Dr Abudullah Haiwad, President of the Afghanistan Governor’s Assembly, has urged the Swedish Ambassador in Afghanistan to investigate possible links of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the death of Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain. “We are shocked to hear that Mr Sajid Hussain, a Baloch national from occupied Balochistan residing in Sweden was picked up by unidentified people and disappeared ….his dead body was found in a rive in Uppsala, the city where he lived,” Dr Abdullah Haiwad wrote in his letter to the Swedish Ambassador in Afghanistan.
Sajid Hussain, was the Chief Editor of Balochistan Times who was abducted from Uppsala in Sweden on March 2, 2020. The Swedish authorities initially refused to register a case of abduction saying it was natural for people in Sweden to go in isolation. It was more than a month later, after massive protests by journalists and human rights activists across the world that the Swedish authorities registered a case to find Sajid Hussain. However, on April 29, Swedish authorities found the dead body of Sajid Hussain along a river side in Uppsala.
“Although we know the Swedish government will investigate this issue but we emphasize all options be explored including state sponsored terrorist acts such as by the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan),” wrote Dr Abdullah Haiwad in his letter to the Ambassador of Sweden in Kabul Afghanistan. Dr Abdullah Haiwad is also the founder of Afghanistan Naween Research & Studies Organization, which is an independent Afghanistan-based research NGO. “We as supporters of Pashtuns and Baloch living under the aggression of Pakistani oppression are deeply concerned and we wish to see the perpetrators are brought to justice,” Dr Abdulah wrote in his letter.
Pakistan has been targeting intellectuals, human rights activists and journalists in Balochistan by abducting and killing them to silence the demand for Balochistan’s independence. Sajid Hussain was forced to flee Pakistan in 2012 leaving behind his wife, daughter and son. For the next couple of years he took refuge in Dubai, Oman and Uganda and finally sought asylum in Sweden in 2017. It was in Sweden that Sajid Hussain started Balochistan Times to write and report about the atrocities in Balochistan. But Pakistan’s ISI that has spread its tentacles across several countries abducted him from Uppsala in Sweden, killed him and later on dumped his body.