Gunmen on a motorcycle attacked activist Sabeen Mahmud, the director of The Second Floor (T2F) on April 24 in the Defence area, as she was leaving her cafe, where she held art exhibitions and talks, just after hosting a discussion on disappearances in Balochistan.

The investigators found spent bullet casings at the scene but drew a blank.

“That suggests that a new group or new weapon has been used in the killing,” said a law enforcement official, requesting anonymity.

Police said their only witness is Ms Mahmud’s mother, who was with her and was wounded.

The investigators suspected that the killers had a back-up team of two men on a motorcycle and the police were examining the CCTV footage.

Desperate for clues, they were monitoring social media in hopes that loose talk could provide a lead, said another senior law enforcement official.

Ms Mahmud had told friends that officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence visited her in 2013 to ask about her work and finances, the law enforcement official said.

She had recently asked friends if she should go ahead with the Balochistan talk, he added.

The army condemned her killing, saying its intelligence agents would help in the investigation.

Human rights workers have not been reassured.

“There’s a lot of fear among the people, about whoever speaks out about Balochistan, what’s going to happen,” said Rukhsana Shama of the rights group Bedari. “It’s easy to point fingers at the agencies but no one knows.”

Third party

The first law enforcement official said her killers might have taken advantage of the tension between the authorities and Ms Mahmud over her Balochistan activism.

“Our hunch is that some third party exploited the standoff,” he said, suggesting India.

The case was unlikely to be solved if any security agency was behind it, the first official said.

Suspicion that Pakistan’s intelligence community was somehow responsible for the killing, in a bid to silence dissent, is dangerous to national security, said political commentator Moeed Pirzada.

“It is of vital importance that intelligence agencies work hard to expose the murderers, to restore trust between the state and its most aware citizens,” Pirzada added.

Series of protests from Thursday

Civil society on Tuesday decided to organise a series of protests from Thursday against Ms Mahmud’s killing, adds our staff reporter.

Participants in a meeting held at the Karachi Press Club decided to campaign for the fair and speedy investigation into Ms Mahmud’s murder.

“We the concerned citizens for peace held a meeting at the KPC in protest over the assassination of Sabeen Mahmud, a champion for love, peace and free speech,” said a statement. “The participants at the meeting also decided to hold a series of protests, first of which will be held on April 30 outside the KPC at 4pm.”

The people demanded justice for Ms Mahmud and that her killers be arrested and brought to trial, said the statement.

It added that a series of protests would take place every evening from 8-9pm at Clifton’s Teen Talwar.

“We appeal to all those who believe in justice and peace and are concerned about the violence in the city to participate in large numbers,” it said.

Daily Dawn

KARACHI: Sabeen Mahmud, social media campaigner and human rights activist who founded the social forum T2F, was shot dead on Friday evening, minutes after the end of an interactive discussion ‘Unsilen­cing Balochistan’ organised by her and attended by journalists and rights activists, including the founder leader of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Abdul Qadeer Baloch.

Karachi-South Deputy Inspector General of Police Dr Jamil Ahmed ruled out the killing as result of a mugging attempt and said she had been attacked deliberately but he could not share any possible motive.

“She was returning home with her mother in a car after the seminar she had organised on Balochistan,” he said.

“It’s an incident of targeted killing, but we are not aware of any threats she had been receiving. The investigations are on and it would be too early to speculate about the motive behind the killing,” the official said.

Defence police SHO Kansan Dean said pillion riders on a motorcycle attacked Ms Mehmud and her mother on Sunset Boulevard in DHA Phase-II after they had left the T2F in a car. Both of them suffered bullet injuries and were taken to a nearby private hospital where doctors pronounced Sabeen dead.

Her mother was shifted to the Aga Khan University Hospital.

The body was taken to the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre for post-mortem.

“She sustained four bullet injuries on her face, neck and chest,” police surgeon Dr Jalil Qadir said. Her autopsy, conducted by senior medico-legal officer Dr Nasreen Qamar, also showed injuries on her arm and shoulder that might be bullet exit wounds, added the police surgeon.

Half an hour before her murder, Sabeen Mehmud’s Facebook status read: “Unsilencing Balochistan (Take 2) with Wusatullah Khan, Mama Qadeer, Farzana Baloch and Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur. Moderated by Moneeza Ahmed.”

“It appears that an attempt is being made to silence human rights defenders or those who take up the causes of the people,” the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Chairperson Zohra Yusuf said after the incident.

“This is a shocking event for the city and citizens as T2F has been providing a space to the people to express their views,” the prominent rights activist said. On Thursday at 6.30pm, Sabeen Mehmud had also organised a seminar about the Balochistan situation, she said.

“It was the same seminar which was organised by LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) where three speakers – Mama Qadeer, Farzana Majeed and Mohammed Ali Talpur – were the same, but it was cancelled under alleged pressure of ISI,” the HRCP chief said.

“It can’t be said categorically that her murder was linked with this event,” Ms Yusuf said.

“As Ms Sabeen has been consistently providing the space of T2F to discuss the issues of human rights, cultural diversity etc due to which she had received threats, prompting her to hire the services of a security guard,” she said.

“She was trying to promote liberal and rational thinking, which is lacking in society,” said Ms Yusuf.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who is in charge of the home ministry, sought a report about the incident and ordered the city police chief to arrest the killers.

Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo formed a special team, headed by a DIG, to investigate the murder, according to a spokesman.

Dawn

The post Rights activist shot dead after seminar on Baloch issue appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

Pakistan was one of the many countries that adopted the United Nations Convention on Torture in 1984. And Amnesty International (AI) has accused those very governments around the world, including Pakistan, of betraying their commitments to stamp out torture made when they adopted the convention three decades ago.

As part of its two-year Stop Torture campaign launched earlier this week, it also released a media briefing, Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises, which provides an overview of the use of torture in the world today. Pakistan’s law enforcers and spy agencies are featured in the report.

“In Pakistan, we have documented widespread use of torture by the police and other security forces in many different contexts and regions. Security laws enable state security forces to commit human rights violations like torture with impunity beyond the reach of the law. From Karachi to Balochistan, thousands of men and boys have been arbitrarily detained,” said AI’s Pakistan researcher Mustafa Qadri.

“Many victims and their relatives allege they have been subjected to torture, are held in secret places of detention. Some are never seen alive again and are later recovered dead with their bodies bearing marks of torture. Investigations into such cases are extremely rare and ineffective even when they do take place.”

However, a sad reality is that torture is more or less accepted in Pakistan as a legitimate – and needed – means of interrogation.

In Amnesty International’s “Stop Torture Global Survey: Attitudes to Torture”, 56% of those surveyed think torture is sometimes necessary and acceptable to gain information that may protect the public. This number was one of the highest in Asia, but it was lower in comparison to the survey of a similar sample in China and India, respectively.

Akmal Wasim, the head of litigation and research at the Karachi Legal Aid Office, believes that there is acceptance of torture because there is a misconception prevalent among the people. “People confuse torture with violence. Torture is something that definitely or temporarily for a long period destroys the personality and alters the character of the victim,” he told The Express Tribune. “Unless the grey areas around torture are cleared up, people, legislators and judges cannot understand the horrendous consequences of torture.”

There is a need to bring in the definition of torture in the penal code or the General Clauses Act, 1897, Wasim argued. “We should import the entire text of Article 1 of the Convention on Torture into the prohibition. Only then we can move towards legislation and other ways to stamp out torture.”

However, he does not see a law on torture anytime soon. “The Ministry of Human Rights has prepared its own law on torture, but we have reservations against it.”

Express Tribune

At the launch of Amnesty International’s global campaign, ‘Stop Torture’, on Monday, the human rights organisation said that torture isn’t limited to a few rogue states, but is endemic throughout the region.

Richard Bennett, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director, said that Asian countries must stop paying lip service to their commitment to end torture. “Signing up to the international treaties is important but not enough. It must be backed up with concrete action.”

Amnesty said that torture is used by governments against a range of individuals across Asia-Pacific. “It is used to force confessions or to silence activists in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Torture is used to extort money in places such as Myanmar and Nepal, where poor and marginalised people are unable to bribe their way out of being tortured,” said Amnesty.

The vast majority of people in Asia-Pacific, according to Amnesty, believe there should be clear laws against torture, but in China and India almost three quarters of respondents (74%) felt torture was sometimes necessary – the highest numbers in any of the countries polled. In Indonesia, Pakistan and South Korea the majority of respondents feared they could be tortured if taken into custody.

“The shocking fact that so many people fear torture – in some countries the majority of those polled – should spur authorities across Asia-Pacific into meaningful action by taking concrete steps to eradicate this horrific human rights violation,” said Richard Bennett.

According to Amnesty, in Pakistan torture is frequently practiced by police, intelligence services and the army, in particular in the conflict-ridden Tribal Areas or Balochistan. Amnesty International has received report of torture used on human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists among others.

Amnesty International called on governments in Asia-Pacific to put in place protective mechanisms to prevent and punish torture – such as impartial medical examinations, prompt access to lawyers and courts, independent checks on places of detention, effective investigations of torture allegations, the prosecution of suspects and proper redress for victims.

Amnesty International’s Pakistan researcher Mustafa Qadri told The News that the Amnesty has documented widespread use of torture by the police and other security forces in many different contexts and regions.

He told: “Security laws enable state security forces to commit human rights violations like torture with impunity beyond the reach of the law. From Karachi and Balochistan province in the south to the tribal areas in the northwest, thousands of men and boys have been arbitrarily detained. Many victims and their relatives allege they have been subjected to torture, are held in secret places of detention. Some are never seen alive again and are later recovered dead with their bodies bearing marks of torture. Investigations into such cases are extremely rare and ineffective even when they do take place.”

He added: “Many journalists in Pakistan, in particular those covering sensitive national security issues or human rights abuses, live with the constant threat of abductions and torture.

“The global survey we commissioned revealed a palpable fear of torture in Pakistan. Almost 60% of Pakistanis reported that they would be afraid of torture if taken into custody, while more than 80% said there needed to be clear rules are needed to fight torture.”

The News

A grave situation prevails in Balochistan where the civil society organizations have removed boards and name plates from their office buildings, their staff and officials do not carry ID cards or any other document while travelling for the fear of militants. According to them the NGO people are the main target of militants and other criminals who kidnap them for ransom.

Almost all the representatives of NGOs attending the consultative workshop on “Working with Media on Human Rights” organized by Pakistan Press Foundation here told that militants consider them lucrative, as they believe that NGOs are heavily funded by international organizations. Quoting certain incidents of kidnapping of NGO officials in Balochistan, the participants informed that ransom demanded by kidnappers, ranges up to twenty million Pakistani rupees.

The NGO people also receive threats from tribesmen. In such a situation, the organizations have restricted their work. “For example, we do not spread our work to more than one village and keep on working silently in a village so that we are not exposed to other people,” Ahmed Nawaz, CEO, National Capacity Building Program, told.

He said, ”We avoid releasing news to the media and instead prefer to post it on website, Twitter and other social media so that the kidnappers and militants do not know about our activities.”

The situation deteriorated since 2008 when the NGO officials were kidnapped for ransom or killed for non-payment of ransom. The threats to NGO people are now order of the day.

The participants also had complaints against media persons. They contended that newspapers and TV channels do not support NGOs working for human rights. They leveled serious allegations of corruption against the journalists. Some of the participants told that journalists used to cover their events in the past but now they avoid it as the journalists too receive threats from militants. A representative from Loralai area told that journalists have stopped covering NGO activities after receiving threats.

Some participants informed that whenever they issue any press release, the newspapers publish it after some days and for that also the journalists expect payments by NGOs. The newspapers demand advertisements from NGOs and do not respond otherwise.

During the discussion the participants however agreed that there exists wide gap between the NGOs and the print and electronic media because of lack of coordination.

Some of the participants informed that their organizations purchased airtime of local FM radios for creating awareness among the masses.

During the panel discussion Mr. Raza-ur-Rehman, resident editor, Urdu Daily Express and Bureau Chief, Express TV, who is also the current president of Quetta Press Club, presented the viewpoint of journalists saying that they too were performing duty under stress. “Like NGOs, the journalists too are receiving threats of dire consequences. We are asked by militants and tribal heads not to publish any news against them. Life threats are also extended in case we do not publish their statements,” he said.

He agreed that some journalists could be involved in unethical practices however said that the attitude of newspapers and TV channels was in the process of change, although slowly.

Raza-ur-Rehman advised the NGO people to come closer to the media and offered his help in this regard.

Mr. Javed Akhtar, Bureau Chief PPI also expressed similar views and offered NGOs to keep in touch with them for releasing their news on work being done by them in the field of human rights.

It also came to the fore that the newspapers are not allowed to be delivered in the interior of Balochistan while the news channels too have been closed in different areas.

During the interaction with participants it transpired that none of the NGO had any Public Relations section or Media Cell to deal with newspapers and electronic media. Any of the officials of NGO is assigned to come into contact with media when needed. The participants were explained how they can setup a proper section for the purpose. They however urged to conduct further workshops in this regard, as despite holding master’s degrees in different subjects they were lacking such knowledge and training.

In view of security concerns, the participants suggested holding security trainings for the persons working in NGO sector. They said the situation in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw was totally different from Sindh and Punjab and should be addressed differently.

The participants welcomed the PPF move of inviting senior journalists to the workshop and termed it ‘ice-breaking’ and urged to arrange more sessions with journalists for closer cooperation in highlighting the work being done in the fields of different human rights. Currently different organizations are working on street children, gender equality, rescue and relief in disaster-hit areas, education, health, child labor and many other issues.

Contact for further information:
Nasir Aijaz
Senior Coordinator
Pakistan Press Foundation
E-mail: nasiraijazpk@yahoo.com

The condolence reference was organised by CBE which, besides the journalists, was attended by people hailing from different segment of society. Addressing on the occasion, CBE President Dr Nashnas Lehri said that they would never forget the martyred journalists who laid their lives in line of duty. “We pay tribute to our slain journalist brothers who demonstrated bravery while discharging their professional duty,” he said.

Quetta Press Club President Saleem Shahid said that Balochistan had become the most dangerous zone for journalists where 32 journalists have been killed in target killing and bomb blasts in the past five years. A senior journalist Jalal Noorzai said that journalists should take steps for their security and safety since “we are in a state of war”. Fateha was also offered for the departed souls during the reference.

Pakistan Press Foundation

“The council has raised the issue of law and order situation and safety of journalists to the officials of the Balochistan government on numerous occasions,” read a press statement issued on Tuesday.

“The PCP is also trying hard to address security fears of working journalists in Punjgor and other sensitive districts of Balochistan, and is having a constant contact with the administration and the Balochistan government in this regard.”

Pakistan Press Foundation