Surat Lohar, Chairperson, Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh from Karachi, Pakistan said that Pakistan’s federal minister for Human Rights, Riaz Pirzada has claimed for the first time on behalf of the state that “many missing persons have been killed”.He accused the missing persons of being in touch with neighbouring countries and Kulbhushan Jadav and being involved in terrorist activities in other areas, including Quetta.He said that all of them have been killed by the Pakistani forces.He defended the state forces and the missing agencies ISI and MI, saying that instead of the Missing Persons Commission, ISI  and MI should see the problem of missing persons.”To this day, representatives of the Pakistani state in every international institutions and courts have been showing disinterest and ignorance on the issue of missing persons.But this is the first time that Pakistan’s Minister for Human Rights Riaz Pirzada has claimed that the missing persons were killed by state forces in response to a question from journalist yesterday.”Surat Lohar, chairperson of Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh, an organization working on human rights and missing persons in Sindh, reacted strongly to the statement federal minister Riaz Pirzada has made .All these missing persons are being claimed to have been killed without conviction or for judicial proceedings or for exercising the legal and human right to defend themselves. Lohar further questioned, “What more hope do we have for the recovery and justice of those missing from such state institutions? She added, “now the Pakistani state is openly declaring that we have killed missing persons.We now appeal to all international organizations and human rights organizations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, Red Cross,  Asian Human Rights Commission, thousands of political, social and nationalist activists from Sindh and Balochistan who have been forcibly abducted by Pak forces for many years.International organizations should make Pakistan accountable to the global conscience by forming their own commissions and special task forces on this issue on the basis of human rights and play their global, political and diplomatic role on forced abductions and gross human rights violation in Sindh and Balochistan.All human rights organizations around the world, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, the Red Cross and the Asian Human Rights Commission, should take note”.

Unannounced load shedding in different parts of Karachi, the capital of Pakistan Sindh Province has tested the patience of the people.Roads were blocked for 20 long hours of protest on Maripur Road.There were long queues of vehicles on the  ICI Bridge, Jinnah Bridge Netty Jetty.With the increase in heat intensity in Karachi, the humidity in the air also reached 65%.Long hours of  load shedding in many areas have overwhelmed  the patience of citizens.Traffic flow was severely affected due to this protests at Madi Pod Road, ICI Bridge, MT Khan road and Nishtar road among others.The protesters also carried placards against Karachi Electric in their hands.Protesters said Karachi Electric did not listen despite making complaints.Police tried to negotiate with protesters but failed.Police gave time to the protesters to open the highway but the protestors said that the demonstration would not end till talks with Karachi Electric officials or the Chief Minister was not conducted.

Pakistan is a strange land where people seem to be ‘appearing’, ‘disappearing’ and ‘reappearing’ all the time. While this strange occurrence follows no discernible pattern, but it does appear to have a definite link to sensitive issues, mostly those related to terrorism. For example, despite New Delhi providing Islamabad with his exact whereabouts in Karachi, Islamabad kept denying that 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast mastermind Dawood Ibrahim was living in the country.

A decade after the Mumbai serial blasts, the then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s special envoy Shahryar Khan admitted that “Dawood [Ibrahim] was in Pakistan.”  However, he quickly went on to add that “…I believe he was chased out of Pakistan”. However, in keeping with Islamabad’s unmatched ability to issue open-ended statements that provide an immense scope of deniability, Khan said that “If he is in Pakistan, he should be hounded and arrested”. Since this didn’t happen, it would be fair to assume that Ibrahim had indeed fled Pakistan.

The same Dawood Ibrahim who was purportedly “chased out of Pakistan” had ‘disappeared’, suddenly ‘reappeared’ in 2020 when an official Pakistani notification that sanctioned 89 key terrorists under provisions of “Security Council resolution 2368 (2018) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations”, mentioned him as being a resident of Karachi and owning three properties here.

That this miraculous ‘reappearance’ happened precisely a month before the plenary meeting of global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force [FATF] was due to meet to decide on Pakistan’s retention or removal from grey list, is obviously no mere coincidence. Unfortunately, this ‘reappearance’ was short-lived.

When Indian authorities demanded that being an Indian national, Ibrahim, who is currently a resident of Karachi should be handed over to New Delhi so that he could be tried and punished for his criminal and terrorist activities, he once again ‘disappeared’ and since then, he’s not been heard of. On its part, Pakistani authorities maintain that mention of Ibrahim’s name in the notification and listing out the three homes he owned in Karachi wasn’t an admission of his presence in the country. Strange but true!

On February 14, 2019, a suicide car bomb attack on a Central Reserve Police Force bus in Pulwama [J&K] killed 40 policemen and proscribed Pakistan based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad [JeM] took responsibility for this attack. Realising that this horrific act would enrage the international community, the then Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi immediately played the sympathy card to save JeM founder Masood Azhar.

A distressed Qureshi told the media that “He [Masood Azhar] is in Pakistan, according to my information. He is very unwell. He is unwell to the extent that he cannot leave his house because he is really unwell,” and use of the word ‘unwell’ thrice in such quick repetition says it all. However, even though Qureshi had confirmed Azar’s presence in Pakistan after the Pulwama attack, DG ISPR conveniently “disappeared” him by saying, “Jaish-e-Mohammed does not exist in Pakistan. It has been proscribed by the United Nations and Pakistan also”. 

Barely two weeks after Azhar’s ‘disappearance’, there was another case wherein an unnamed Indian suddenly ‘appeared’ on a bright winter morning- only to ‘disappear’ into thin air the same evening. It was February 27, 2019, and Indian Air force [IAF] fighter pilot Wg Cdr Abhinandan Varthaman was apprehended by Pakistan army after his MIG 21 was shot down. DGISPR claimed that two IAF fighter jets had been downed and while one IAF pilot [Wg Cdr Varthaman] had been apprehended, two others were in “the area”.

Around midday, while talking to the media, DGISPR claimed that “Our ground forces arrested two pilots; one of them was injured and has been shifted to CMH [Combined Military Hospital] and, God-willing, he will be taken care of.” But by evening, DGISPR “disappeared” the hospitalised IAF pilot he had claimed was in Pakistan army’s custody by tweeting that “There is only one pilot under Pakistan army’s custody.” So, doesn’t this strange turn of events make this incident one of the most intriguing cases of a sudden “appearance” followed by an equally quick “disappearance”?

Fast forward to the present and one finds that after a two-year hiatus, another unbelievable ‘reappearance’ has hit Pakistan. This time, it’s a Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] terrorist named Sajid Mir, who as the ‘operational commander’, played an important role in planning and conduct of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Despite a USD $5 million bounty announced by the FBI, has been evading the law, thanks to protection provided by Pakistan’s military establishment.

Not only has Islamabad denied Mir’s presence in Pakistan but portraying him as a God-fearing preacher tried to protect him from possible persecution, by going to the extent of suggesting that he was dead. This is why Mir’s sudden and completely unexpected ‘reappearance’ is in itself nothing less than a miracle.

While Islamabad may deny it, but with a long ‘disappeared’ Mir not only suddenly ‘reappearing’, but also being secretly tried and swiftly sentenced just days before FATF was to decide on Pakistan’s grey listing status, there’s no doubt that this is what has compelled Islamabad to act against the LeT terrorist. That’s why one can say with complete conviction that should FATF continue maintaining pressure on Pakistan to end providing support to terrorist groups, then, be rest assured that even the JeM chief Masood Azhar who suddenly ‘disappeared’ after the Pulwama terrorist attack too, will unexpectedly ‘reappear’!

After it successfully extracted an ‘unconditional’ apology from advocate and rights activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, who had [as per the military’s FIR] had “abused the senior military leadership [army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa] of the Pakistan Army,” the Pakistan army must certainly be rejoicing its ‘victory’. Rawalpindi may be able to silence domestic criticism through a wide-ranging array of novel methods that make any person criticising Pakistan army quickly realise his [or her] mistake, and make amends through ‘unconditional apologies’. However, its track record of human rights abuses has peaked to a level that it’s drawing global attention and the latest such attack comes from a Canadian lawmaker.

While questioning the appropriateness of the Canadian Defence Ministry’s decision of releasing $ 50,000 for the visit of Gen Bajwa to Canada in 2020 [which was subsequently cancelled due to covid pandemic], Canadian Member of Parliament [MP] Tom Kmiec exposed the host of illegal activities committed under his watch by the Pakistan army. Speaking in the House of Commons, he mentioned that Gen Bajwa stands “accused of two toppling two governments of Pakistan, [and] the military under his command has been involved in human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings and has links to terror groups.”

While Islamabad has served a démarche to the Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan as it considers that the Canadian lawmakers remarks are “against diplomatic norms and highly irresponsible”, even thoughwhat Kmeic has stated aren’t unsubstantiated allegations or mere hearsay. Au contraire, what he has said is already recorded in various reports prepared by both UN and other internationally recognised autonomous global watchdogs on human rights like UN Human rights commission, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as influential organisations like the European Union and Financial Action Task Force [FATF].

Consequently, by remaining in a state of perpetual denial on human right violations, extrajudicial killings by Pakistan army as well as its links to terror groups, Islamabad has abdicated its constitutional responsibility of protecting its minority communities. So, just like Rawalpindi in Mazari-Hazir case, while Islamabad too must be complimenting itself for having ‘killed’ the serious charges of human rights Canadian lawmaker with a démarche, such puerile attitude is only damaging Pakistan’s international image and the fact that it has been languishing in the FATF grey list since June 2018, is proof of this!

Some very prominent personalities who have held the most responsible positions in the government and military have themselves admitted Pakistan’s institutionalised support of terrorism, and a few enumerated are just a few examples of such damning revelations:

• In 2009, the then Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari frankly confessed that “militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralized but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve short-term tactical objectives. Let’s be truthful and make a candid admission of the reality [Emphasis added].
• Just a year later, in an interview given to ‘Der Spiegel’, Pakistan’s ex-President and former army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf proudly stated that “We poisoned Pakistani civil society for 10 years when we fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was jihad and we brought in militants from all over the world, with the West and Pakistan together in the lead role.” [Emphasis added].
• In 2017, retired Maj Gen Mahmud Ali Durrani [who was Pakistan’s National Security Adviser [NSA] when the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack took place] disclosed that “26/11 Mumbai strikes, carried out by a terror group based in Pakistan [Lashkar e Taiba], was a classic trans-border terrorist event” [Emphasis added].
• As late as 2019, while on a visit to the US, the then Prime Minister Imran Khan, revealed that “we still have about 30,000-40,000-armed people who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir.” [Emphasis added].
• In the very same year, DGISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor admitted that Pakistan army was committing gross human rights violations when said during a media interaction session that “We don’t want any person to go missing but where there is a war, you have to do a number of [undesirable] things” and then having the cheek to defend human rights violations by saying, “It is said that everything is fair in love and war. War occurs to be ruthless! [Emphasis added].

Two former presidents [including an ex-army chief, one prime minister and two Generals [including one who was Pakistan’s NSA during the Mumbai attacks] openly accepting that terrorists enjoy state patronage and that the Pakistan army is indulging in enforced disappearances. Therefore, isn’t serving a démarche to the Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan since its MP has highlighted these very issues reek of moral depravity? While diplomacy may demand overlooking minor demeanours but for how long will nations who claim to have zero-tolerance for rights violations by states be mute spectators to institutionalised persecution of minorities in Pakistan? 

Let’s not forget that it’s abject apathy of the international community that has convinced both Islamabad and Rawalpindi that they can [literally] get away with murder. So, as long as concrete steps to compel Pakistan end organised human rights violations are not taken, we by our stoic silence are complicit in these grave crimes against humanity and hence have no moral right to wax eloquent on this issue!

A grand meeting was held on the first anniversary of the martyrdom of Milli Atal Milli Usman Khan Kakar, the leader of the Pashtun national political movement organized by Pashtunkhwamap at the Hockey Ground in  Quetta,  capital of occupied Balochistan.The meeting was presided over by party chairman Mahmood Kan Achakzai.Party Central Secretary General Mukhtiar Khan Yousafzai, Senior Deputy Chairman Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, Central Secretary Information Raza Muhammad Raza, Central Secretary Obaidullah Jan Babat, Waranga Loni, Provincial Vice President Yousuf Khan Kakar, Provincial Secretary Information Khushal Khan Kakar, District Secretary Qila Saifullah Chairman Allah Noor Khan addressed the meeting.Mahmood Khan Achakzai congratulated all party workers and officials of party agencies for organizing a grand public meeting on the first death anniversary of Milli Usman Kakar and said that party workers and officials paid rich tributes to party leader Usman Khan Kakar for his great national service and sacrifices through his hard work.He said,”We are celebrating the first anniversary of Usman Khan Kakar in such a situation that the region is facing a worrying situation as a result of the policies adopted by Pakistan and Iran with regards to Afghanistan”.He further said, “I want to discuss the establishment of Pakistan on the death anniversary of Usman Khan and the disastrous consequences of the policies adopted by the rulers of Pakistan and Iran on Afghanistan,and I want to make it clear to the rulers of our country that Afghanistan has not accepted slavery to anyone in its history.When the colonial forces ruled all the Islamic world except Turkey, the proud Afghans still kept their flag of stability and freedom high.Afghanistan is building a graveyard of world’s large global colonial empires.Nations and areas whose people have lived in long slavery have no idea of the value of freedom.The Afghan people have always defended the stability and freedom of their beloved country at the cost of their lives”.

He said that the Ukraine war has put the region in a dangerous situation and as a result of the wrong policies of the country, the economic crisis of the country has taken a disastrous turn.He claimed “If anyone loves Pakistan’s defence, they have to defend Afghanistan’s stability and independence because Pakistan’s defence is subject to Afghanistan’s defence.If the stability and independence of Afghanistan is ended, it will be impossible for Pakistan and Iran to maintain their independence”.He said that the policy of making Afghanistan the fifth province of Pakistan during the reign of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the strategic death policy of our generals would be disastrous.Our establishment has to withdraw from this anti-Afghan policy.They must wholeheartedly recognize the stability, independence and sovereignty of Afghanistan.He said Pashtun Afghans in the Federation of Pakistan have found their own defense of Afghanistan’s stability and independence and consider it a religious duty.

He said that in the Pakistan-India war of 1965 and 1971, Zahir Shah of Afghanistan remained neutral and said that even though we have problems with Pakistan, we will not create a problem for the Muslim country.He said Pakistan’s current serious economic crisis was the result of anti-people policies of establishment.“Our poor people do not even have two meals a day.We want to make it clear to Shahbaz Sharif and Maulana Fazal Rehman Sahib that our people are not able to bear this economic crisis.Even after holding new elections, the solution to this serious economic crisis is not such an easy task.To solve this serious economic crisis of Pakistan, fundamental changes are needed in the economic system of the country.If Pakistan’s parliament is not recognized as a source of power and the Senate does not get the same powers as the National Assembly, it is not possible to solve our problems”, he said.