before their family members. Later on, one of them was murdered in revenge for making a report to the police. She and her mother were abducted by one of the landlords from outside the clinic of a doctor in broad daylight, close to the police station, and she was shot dead in front of her mother. The Shadi Pali Police Station of Umer Kot district, Sindh, took time to register the First Information Report (FIR) in order to give the rapists time to abscond. The family members of the victims are displaced from their village and are living on the roadside in the cold nights but the police and authorities have refused to help them. In providing protection to the rapists, the police and notables of the area forced the victims to reach to a settlement and give amnesty to the rapists. Once again the police have shown their efficiency to get approval from judicial magistrate so that perpetrators are freed.

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Balochistan, Human Rights, International, Islamabad, Life, News, Pakistan, Politics

PAKISTAN: Disappearances and extrajudicial killings continue unabated in Balochistan — the civilian governments remain callously indifferent

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By: Asian Human Rights Commission

During the first four months of the year 2013 no restraint was observed on the part of the military in their actions. Abductions by unknown persons, disappearances and extrajudicial killings continue unabated in the war torn zone of Balochistan province. During the months from January to April, according to the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), an organisation that compiles records of missing persons and extrajudicial killings, 244 persons were abducted, 11 recovered, 34 extrajudicially killed and 26 died during military operations in different parts of the province.

According to the Pakistan Medical Association, Balochistan Chapter, 32 doctors are missing and 28 doctors have so far been killed. In addition dozens of lawyers are missing and many have been extrajudicial killed after abduction. Besides this, generally there is no rule of law and any person can be picked up and killed for any reason.

However, a new situation has arisen in the policies of the law enforcement agencies in that they have extended their jurisdictions to other provinces. Today Boloch citizens are being abducted from Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, where they go for higher education.

Read more » Asian Human Rights Commission
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-110-2013

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Religion

PAKISTAN: A new wave of persecution against the religious minorities

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PAKISTAN: Military demolishes temple, Ahmadi graves desecrated, a six-year-old Hindu girl was raped and a 70 year old Christian missionary shot

December 6, 2012 – ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-200-2012 – The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a wave of persecution against the religious minority groups has again started with the connivance of military and local authorities. In the recent days more than 100 graves of Ahamadis were desecrated by excavating the graves and breaking the headstones bearing the names of the dead persons. The same happened with a Hindu temple which was destroyed along with the houses by the military authorities, allegedly after being bribed by a private builder who wanted to grab the land. In another case a six-year-old girl from the Hindu community was raped in a bid to push the Hindu community to leave the country and take refuge in India. Also, a 70-year-old Swedish Christian missionary was shot at and is in critical condition. Her cook was also beaten up by the unknown persons two days before the incident.

Read more » ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (AHRC)

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-200-2012

News, Pakistan, Religion

PAKISTAN: A Hindu girl was forced to convert to Islam and is now missing – the judge and police have sided with the perpetrators

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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 14-year-old girl, from the Hindu religious minority community was abducted by gangsters and forcibly converted to Islam. When a police case was filed against the abductors the girl was produced before a Magistrate’s Court by the gangsters to record a statement that she has embraced Islam as her religion. The irony of the judicial process is that the judicial magistrate has accepted her subsequent marriage as legal in spite of the Pakistan law which does not allow the marriage of girls before the age of 16 years. Her age was forged from 14 to 18 by the police and perpetrators before the judicial magistrate who had never asked for evidence about her age.

The father of the victim received information from the police that girl has been shifted to the tribal areas of the Pakistan, close to Afghanistan border for nefarious designs.

The police took five days to file the First Information Report (FIR) providing good time to the perpetrators to manage a forced marriage. The three young sisters, their mother and one brother of the victim were terminated from the employment from the same factory where their sister was employed because the parents of the victim had mentioned the registration number of the car of the factory in which their daughter was abducted. ….

Read more » Asia Human Rights Commission

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-115-2012

Human Rights, Media, News, Pakistan, Religion

PAKISTAN: A newspaper terminates its editor after threats from fundamentalists

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-056-2012 : The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an editor of a daily newspaper was terminated from his job after threats of the filing of a blasphemy case against him. Threats of blasphemy cases were also made against the publisher, editor and editor of the editorial page by Muslim fundamentalists. After his sudden termination and threats of further action by the fundamentalist organizations the editor was left with no one to turn to and suffered a heart attack. For one month now he has been bedridden and cannot leave the safety of this house because of the threats.

Continue reading PAKISTAN: A newspaper terminates its editor after threats from fundamentalists →

Human Rights, Life, News, Pakistan, Religion

Christian girl, 12, kidnapped, beaten and raped for eight months until she converted to Islam

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Asian Human Rights Commission claim girl was lured on shopping trip by friend before she was kidnapped.

Abductors drove her 120 miles before raping her, then forced her to sign marriage papers

Victim managed to escape eight months later, but police refuse to prosecute rapists because they are tied to militant Islam group

By Wil Longbottom

A 12-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped and repeatedly raped for eight months in Pakistan by a man who then falsified marriage documents with her, it was claimed today.

The girl was lured on a shopping trip in Lahore by a friend, before she was driven 120 miles to Tandianwalla and raped by the friend’s uncle in January this year.

Two days later, she was forced to sign papers consenting to marriage with the man and beaten for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.

She was then held against her will for eight months, before managing to escape and contact her family.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has said the rapists have not been arrested because of their affiliation with a militant Muslim organisation – the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

It claims the police have refused to order a medical check-up on the girl, and have warned her parents that it would be better for them to hand over the girl to her ‘legal’ husband or a criminal case would be filed against them.

An investigation into the kidnapping found the girl’s father reported her disappearance in January and made complaints against her abductors, but police took no action for eight months.

Last month, the girl – who has not been named for legal reasons – called her family from Tandianwalla and told them she had been abducted, but had escaped and was hiding at a bus stop.

The girl’s parents travelled to the town and rescued her, before taking her to a local magistrate to give a statement.

The rapists then contacted the police through their religious group and produced a marriage certificate that claimed to show one of them was married to the 12-year-old.

As a result of their complaint, the Christian family has gone into hiding as members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are searching for them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048261/Christian-girl-12-kidnapped-raped-beaten-converted-Islam.html#ixzz1qVn3aSFg

Balochistan, Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Sindh

Extra-judicial killing on the rise in Sindh: AHRC

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Rights group says after Balochistan, intelligence agencies ‘kidnapping, killing’ people in Sindh

LAHORE: The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says it has received information that bullet-riddled bodies of two missing young men have been found on the roadside in Larkano.

AHRC said the two had been missing for the last six months when they were arrested by law enforcement agencies while travelling on the Karachi highway.

“Since January 2012, more than a dozen bullet-riddled bodies have been found in Sindh.

Abbas Kassar, a senior journalist from Sindh, reported that the bodies of two young Sindhi men – Khadim Lolahi and Qurban Jatoi – were found in Madeji town of Larkano on February 12. They were the activists of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) that is working for the separation of Sindh from Pakistan, AHRC said.

Continue reading Extra-judicial killing on the rise in Sindh: AHRC →

Current Issues, News, Pakistan, Politics

PAKISTAN: The AHRC appreciates the Prime Minister’s resolve to place the army under civilian rule

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A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission

AHRC-STM-213-2011 (12-23-2011): The Prime Minister has accused the Pakistan army of hatching conspiracies against the elected parliament and government. The PM, in an address to the National Assembly session, has hinted that conspiracies are being hatched to ‘pack up the elected government’ pointing at the army and making a strong assertion that parliament is the highest of all the state organs. He declared that all the state organs, including the military, are answerable to the parliament and the government would not allow anyone to claim to be state within a state.

Prime Minister Gillani’s speech was the outcome of the statements submitted in the Supreme Court by the Chief of Army Staff and the chief of the ISI, the inter services intelligence agency, in the case of the ‘Memo Gate Scandal’ wherein the former Ambassador to the US was implicated by a Pakistani-American businessman for writing a memo to former chief of the US army to use his offices to stop the Pakistani Army and ISI making a coup against the civilian government. Through the memo the Pakistani-American businessman was also accusing that President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Zardari, being a boss of the Ambassador was involved in writing a letter against his own military top brass.

Continue reading PAKISTAN: The AHRC appreciates the Prime Minister’s resolve to place the army under civilian rule →

Pakistan

PAKISTAN: ISI Head must be prosecuted for hatching conspiracy against democracy – AHRC

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – AHRC-UAC-248-2011

19 December 2011 – The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence Agency, the country’s foremost intelligence agency, has hatched a conspiracy to overthrow the democratically elected government and parliament by taking help from some Arab monarchies who have strong influence in the affairs of the country. The Pakistan Army has been trying for two years to overthrow the civilian government and it is alleged that in the month of May 2011, Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha, the chief of the ISI, visited several Arab monarchies in a personal capacity and sought clearance for the army to take over the country. It is also alleged that he was given the ‘OK’ by these monarchies. He also visited China, without taking permission from the prime minister, but apparently did not get any formal assistance.

Continue reading PAKISTAN: ISI Head must be prosecuted for hatching conspiracy against democracy – AHRC →

Human Rights, India, Kashmir, News, Politics

SOUTH ASIA: India is not Pakistan

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A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission – AHRC-STM-183-2011,

November 29, 2011 – The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is a subject of severe criticism by human rights activists and jurists in India and across the world. The alarming number of human rights abuses committed by the security agencies deployed in regions where AFSPA is currently put to use is depressing proof to the draconian nature of this law. Many lives lost already – estimated to be more than 4000 since the Act came into force in 1958 – to this the Act underscores the non-compatibility of this law to the notion of democracy. The statutory impunity provided in the Act and the extreme nature of force, that could be used arbitrarily on mere suspicion, empowering a soldier to shoot to kill with no fear of prosecution which is used without restraint till today, proves that this law has not only failed, but would not by any stretch of imagination be of use to curb armed secessionist militancy in the country. Yet, the Indian Army is now entangled in a browbeating debacle with the civilian government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the state’s legislature concerning the withdrawal of this law from certain parts of the state. The army’s attempt is to continue enjoying the despicable impunity this law provides therefore unbecomingly benefiting from it.

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Human Rights, Politics, Religion

Countering Extremism in Pakistan

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Countering Extremism in Pakistan: Need of Political Approach

By Jamil Junejo

ESCALATING sectarian and religious violence has made a disquieting situation for religious minorities in particular and other vulnerable sections of society in general in the country. In just less than a year, a number of such cases from murders of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and mishandling of a 10-year-old Christian girl for her alleged misspelling of a word, the Sept 19 massacre of 26 Hazara Shia in Mastung to expulsion of Ahmedi students from a university in Punjab and scores of other such incidents have put the social, religious and sectarian harmony at peril.

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Human Rights, News, Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Army and government officials remain silent for action against the alleged rapists of 16 years girl – AHRC

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A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: Army and government officials remain silent to the demands for action against the alleged rapists of 16 years old girl

AHRC-STM-166-2011, November 3, 2011 – The Ansar Burney Trust announces that it will take responsibility for providing medical treatment to the victim for the safe delivery of the child and their protection

Continue reading PAKISTAN: Army and government officials remain silent for action against the alleged rapists of 16 years girl – AHRC →

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Sindh

PAKISTAN: A human rights defender is booked on fake charges of robbery, his brother is arrested and at risk of being tortured

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Mr. Dilshad Bhutto, son of Mohammad Bux Bhutto, is a prominent human rights defender from Sindh province and he heads the campaign against torture in custody the “Anti Torture Movement Pakistan”. Every year on the occasion of June 26, the international day in Support of Victims of Torture, he organizes different seminars and workshops against the practice of torture in custody with the collaboration of different human rights groups, including the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Many times, he was intimidated by powerful landlords cum politicians who opposed his activism in favour of human rights.

A case of robbery was filed against Mr. Dilshad Bhutto and his elder brother Mr. Mashooq Bhutto in Taluka police station, Larkana district, Sindh province. The robbery is alleged to have occurred in the house of Mr. Nazeer Bhutto, city president of Sindh National Front and Dilshad and Mashooq were accused of looting valuable items from the house. The police immediately acted upon the first information report (FIR) and went to arrest them from Dadu city, 200 kilometers far from Larkana city. Dilshad Bhutto was not present in his house at that time and the police arrested his elder brother who is working as an officer in the department of education, Sindh government, in the early hours of July 29. Local journalists say that the complainant was also not aware that a case was filed on his behalf. ….

Read more → ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Human Rights, News, Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Another Pakistani woman is killed, yet officials remain silent

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AHRC-FAT-033-2011, July 5, 2011 – An article from Radio Free Europe forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: Another Pakistani woman is killed, yet officials remain silent

Shazia, 19, was stoned, burnt with acid, and then shot dead for an unknown sin

By Daud Khattak

No one noticed last month when Shazia, 19, was stoned, burnt with acid, and then shot dead for an unknown sin in Mardan, the second largest town in northern Pakistan after Peshawar.

Originally from a village in the Swat Valley, Shazia was snatched by her ex-husband from her mother, taken into the mountains, tortured, and eventually killed.

Her mother, Noor Jehan, a widow with no male relatives, has lodged complaints at three different police stations about her daughter’s fate, but her wailing, so far, has fallen on deaf ears. Law-enforcement agents keep telling her that “investigations are under way.”

Days before Shazia’s heinous murder, another woman was stripped and paraded around Haripur, a city near the now-infamous suburb of Abbotabad, the last dwelling of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. …

Read more → ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (AHRC)

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh

Sindh: New Disappearances Cause International Concern

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The Asian Human Rights Commission has launched a campaign on Sindh after the latest news of further disappearances of political campaigners, the use of torture to extract information and confessions, and anti-terrorism charges levelled against activists.

Below is an appeal published by the Asian Human Rights Commission:

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that four activists of a nationalist political group were abducted from a crowded part of Karachi city by the police and plain clothed persons in police and military jeeps when they were ending their six day hunger strike in protest against the second disappearance of their leader who has been missing since 25 February 2011 after his arrest by persons from Army, Rangers and police. The parents of the disappeared person, in an application to different authorities, accuse Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and military intelligence (MI) for the kidnap and disappearance.  …

Read more : UNPO

Balochistan, Human Rights, News, Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Two more disappeared persons are extrajudicially killed in Balochistan to destroy evidence of abduction by law enforcement agencies

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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the bodies of two disappeared persons have been found in a remote area. The bodies bore bullet wounds and marks of torture. Both victims were abducted from Karachi, Sindh province at different times but their bodies were found together 500 kilometers near the Gwader district, Balochistan province. Both the bodies were lying side by side in an abandoned place. It was witnessed that both were abducted by persons in uniformed and in plain clothes that identified themselves to the onlookers as being from the state security agencies.

Disappearances in Balochistan have become the routine work of the Frontier Corps (FC) and state intelligence agencies. Since last year the law enforcement authorities have introduced a new trend in which they kill the disappeared person extra judicially so as to destroy any possible evidence of their involvement. …

Read more : AHRC

Balochistan, Human Rights, Life, News, Pakistan, Politics

Balochistan: A student leader abducted and four bodies of disappeared persons are found

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PAKISTAN: A student leader abducted and four bodies of disappeared persons are found

Case: AHRC-UAC-032-2011 – The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a student leader from Balochistan was abducted from the check post of the Frontier Corps in Quetta while he was returning from an interview for internship at Pakistan Telecommunications, a public sector company. In the campaign of killings of disappeared persons four more bodies of disappeared were found with bullet and torture marks. No a day goes by in Balochistan province without agitation and ‘shutter-down’ strikes in protest of killings and abductions allegedly by the law enforcement agencies. …

Read more : AHRC

Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Pakistan, Punjab, Religion

PAKISTAN: Appeasement policy towards religious intolerance leads to murder of a governor

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A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

AHRC-STM-001-2011 : The nation has suffered a great loss due to this tragic murder. A voice of sanity has been silenced. This has happened at a time when the kind of political leadership provided by Salman Taseer is most needed. He stood for basic values which are essential for the stability of Pakistan. His shocking death should be an awakening for all right-thinking people of Pakistan about the perils that the country is facing. Creating chaos is not difficult under the tense conditions under which Pakistan has functioned for a considerable time now. The benefits of such chaos will only go to a few. However, the consequences of this death can seriously harm the population which may begin to react with fear of such murders. It is time for all concerned persons and the government to react soberly but strongly on this occasion in order to ensure that the benefits of this situation will go to those are bent on creating chaos.

Continue reading PAKISTAN: Appeasement policy towards religious intolerance leads to murder of a governor →

Human Rights, Pakistan, Punjab

PAF is running a torture cell: 6 Christians were tortured, a girl lost her legs

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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report of the torture of six persons from a Christian family by officials of the Pakistan Air Force. The arrest and torture continued for a period of 18 days and was due to the suspicion that they had stolen gold ornaments from the house of a Wing Commander in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). A 14 year-old girl and her 16 year-old brother were tortured by the Wing Commander himself. As a result the girl is now disabled and neither she nor her brother is able to walk properly. A Session Court has helped obtain the victims’ release but has not initiated any judicial process against the officials of the PAF even after finding evidence that the family was tortured and being detained illegally in the PAF torture cell.

For more> Asian Human Rights Commission

via Globeistan

Human Rights, Pakistan, Sindh

PAKISTAN: A Hindu teenager is told to marry her alleged rapist; police and courts fail to act

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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that four men who allegedly assisted in the rape of a young Hindu girl have been granted pre-arrest bail by a session court. Rape is a non-bailable offense in Pakistan and this is against criminal procedure and the law. Attempts by the family to file an FIR and obtain a medical report have been obstructed by local police, who later arrested the victim’s father on a false offense. Meanwhile members of an illegal tribal court have reportedly proposed that the victim marry her rapist and convert to Islam. She has threatened public self immolation if the perpetrators are not arrested and brought to justice by the authorities….

The AHRC received frequent reports of forced marriages of minority girls with Muslim men in areas along the Indian borders that have large Dalit Hindu populations, such as Thar Parker, Nagar Parker, Umer Kot, Mithi and Karoonjhar. The term Dalits are members of a scheduled caste, and due to the position of many as bonded labourers, female Dalits are particularly vulnerable to abuse. It is not unknown for Muslim seminaries to urge the forced conversion of Dalit women.

The AHRC has documented several such cases, including UA-008-2006 and UG-020-2006 and is aware of many more, in which Hindu scheduled caste and Christian women and girls have been abducted by Muslim men and raped. When confronted by the authorities perpetrators are often able to produce a marriage certificate from a seminary confirming the marriage and conversion of the victim. The girls are often taken out of contact with their families entirely, and various cases have been documented in which the courts have condoned such marriages with girls below the age of consent.

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-027- 2010

India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Politics

Hundreds of activists illegally arrested at the demand of secular and democratic united Kashmir!

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PAKISTAN/KASHMIR: In the Pakistani part of Kashmir several political activists and students have been arrested for observing the demands for an independent Kashmir, free from India and Pakistan. Mr. Sardar Liaquat Hayat, the Central President of the Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party, and several activists of the Jamu and Kashmir National Awami Party (JKNAP) and Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF), were arrested without any judicial warrants or charges. At the time of arrest on July 19, 2009, they were protesting against the call by the prime minister of Kashmir to annex Kashmir with Pakistan. Police conducted raids in Rawalakote city and arrested Liaquat Hayat, Wajid Ayyub and Shaihid Sharaf without arrest warrants from their homes. The same day the ruling party of Pakistani Kashmir organized a public rally to commend the so-called Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan at Rawalakote city.

Continue reading Hundreds of activists illegally arrested at the demand of secular and democratic united Kashmir! →