An enforced disappearance is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing the victim outside the protection of the law. Often, forced disappearance implies murder whereby a victim is abducted, may be illegally detained, and is often tortured during interrogation, ultimately killed, and the body disposed of secretly. The party committing the murder has plausible deniability as there is no evidence of the victim's death.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is an independent, democratic non-profit organisation. Founded in 1987, it is one of the oldest human rights organisations in the country.
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 20th Chief Justice of Pakistan over three non-consecutive terms from 29 June 2005 to 11 December 2013.
The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
The Insurgency in Balochistan is an insurgency or revolt by Baloch separatist insurgents and various Islamist militant groups against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and Balochistan of southern Afghanistan. Rich in natural resources, this is the largest, least populated and least developed province in Pakistan and Iran, and armed groups demand greater control of the province's natural resources and political autonomy. Baloch separatists have attacked civilians from other ethnicities throughout the province. In the 2010s, attacks against the Shia community by sectarian groups—though not always directly related to the political struggle—have risen, contributing to tensions in Balochistan. In Pakistan, the ethnic separatist insurgency is low-scale but ongoing mainly in southern Balochistan, as well as sectarian and religiously motivated militancy concentrated mainly in northern and central Balochistan.
Brahamdagh Khan Bugti or Brahumdagh Khan Bugti is the founder and leader of the Political Organisation Baloch Republican Party, a Baloch nationalist group which broke away from his uncle Talal Akbar Bugti's Jamhoori Watan Party in 2008. He is the grandson and tribal successor of Nawab Akbar Bugti, former chief minister and governor of the Balochistan province. He campaigns for the rights of Baloch people around Europe. As of 2018, he was living in self-imposed exile in Switzerland.
The Lawyers' Movement, also known as the Movement for the Restoration of Judiciary or the Black Coat Protests, was the popular mass protest movement initiated by the lawyers of Pakistan in response to the former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf's actions of 9 March 2007 when he unconstitutionally suspended Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court. Following the suspension of the chief justice, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) declared the judge's removal as an "assault on the independence of judiciary" and was backed by several political parties.
Human rights abuses in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, have been a partial issue, ranging from forced disappearances, claimed torture to political repression and electoral fraud and suppression of freedom of speech. According to the human rights commission of Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) carries out extensive surveillance operations on the press and pro-independence groups, they have carried out arbitrary arrests in which people have been tortured and several have died. Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) is cited to indicate that dozens have disappeared after their arrests in Pakistan-held Kashmir. A significant number of cases point to the Inter-Services Intelligence’s involvement in these disappearances".
Human rights abuses in the province ofBalochistan refers to the human rights violations that are occurring in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation has drawn concern from the international community, The human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
Human rights abuses in Sindh, Pakistan, range from arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to torture, extrajudicial killings, and political repression.
Amina Masood Janjua, : born 28 April 1964, is a Pakistani human rights activist and artist. She is known for highlighting enforced disappearances in Pakistan and for campaigning for the release of her husband, Masood Ahmed Janjua, who disappeared on 30 July 2005. She is the chairperson of the rights group Defense of Human Rights Pakistan (DHR). She provides legal support to prisoners in foreign countries, arranging financial support for the families of victims of enforced disappearance and eradication of torture from jails and detention centers. She appears regularly on local and foreign media as the spokesperson of missing persons and occasionally contributes articles in Urdu and English dailies of the country.
The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. It was founded in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan. On 1 February 2018, the name of the movement was changed from "Mahsud Tahafuz Movement" to "Pashtun Tahafuz Movement."
The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) is a non-governmental organization which represents family members of people who have been subject to enforced disappearance in Pakistan's province of Balochistan.
The Establishment, also known as military establishment, is a term used in Pakistan which refers to the deep state cooperation of the Pakistan Armed Forces, the Pakistani intelligence community and other pro-military government officials and civilians. Responsible for various military coups, the military-dominated Establishment has directly ruled Pakistan for nearly half of its existence since its creation in 1947, while frequently exerting covert dominance over the political leadership during the remainder. The Establishment in Pakistan includes the key decision-makers in the country's military and intelligence services, national security, as well as its foreign and domestic policies, including the state policies of aggressive Islamization during the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
The Pakistan Armed Forces have been criticized for eroding democratic processes in Pakistan, for being the largest business conglomeration in the country and for excessive control over the domestic and foreign policies of Pakistan. Critics of the Pakistan Army, such as human rights activist Manzoor Pashteen, have been jailed while like-minded Pakistani citizens are warned against criticizing the military establishment. In Pakistan, the military is considered a part of what is known as The Establishment; they control the state through a backdoor and are a part of a working deep state.
Sajid Hussain was a Pakistani journalist and the founder and chief editor of the online news site, the Balochistan Times. He went missing on 2 March 2020 and his body was found in the Fyris River on 23 April 2020. Swedish police ruled out any foul play, ruling that cause of death was drowning. An autopsy indicated that he died either by suicide or an accident.
Idris Khattak is a Pakistani human rights activist. In early December 2021 a military court has sentenced Khattak to 14 years in prison for espionage.
Masood Ahmed Janjua is a Pakistani businessman from Rawalpindi who along with his friend Faisal Faraz, a 25 year old engineer from Lahore, disappeared on 30 July 2005 while traveling from Rawalpindi to Peshawar on a bus. The whereabouts of both are unknown to date. The moment he went missing marked the initial recorded instance of enforced disappearance in Pakistan, igniting a movement in opposition to such occurrences within the country.
Deen Muhammad Baloch was a government employee in Balochistan who has been missing since 2019. He was also a political activist and a close associate of Chairman Ghulam Mohammed Baloch in the revival of non-parliamentary and libertarian politics. He was associated with the struggle for the national rights of Baloch.
Sammi Deen Baloch is a human rights activist, She is the lead organiser of Baloch Long March and serves as the president of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP). Over the last 14 years, she has advocated for the rights of Baloch people, notably highlighting the cases of her father, Deen Mohammad Baloch, and other missing individuals in Balochistan.
