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PAKISTAN: Two Balochis are abducted by plain-clothed agents with the help of police; no FIRs yet lodged

April 15, 2010

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-046-2010

 

16 April 2010
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PAKISTAN: Two Balochis are abducted by plain-clothed agents with the help of police; no FIRs yet lodged

ISSUES: Disappearances; illegal arrest and detention
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the illegal arrest, abduction and disappearance of two persons from the Baloch Nationalist Movement on two separate occasions in April. Eyewitnesses in both cases saw the arrests carried out illegally by persons in and out of uniform, and the family of neither man have been contacted by the authorities responsible. The local police stations have refused to file First Information Reports in both cases.

Military and security agents remain largely unchallenged by the government on their high rate of illegal arrests and abductions – often with the help of uniformed police. This is despite a Supreme Court order in February for police cooperation on the issue.

CASE DETAILS: (Based on reports received from the victims' families and media sources)

Mr. Mahboob Ali Wadela (pictured left) is a senior member of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), which is part of the Baloch National Front (BNF), a nationalist movement struggling for greater autonomy of the province. He had been traveling in a passenger vehicle in Karachi bound for Gwader, a port city in Balochistan on 2 April for just a few minutes when it was stopped by uniformed police from Maripur station in Yousuf Goth.

According to passengers on the bus two vans resembling army vehicles arrived at the scene almost immediately and plain-clothed persons emerged and began to check the identity cards of the passengers. When they came upon Mahboob they reportedly pulled him from the bus with his luggage and drove him away in one of the unmarked vehicles. The passenger vehicle was then prevented from leaving the area by police for some time.

When Mahboob was identified, according to the driver and passengers, one of the plain-clothed persons had announced 'that’s the one we’re looking for'. The eyewitness account of the passengers, from Vsh News on 4 April, can be seen here with English subtitles:



Speaking to media, the victim's brother Mr. Faisal Baloch has said that Mahboob was in Karachi for medical treatment for kidney pain and was intending to return after a short trip to Balochistan. The family does not know why he was arrested and has not been contacted with information on his whereabouts. They fear for his security in illegal custody and are concerned that the medicine that he needs may not be made available, which could also put him in danger.

Although Faisal tried to lodge an FIR at Marripur police station – in the area of the abduction – police refused to comply. After his insistence they filed a written complaint in the Roznamcha or daily police diary which can be seen here, along with a seating plan from the bus company, bearing Mahmood's name (No. 6). No FIR has yet been registered.

Mahboob's mother, Mrs Shamim, has written appeals to the Sindh High Court, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (seen here), the prime minister, the provincial minister of the interior in Sindh and various other authorities to ask for information and assistance in locating her son. She has received no response.

Mir Bohair Bangulzai, another member of the BNF, was abducted from his car on Thursday 1 April 2010 from Askari Park in Quetta, Balochistan. According to eyewitnesses he was driving home when he was stopped by uniformed police officers. Persons then emerged from a double cabin Toyota Hi-Lux jeep and despite the efforts of passersby to rescue Bangulzai, abducted him and drove away. The vehicle was driven by a person in plain clothes who identified himself as Frontier Corp (FC) personnel.

Though man's relatives have contacted the local authorities, Quetta police have illogically and illegally cited false police procedure: they have told relatives that they will investigate the incident before they file an FIR.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

A Baloch National Front spokesman has announced the group's suspicions that the abductions were perpetrated by intelligence agents and linked to a proposed memorial meeting of the Shuhada-e-Murghab (Martyrs of Murghab) a Baloch nationalist group on 3 April in Gwader, Balochistan. A petition to locate and rescue the two men can be found here.

The government of Pakistan recently announced the formation of a three-member Commission on disappearances which will be headed by a by former Supreme Court Judge and two retired judges from the high courts. As previously noted, the commission faces extreme institutional indifference and must be given full administrative support if it is to fulfill any of its responsibilities meaningfully.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the authorities listed below demanding an immediate investigation into the abduction of the two men, and the involvement of state agents and police in their disappearance. The men must be located and safely released and those proven to be responsible must face legal sanctions. Please also ask the new commission on disappearances to look into this case.

The AHRC has written to the UN Working Group on enforced and involuntary disappearances asking for their intervention into this case.

To support this appeal please click here:
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SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

PAKISTAN: Two Balochis are abducted by plain-clothed agents with the help of police; no FIRs yet lodged

Name of victims:
1. Mr. Mahboob Ali Wadela, son of Baig Muhammad; resident of R- 9/10, Gulshane Munir,
Malir district, Karachi, Sindh province.
2. Mir Bohair Bangulzai Son of Mir Abdul Nabi Bangulzai; resident of Askari Park, Quetta, Balochistan province
Alleged perpetrators:
State intelligence and police officials

Date of incident: April 1 and April 2
Place of incident: Karachi, Sindh province and Quetta, Balochistan

I am deeply concerned to hear that two persons from the Baloch Nationalist Front on two separate occasions were illegally arrested, abducted and disappeared at the beginning of this month on two separate occasions. This is despite the government's pledge to meaningfully address the illegal abductions being committed weekly by state agents in the country, and the creation of a commission on disappearances to investigate the issue.

According to the information I have received, Mr. Mahboob Ali Wadela is a senior member of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), a nationalist movement struggling for greater autonomy of the province. He had been traveling in a passenger vehicle in Karachi bound for Gwader, a port city in Balochistan on 2 April for about five minutes when it was stopped by uniformed police from Maripur station, in Yousuf Goth.

According to passengers on the bus, two vans resembling army vehicles arrived at the scene almost immediately, and plain clothed persons emerged and began to check the identity cards of the passengers. When they came upon Mahboob they reportedly pulled him from the bus with his luggage and drove him away in one of the unmarked vehicles. The passenger vehicle was then prevented from leaving the area by police for some time.

The family does not know why he was arrested and has not been contacted with information on his whereabouts. They fear for his security in illegal custody and are concerned that the medicine that he needs may not be made available. Although the victim's brother tried to lodge an FIR at Marripur police station, which is in the area of the abduction, I am told that police refused to do so. After his insistence they filed a written complaint in the Roznamcha or daily police diary. No FIR has yet been registered.

Mahboob's mother, Mrs Shamim, has written appeals to the Sindh High Court, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the prime minister, the provincial minister of the interior in Sindh and various other authorities to ask for information and assistance in locating her son. She has received no response.

Mir Bohair Bangulzai, another BNF member, was abducted from his car on Thursday 1 April 2010 from Askari Park in Quetta, Balochistan. According to eyewitnesses he was driving home when he was stopped by uniformed police officers. Persons then emerged from a double cabin Toyota Hi-Lux jeep and despite the efforts of passersby to obstruct them, abducted the victim and drove away. The vehicle was driven by a person in plain clothes who identified himself as Frontier Corp (FC) personnel at the time.

Though man's relatives have contacted the local authorities, Quetta police have illogically and illegally cited false police procedure: they have told relatives that they will investigate the incident before they file an FIR.

A Baloch National Front spokesman has announced the group's suspicions that the abductions were perpetrated by intelligence agents and linked to a proposed memorial meeting of the Shuhada-e-Murghab (Martyrs of Murghab) a Baloch nationalist group on 3 April in Gwader, Balochistan.

Though I am heartened to note that the government of Pakistan recently announced the formation of a three-member commission on disappearances, I would like to know what mandate and what powers it will have. The commission faces extreme institutional indifference and must be given full administrative support if it is to fulfill any of its responsibilities meaningfully.

I ask that you intervene immediately to ensure an immediate investigation into the abduction of these two men, and into the involvement of state agents and police in their disappearance. The men must be located and safely released, and those proven to be responsible must face legal sanctions.

Yours sincerely,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

Prime Minister
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: secretary@cabinet.gov.pk

2. Mr.Syed Mumtaz Alam Gillani
Federal Minister for Human Rights
Ministry of Human Rights
Old US Aid building
Ata Turk Avenue
G-5, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +9251-9204108
Email: sarfraz_yousuf@yahoo.com

3. Dr. Faqir Hussain
Registrar
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 51 9213452
E-mail: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk

4. Minister of Law
Government of Punjab
Punjab Secretariat
Ravi Road
Lahore
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92-42-99212004
E-mail: law@punjab.gov.pk

5. Nawab Aslam Raisani
Chief Minister of Balochistan
Chief Minister House, Quette,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 920 2240
Tel: +92 81 449582 / 440661
E-mail: mirlashkari@yahoo.com

6. Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi
Governor of Balochistan
Governor House Balochistan,
Quetta- Balochistan province,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 920 2992

7. Chief Secretary
Government of Balochistan
Quetta, Balochistan province
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 81 9202132
Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-046-2010
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.