Recently in Pakistan Category
NEW YORK (AFP) — A US court on Monday ordered medical care for a Pakistani scientist said to be seriously sick since being shot last month in an alleged struggle with US officers in Afghanistan.
Aafia Siddiqui, whose case has drawn protests in Pakistan and the attention of human rights activists, entered the Manhattan courtroom in a wheelchair.
She was brought to the United States a week ago and is to be tried on charges of attempted murder and assault against FBI and US army officers in an Afghan town on July 18.
USA/PAK: Dr. Afia's health is in serious condition and two of her children remain missing | Acciones - Actions , Pakistan , U.S.A. |
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME
Urgent Appeal Update: AHRC-UAU-049-2008
8 August 2008
[RE: AHRC-UAC-167-2008: PAKISTAN/USA: A lady doctor remains missing with her three children five years after her arrest]
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PAKISTAN/USA: Dr. Afia's health is in serious condition and two of her children remain missing
ISSUES: Disappearance; rape; violence against women; torture; right to liberty and security; arbitrary arrest and detention; right to health
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Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that due to a bullet wound and removal of one kidney, Dr. Afia Siddiqui health is in a serious condition, but no medical assistance has been provided to her whilst she has been in American custody in New York.
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 6, 2008
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- The high-profile arrest of a Pakistani woman suspected of Al Qaeda links casts a spotlight on an issue her nation's fledgling civilian government has been slow to confront: years of official secrecy surrounding the fate of hundreds of people rounded up as terrorism suspects.
Some human rights activists believe that Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani-born neuroscientist who appeared Tuesday in federal district court in New York, was originally "disappeared" by Pakistani authorities five years ago, possibly at U.S. behest.
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
On 24th July the Asian Human Rights Commission issued an Urgent Appeal in the case of the disappearance of a lady doctor. The UA, PAKISTAN/USA: A lady doctor remains missing with her three children five years after her arrest, may be seen at: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2947/
Amnesty International has accused Britain and the US of helping Pakistani security forces in the "enforced disappearances" of more than 560 people.
Calling on Pakistan's new government to reveal details about hundreds of missing people who are being held by security forces, the human rights group said Britain and the US had benefited from some of the detentions.
In a new report, Amnesty said partners in the US-led "war on terror", including Britain, bore a responsibility for condoning or assisting in the "enforced disappearances", in which Pakistan security forces apprehend and detain people in secret locations.
ISLAMABAD: The new government must immediately release dozens of people “secretly” detained by intelligence agencies as part of President Pervez Musharraf’s co-operation with the US-led war on terrorism, human rights activists said on Sunday.
THE GUARDIAN, RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN
Thursday, Jan 31, 2008, Page 9
On the morning of Aug. 10, 2006, Britain awoke to the news that the security services and police were alleged to have foiled a terror attack that was to have been unprecedented in magnitude and mercilessness, according to senior Scotland Yard officers.
Using smuggled liquid explosives and detonators made from camera flashlights, Islamist terrorists were said to have been plotting to bring down 10 airliners over the Atlantic. Three thousand people or more were to have died.
The report in The Guardian daily comes ahead of a meeting between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street later on Monday.
Speaking to The Guardian, Rauf's lawyer Hashmat Ali Habib said: "It wasn't an escape from custody. ... You could call it a 'mysterious disappearance' if you like, but not an escape."
"The Pakistanis are simply not interested in handing him over to the British. They never have been, although it is not clear why not."Column: Burning Points
Published: January 14, 2008
HONG KONG, China, Munir Malik, one of the leading lawyers who inspired the movement for the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan, last week gave an interview to the Asian Human Rights Commission, in which he offered insights into the dynamics that created the movement.
The fight against forced disappearances has been a core component of the movement. Even more revealing is that family members of disappeared persons played a decisive role in the fight for the restoration of an independent judiciary. Malik explains: "There was one issue in which we had taken a stand in virtually every public meeting. That was the case of missing persons.
By Zofeen T. Ebrahim
Karachi, Jan 13 (IANS) Emergency has been lifted and a brand new apex court set up in Pakistan, but the bench still refuses to entertain cases of human rights violations, specially those of enforced disappearances, says former law minister Iqbal Haider.
"We should wash our hands off these cases," says Haider. Those who have disappeared have often been labelled terrorists or threats to national security, yet none have been charged with any crime so far.
ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Thursday gave a concession to the government, allowing it to regularise the ‘disappearance’ of all the missing persons, but reiterated that the Supreme Court had substantial evidence that the people were in the custody of intelligence agencies.
“We are deliberately exercising restraint due to the national interest and, therefore, openly asking the government to regularise the custody of the missing persons,” the CJ observed, adding that the court would not be in a position to give the concession again.
