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GENERAL APPEAL (Pakistan/India): At least 61 persons including minors are detained in India for alleged forged documents issued by Pakistan authorities

September 29, 2008

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed this automatic letter-sending system using the "button" below. Please click the button for your participation. We also encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the relevant authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal General: AHRC-UAG-013-2008

30 September 2008
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PAKISTAN/INDIA: At least 61 persons including minors are detained in India for alleged forged documents issued by Pakistan authorities

ISSUES: Arbitrary arrest and detention; government negligence; corruption; child rights
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Hingora Jamat Karachi that dozens of Pakistanis have been detained with their children for several months in India for allegedly forging their visas. However, it is reported that those visas issued by High Commission of India, Islamabad had been overwritten by agents in acquiescence of Pakistan authorities. The Pakistan authorities have failed, so far, to take any action for their release or address the corruption in the process of visa, which will cause other possible arrests for the same reason.

CASE DETAILS:

At least 61 people of Pakistan have been detained in Amritsar Jail, Punjab state, Bhuj Jail, Gujarat state and in Jodhpur Jail, Rajasthan state in India for several months for allegedly forging their visas. Many of them have children who have been detained with them. According to the information received, the detainees allege that they had never made any forgery in their passports or visa documents as this could be evidence from their papers. They admit that some comments have been written over their visa documents but state that these were done by Pakistani authorities, in particular by the 'agents'. The detainees further insist that Indian authorities never objected to their passports or visas upon entry to the country but only arrested them when they tried to leave.

The number of Pakistani passengers holding such type of visas with cutting and overwriting has increased over the last one or two years due to the activities of the 'agents'. Meanwhile, it is also reported that those who pay a good sized bribe to the Indian authorities are allowed to go with overwritten visa documents.

The AHRC has obtained the list of 61 people out of hundreds who are currently in detention for alleged forgery of visas that have been authorized by Pakistani authorities at the time of receiving them. Some of their stories are discovered as follows.

Ms. Sharifa and her sister-in-law, Ms. Hajra were arrested on the alleged forgery of visa by Indian authorities along with Sharifa's two children, master Tariq and master Shahrukh in the first week of May 2008. All have been in Bhuj Jail, Gujarat state since their arrest. Sharifa's husband, Abdul Gafoor Hingoro died in a road accident in Karachi, Sindh province while he was trying to arrange the release of his family members. The death of Abdul Gafoor Hingoro s/o Hingora Ibrahim has not been informed to his family members.

Mr. Muhammad Hussain, 65 years old, a tuberculosis patient was arrested with his daughter Razia, (22) during their returned journey. They have been detained in Jodhpur Jail since 5 May 2008.

Mr. Sultan Mandra s/o Adam, his wife Amna Sultan and 6-month-old daughter Urooj Bisma have been kept in Amritsar Jail, Punjab state since last April.

Mr. Abdullah Mandra, (70), visited India and reported to the Superintendent of Police Bhuj Kutch Gujrat who issued a 30 day permit of stay in Kutch after the expiry of the permitted time. When he returned home, he was arrested and detained in Jodhpur Jail.

Ms. Merun Bai w/o Ibrahim Turk, Indian citizen and married in Pakistan 20 years ago visited India after marriage to see his parents, but she was also kept in jail by the Indian authorities.

Ms. Sheher Bano, Indian citizen and Pakistani Abdul Rehman were married in 1994 and she visited India for the first time along with her husband and three children Mohammad Hussain (7 years old), Abdul Kareem (8 years old) and Yasmeen (4 years old). It was for the first time after her marriage. All have been kept in Jodhpur Jail.

Ms. Reshma, Indian citizen and married Pakistani Akbar Ali, was married in 1998 and she visited India for the first time with her husband and her 6-years-old daughter Anusha. They have been kept in Jodhpur Jail.

Ms. Nazrana, Indian citizen and married Pakistani Yaseen visited India to meet her parents but was arrested at Monabao and kept in Jodhpur Jail.

Ms. Yasmin, Indian citizen and married Pakistani Mohammad Hussain has been kept in Jodhpur Jail with her husband. She said that she has left six unmarried daughters and there are no male family members to look after them in Pakistan.

Out of total list of 61 detainees, 11 are senior citizens aging between 58-72 years and 30 are women and seven are minors.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Those Pakistanis who want to visit India have to get a visa from the High Commission of India, Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. They have to travel thousands of miles to reach to Islamabad and stay there for several days with their family members. After getting their visas they have to go back to two different cities, the Mirpur Khas, Sindh province and Lahore, Punjab province in order to enter Indian.

Watching the miseries of the divided families of India and Pakistan, the authorities of Interior ministry and passport departments of Pakistan and officials at visa section of High Commission of India, Islamabad, allowed 'agents' to work as mediators between those families and authorities. Those agents positioned near the office ask for the families to pay more money than the visa fees in order to get the process done quickly. They also change the day of stay as requiring money from the families in the process. The passport departments of Pakistan have allowed the agents to work in order to save time and traveling of the families.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Besides of the legality of visas of people of Pakistan who have been detained in three jails in India, the detention of seven minors is also a matter of concern. The minors have been kept in prison for over five months with no reason. The minors must be sent back to their relatives in cooperation between the two relevant authorities and the two governments have to take adequate measures. However, they have decided to ignore the matter.

Both India and Pakistan are state parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article 3 of the CRC holds that in all actions concerning children, the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration and Article 37 (b) says, "No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law". Article 37 (d) also says, "Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action".

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the relevant authorities listed below demanding the release of all detainees who are also victims of the wrong system of visa process. Please also urge them to immediately take actions to solve the problem, in particular the arbitrary detention of the children in India.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letter to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary detention calling for intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear _________,

PAKISTAN/INDIA: At least 61 persons including minors are detained in India for alleged forged visas issued by Pakistan authorities

Details of victims: at least 61 people of Pakistan who have been detained in Amritsar, Punjab state, Bhuj Jail, Gujarat state and in Jodhpur jail, Rajasthan state, India
Authorities responsible:
1. Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan
2. Passport department of Pakistan
3. In charge of visa section of High Commission of India, Islamabad, Pakistan
4. Authorities at exit point of Bhuj, Jodhpur, Gujrat state and Amritsar of Punjab state, India

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the detention of at least 61 people of Pakistan including minors in three different jails in India since last April 2008.

According to the information that I have received, they have been detained for alleged forgery of visa documents issued by High Commission of India, Islamabad in Pakistan, which have been often changed in overwriting on the documents by agents who are allowed by the passport department of Pakistan to work as mediators between the authorities of the High Commission of India and the family members seeking for visa documents. In addition, they were not denied to enter into the Indian border but they were arrested and sent to jails when they tried to depart for Pakistan.

From the information that I have learned that seven minors have been also kept in detention with their parents without being sent to their relatives in Pakistan. Some of their mothers are also reported as Indian citizens.

As state parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the government both India and Pakistan have to take proper measures to ensure that no child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily and the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority.

I urge that an immediate high-level meeting from two countries be convened in order to approach the release of the detainees in particular, the children and further to reach to an agreement to prevent similar cases from reoccurring in the future. Several issues should also set on the table of the meeting such as providing commute passport to those who have been lived in different countries and investigating corruptions of authorities in border area.

I also urge the Pakistan government to play more active role in preventing more people from being victimized by the system of agents, otherwise, more people of Pakistan will be arrested and detained for the same reason of detention of 61 people. I further urge that the children must be sent back to the country of origin, taking into account the rights and duties of their parents or legal guardians.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani
Prime minister
Prime Minister House, Islamabad,
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1596
Tel: +92 51 920 6111
E-mail: webmaster@infopak.gov.pk

2. Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
PMO, Room number 152, South Block
New Delhi
INDIA
Fax: +91 11 23019545
E-mail: pmosb@pmo.nic.in

3. Mr. Shivraj V. Patil
Minister of Home Affairs
Through the office of Mr. K.C. Jain
Joint Secretary (Coordination and Public Grievances)
Room No. 9, North Block, Ministry of Home Affairs
New Delhi - 110 001
INDIA
Fax: + 91 11 23093750 or 23092763
E-mail: svpatil@sansad.nic.in

4. Mr. Rehman Malik
Advisor for Ministry of Interior
Room No. 404, 4th Floor, R Block,
Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2624
Tel: +92 51 921 2026
E-mail: minister@interior.gov.pk

5. Mr. Farooq Naik
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk or naelaw786@hotmail.com

6. Mr. Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi
Chief Minister
NewSachivalay
Gandhinagar - 382 010
Gujarat
INDIA
Fax: + 91 177 23222101
E-mail: cm@gujratindia.com

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal General
Document ID :
AHRC-UAG-013-2008
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.