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PAKISTAN: Three persons are missing after allegedly taken by the police and army personnel

July 11, 2006

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the "button" below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Pakistan authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Pakistan authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

URGENT APPEAL GENERAL URGENT APPEAL GENERAL URGENT APPEAL GENERAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

12 July 2006
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UA-227-2006: PAKISTAN: Three persons are missing after allegedly being taken by the police and army personnel 

PAKISTAN: Arbitrary arrest & detention; forced disappearances; un-rule of law
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Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned about another three disappearance cases in Pakistan. They are Mr. Asif Baladi, a publisher of Peace Publishing House and the chairperson of Sindh Nationalist Forum, Mr. Mehar Uddin Marri, a journalist in Badin district, Sindh province and Mr. Mitha Khan Marri, a transporter in Balochistan province. Mr. M.U. Marri and Mr. M.K. Marri remain missing since they were separately arrested by the police on July 2 2006 and January 13 2006. Mr. Asif Baladi remains missing after being abducted by two unknown men who are suspected of being military personnel. The AHRC is alarmed by the sharply increasing numbers of disappearances in Pakistan. As far as the AHRC has been informed, more than 600 disappearance cases have already been reported since the beginning of 2006. The number of missing persons has escalated even after the Pakistan became a member of UN Human Rights Council on 9 May 2006.   

On 26 June 2006, Mr. Asif Baladi was allegedly abducted by unidentified armed men in midday from the Share Faisal Road in Karachi city, Sindh province, Pakistan on 26 June 2006, after he left the house to pick up his sister who was coming from Noshehro Feroz at the inter-city bus terminal. His family said that Mr. Baladi had received several threatening phone calls before his disappearance. On the next evening (June 27), Mr. Baladi called to his family. There was a screaming voice from the phone and he told his family to give his passport to two men who would come to the house. The phone was then disconnected. The family tried to track down the phone number Mr. Baladi used but when they called back to that number they only heard the automatic notice that the phone number is not in use. On the following day (June 28), the family received another phone call from Mr. Baladi, who again told his family to give his passport and identity card to the two men. However, he could not give any information about his whereabouts to his family. On June 29, the two men came to the family’s house in a car bearing registration number AMW 583. They asked the family to give them Mr. Baladi’s passport and identity card but they refused to identify themselves when the family asked them. The family suspects that Mr. Baladi might be under army custody and might be tortured as his disappearance shows the typical pattern used by army personnel and only military or intelligence personnel can manipulate the telephone lines. On July 5 the family held a press conference regarding Mr. Baladi's abduction.

The Sindh Nationalist Forum, where Mr. Baladi works as a chairperson, was planning to hold Sindh Message Conference in August and September and invite several foreign intellectuals for this event. The conference was aimed of raising the issue of the brutality of army personnel in Sindh province such as arbitrary arrest and detention, torture. 

In a separate case, Mr. Mehar Uddin Marri, a journalist based in Badin district, was arrested by the police on July 2 2006 from the house of the Federal Minister of State Mr. Mohammad Ali Malkani. He was a member of the delegation called by the minister who wanted to discuss land dispute issues in Badin district at his house. His arrested followed after the minister allegedly accused Mr. M.U. Marri of anti-government person associating with the resistance movement in Balochistan during the meeting. The police party from two police stations cordoned off the minister's house and arrested him. The police officers involved in Mr M.U. Marri's arrest are Mr. Nazeeer Magsi in charge of Chohar Jamali police station, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Ibrahim, and Mr. Noor uddin Brohi who is in charge of Sujawal police station. Mr. M.U. Marri's whereabouts is unknown since his arrest on July 2. The Sindh police have denied that they arrested him. The family fears that Mr. M.U. Marri might be in army custody and his life at risk as he might be subjected to brutal torture.

In another case, a transporter named Mr. Mir Mitha Khan Marri was arrested on January 13 2006 by four armed police led by the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Hub police station from his workplace. During his arrest, the police told Mr. M.K. Marri to go along with them because they needed to ask him about his involvement in the resistance movement in Balochistan. Even though he claimed that he had no political affiliation and refused to go, the police forcibly took him and his whereabouts are unknown. When the victim's family sought information about his whereabouts at the office of the SHO, the Inspector General of Police and Chief Minister of Balochistan province only repeated that Mr. M.K. Marri would be sent back home soon. According to an anonymous source in the army, the victim is under army custody in Punjab province. The family claims that the victim was arrested because of his surname 'Marri' as the tribe named Marri has been organizing the resistance movement in Balochistan. They say that the army officials might suspect the victim is connected to resistance movement due to his surname.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

A functioning system of justice and democracy has been seriously distorted since General Musharraf took power with a military coup in December 1999. In particular, the AHRC is gravely concerned by the alarming rate of forced disappearances, illegal arrest and detention and torture by the army and police personnel in recent years. For example, only in Balochistan province where Pakistan army conduct on-going military operations, the Federal Minister of the Interior reported that 4,000 people have been arrested since 2001. The actual number of the arrested will be much higher when the disappearance cases are included. Out of 4,000 persons, only less than 200 people have been produced to the courts.

Beside this, the AHRC has leant that 600 persons have been missing in Pakistan during the first half of this year and in many cases, even though the court intervened into the matter, many of them have not been produced before the court in violation of court orders. 

For widespread use of torture by the law enforcement officers in Pakistan, please see the AHRC's international anti-torture day statement on Pakistan this year, "State widespread use of torture must be brought to an end".

The AHRC calls for international community to urge the Pakistan government to take firm and genuine action to investigate those crimes by the law enforcement officials and bring the perpetrators to justice.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write an appeal letter to the Pakistan authorities listed below to request an effective and prompt investigation of the mentioned disappearance cases. Please also urge them to locate the whereabouts of the three victims and ensure their safely. Please also urge the Pakistan government take necessary steps to provide adequate judicial remedies and compensation to the victims and their families.

To support this appeal, please click:

Sample Letter:

Dear ________,

PAKISTAN: Three persons are missing after allegedly being taken by the police and army personnel 

CASE 1
Name of the victim: Mr. Asif Baladi, a publisher of Peace Publishing House and the chairperson of Sindh Nationalist Forum
Alleged perpetrators: unknown armed men suspected of being military personnel
Date of the incident: abducted in midday on June 26 2006 and remains missing
Place of the incident: Share Faisal Road in Karachi city, Sindh province, Pakistan

CASE 2
Name of the victim: Mr. Mehar Uddin Marri, a journalist in Badin district, Sindh province
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Mr. Nazeeer Magsi, Station House Officer of the Chohar Jamali police station
2. Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Ibrahim of Chohar Jamali police station
3. Mr. Noor uddin Brohi, Station House Officer of the Sujawal police station
Date of the incident: arrested by the police on July 2 2006 and remains missing
Place of the incident: The house of the Federal Minister of State Mr. Mohammad Ali Malkani

CASE 3
Name of the victim: Mr. Mir Mitha Khan Marri, a transporter by occupation, residing in Hub, Balochistan province
Alleged perpetrators: Station House Officer (SHO) in the Hub police station and four other policemen
Date of the incident: arrested by the Hub police on January 13 2006 and remains missing
Place of the incident: The victim's work place in Hub, Balochistan

It has come to my attention that another three persons have been missing after allegedly being arrested by the army and police personnel in separate incidents in Sindh and Balochistan.

According to the information I have received, Mr. Asif Baladi was allegedly abducted by unidentified armed men in midday from the Share Faisal Road in Karachi city, Sindh province, Pakistan on 26 June 2006. The car that he was taken in allegedly belongs to the law enforcement agency. Mr. Baladi had allegedly received several threatening phone calls before he went missing. His organization the Sindh Nationalist Forum was planning to hold the Sindh Message Conference in August and September aimed at raising the issue of the brutality of army personnel in Sindh province and several foreign intellectuals are expected to participate in this event. Three days after his abduction, two unidentified men collected the victim's passport and identity card from his house but they refused to reveal their identification when the family inquired to them. The family suspects that Mr. Baladi might be in army custody as his disappearance shows the typical pattern used by army personnel. His whereabouts remain unknown. 

In a separate case, Mr. Mehar Uddin Marri, a journalist based in Badin district, Sindh province was arrested by the police on 2 July 2006 from the house of the Federal Minister of State Mr. Mohammad Ali Malkani, after he was accused by the minister of being involved in the resistance movement. Even though his arrest by the police was obvious, the Sindh police denied that they arrested him and therefore they do not know where he is. The family fears that Mr. M.U. Marri might be in army custody and subjected to brutal torture.

In another case, a transporter named Mr. Mir Mitha Khan Marri was arrested on 13 January 2006 by the Hub police from his workplace. The police accused him of involvement in the resistance movement in Balochistan. The office of the SHO, the Inspector General of Police and Chief Minister of Balochistan province assured the family that Mr. M.K. Marri would be sent back home soon but his whereabouts are still unknown. According to an anonymous source in the army, the victim is in army custody in Punjab province. The family claims that the victim was arrested due to his surname 'Marri' as in the tribe of 'Marri' which has been organizing the resistance movement in Balochistan.

In the three cases mentioned above, all the three victims were allegedly taken by the military and police personnel without due process.  In particular regarding Mr. Mehar Uddin Marri and Mr. Asif Baladi, I am concerned that the two men were disappeared due to their activities to protect and promote the human rights of the people. 

I am also alarmed by the increasing number of the disappearance cases in Pakistan. I was informed that more than 600 persons have already been disappeared from Sindh and Balochistan provinces in the first half of this year. Among them, more than 20 persons were found dead after allegedly being tortured. The Minister of Interior himself admitted in the National Assembly that over 4,000 persons were arrested in Balochistan. Among those, less than 200 persons were produced before courts.

In light of the above, I strongly urge you to take action to investigate the disappearances of the three persons above, locate their whereabouts and produce them in court as soon as possible. If there is no concrete evidence to prove their involvement in any crimes, they should be released immediately. An inquiry should also be constituted to probe the disappearances, torture and extra judicial killings and those who are found guilty of those crimes should be brought before the courts.  I also urge the Pakistan government to take firm and genuine steps to investigate all the disappearance cases that have taken place since 2001 and locate the whereabouts of the victims. I further urge you to take strong criminal and disciplinary action against law enforcement officers who commit illegal acts such as illegal arrest/detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. In particular, human rights activists including journalists who are working for justice and human rights should not be subjected to the brutality of the military and police personnel.

As a member of the newly established UN Human Rights Council, the Pakistan government must respect and protect the rights of the people and provide effective remedies to the victims. Otherwise, it will only be a mockery to the international community.
 
I look for your urgent intervention into this case.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. General Pervez Musharraf
President
President's Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768/ 920 1893 or 1835
Email: (please see - http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx)

2. Mr. Muhammad Wasi Zafar
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block
Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-Mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

3. Justice Iftekhar Choudhry
Chief Justice of Pakistan
Supreme Court building
Islam abad
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 51 9213452

4. Justice Sabih Uddin
Chief Justice of Sindh High Court
High Court Building
Saddar
Karachi
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 21 9213220
Email: info@sindhhighcourt.gov.pk

5. Mr. Ishrat-ul- Ibad Khan
Governor
Government of Sindh
Governor House Karachi
PAKISTAN
Tel: + 92 21 920 1201
Email: governor@governorsindh.gov.pk

6. Dr. Arbab Abdul Rahim
Chief Minister of Sindh
Chief Minister House
Karachi
PAKISTAN
Fax: 92 21 9202000

7. Mr. Stephen J. Toope
Chairperson
UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Attn: Tanya Smith
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: + 41 22 917 9176
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: WORKING GROUP EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS)
E-mail: urgent-action@ohchr.org

8. Ms. Hina Jilani
Special Representative of the Secretary General for human rights defenders
Attn: Chloe Marnay-Baszanger
Room 1-040
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 93 88
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS)
E-mail: cmarnay-baszanger@ohchr.org


Thank you.

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

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-227-2006
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.