Protesters hold rally in Lahore over missing activist, raising fears for his life (Videos)
Nothing is known of the activist’s fate after 2 December. He had attended a meeting on the Islamabad protests. The National Commission for Justice and Peace joined the protest. Amnesty International calls enforced disappearance a blight on Pakistan’s reputation. Almost 300 people have disappeared between August and October.
Lahore (AsiaNews) – More than 200 people stood under the rain in front of the Lahore Press Club yesterday to protest against the disappearance of Raza Mahmood Khan, a peace activist who sent missing on 2 December. His family led the demonstration.
Raza Khan, 40, is a member of Aghaz-e-Dosti (Initiation of friendship), a rights organisation. He was involved in the exchange of letters between Indian and Pakistani students.
His phone went silent as he made his way home after organising a meeting on the recent protests in Islamabad.
At the rally in Lahore, protesters chanted anti-government slogans like ‘Freedom is our right, and we will snatch it’. Some carried placards saying ‘I am Raza’. Others carried black silhouettes with large question marks.
"We are deeply worried about him,” said Ismail Khan, his elderly father speaking to AsiaNews. “They even took his phone and laptop. We are poor people and can only pray for his return. Police says they did not arrest him. We demand to know what his crime was."
The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCPJ) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan joined yesterday’s protest.
"We have known him for many years,” said Kashif Aslam Program and Research coordinator for the NCJP. “Raza is being punished for raising hardcore issues. Both the government and the establishment (i.e. the military) are showing zero tolerance towards their critics. We must oppose this injustice or we are next".
On 6 December, Amnesty International issued a statement asking Pakistani authorities to take all possible measures to investigate Raza Khan’s fate.
"Enforced disappearances are a blight on Pakistan's human rights record,” the statement said. “Victims of enforced disappearances are at considerable risk of torture and other ill-treatment and, very often, even death. To date, not a single person suspected of criminal responsibility for the crime has been brought to justice.”
“Over recent years, enforced disappearances – once limited to the restive parts of Baluchistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces – have spread deep into Pakistan’s main urban centres.
“Pakistan’s Commission on Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances received nearly 300 cases of alleged enforced disappearances from August to October 2017, by far the largest number in a three-month period in recent years.
Last January, five bloggers were abducted in Islamabad and Lahore. They reappeared after a month of imprisonment and torture. Right-wing clerics and TV presenters have accused them of blasphemy.
.png)
