Lahore, student tortured for tweeting in favor of missing activists
Suhail Ahmad studied law at the University Law College and was a distinguished debator. A group of radicals dragged him from his room on campus to a secret location. He was tortured and held hostage for three hours. An investigation opened.
Lahore (AsiaNews / Agencies) – A top University Law College student was assaulted, tortured and held hostage for several hours by other radical students for publishing comments in favor of the five secular activists and bloggers who have been missing for two weeks. The young man is now hospitalized with injuries, while the university administration has filed a complaint at the local police station.
Suhail Ahmad, a brilliant student of Law and distinguished debator, had tweeted some comments in favor of the release of the activists, probably seized by the security forces. On his account he had also published a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, one of the most distinguished Pakistani intellectuals, expressing solidarity with the disappeared.
His was an open condemnation of the climate of intolerance against "inconvenient thinkers", who criticized religious extremism and radical fringes present in the government and military. For this he was punished by a group of students belonging to the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), the student wing of Jammat-e-Islami. About 15 people dragged him from his room in the university hostel, tortured him, covered his face with a blanket and dragged him into the courtyard of the campus.
His screams attracted the attention of numerous students and officers, but no one intervened. Suhail said that he was transferred to a secret location and tortured there for another three hours. He was released near the Mustafa Town district only after the intervention of some of the political movement leaders.
The university spokesman tried to play down the seriousness of the incident, talking about personal disagreements among students rather than intolerance. IA Rehman, a prominent activist, told The Express Tribune that the government must ensure the safety of all citizens. "This is not a civilized way of governing," he denounced.
The student was punished for daring to draw attention to the fate of well-known intellectuals, who have disappeared without trace. The first to go missing on January 4 in Lahore were cousins Waqas Goraya and Aasim Saeed, both bloggers. Two days later Salman Haider, well-known poet who teaches at Fatima Jinnah Women's University in Rawalpindi disappeared in Islamabad. January 7, it was the turn of the blogger Ahmed Raza Naseer, who suffers from polio, kidnapped while he was in his Skeikhupura shop, near Lahore. Finally Samar Abbas, president of the Civil Progressive Alliance Pakistan, has also disappeared without trace.
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19/01/2017 13:20
11/01/2017 15:31
