September 6, 2007
Protests in Islamabad over
'Illegal Confinement' of Hundreds By Muhammad
Najeeb
Islamabad
Holding placards and raising slogans against Pakistan's military
regime, more than 200 people staged a demonstration in here Thursday
evening to draw attention to the plight of hundreds of missing
people, alleged to be illegally confined.
Led by Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, former chief of Pakistan's premier
intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), members of
civil society and relatives of the missing people shouted slogans
against the government and President Pervez Musharraf and accused
the government of keeping the 'missing' in illegal confinement.
"They should immediately release these people or at least should
make public where they are being kept or we would continue our
protest and march on streets," said Gul addressing the gathering.
The rally was held at Aabpara, where about 30 people were killed in
a powerful blast last month, amid heavy police security.
Gul told the relatives of the missing people holding pictures and
placards that disappearance of people after arrest or forced
disappearances had become a routine since the present government
took over.
"Enforced disappearances of persons, following illegal arrest, has
been a common phenomenon," said the former ISI chief.
The situation has worsened after the 9/11 terror attack in the US
and the government believed that it had a "free hand, due to the war
on terror to arrest people and keep them incommunicado for months on
end", he said.
However, President Musharraf told editors of newspapers last month
that most of the so-called missing people had left their homes on
their own and "may have been killed during their fight along with
the extremist elements".
It is very difficult to ascertain accurate numbers of the
disappeared people, but according to the cases filed in different
courts, the majority of them in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a
list of about 300 people has been submitted.
Following Supreme Court orders, the government last month released
some of the disappeared people, believed to be in the custody of the
military intelligence agencies.
But it is claimed by different political and religious organisations
that more than 4,000 people remain missing after their arrests.
Pakistan has not ratified or signed the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, so it does not feel any responsibility
in regards to human rights laws and international norms and
standards.
However, by being a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan
could be pressured into signing all the protocols and covenant of
the human rights charters of the United Nations.
"The Council should also monitor the cases of disappearances in
Pakistan and constitute a committee to probe the situation," said
Gul.
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