Security agencies behind missing persons: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Security agencies behind missing persons: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Karachi: It has been proven that security agencies were responsible for several cases of missing persons, claimed that Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) as it staged a demonstration to observe International Day of the Disappeared.

The day is marked annually on August 30 to draw attention to the plight of people ‘picked up’ and incarcerated by the law enforcement agencies at undisclosed locations and left without access to a transparent judicial process.

The HRCP members, in a joint statement, said that in the past ten years, the cases of disappearances in Pakistan had spiked manifold. They alleged that the security establishment of the country was responsible for most of the cases.

“According to the families of the disappeared, thousands of young men from various parts of the country have vanished and the courts have time and again asked the agencies to produce them, but with little or no success,” said the statement.

The HRCP claimed that independent verification confirmed that the cases of missing persons in Pakistan ran in the hundreds and it specifically mentioned Baluchistan as one of the provinces suffering the most.

The rights organisation highlighted that despite continuous protests by the families of the missing persons, the issue was neglected by the government and even the civil society failed to provide adequate moral support.

“The families who dared to raise their voice against this injustice have only received the tortured bodies of their loved once as reminders not to speak against the perpetrators,” said the statement.

“The government should immediate notice of the issue and provide justice to the victims as it is a flagrant violation of human rights,” demanded the HRCP

The organisation urged the government to book all those officers of law enforcement agencies who tortured and killed missing persons. It also said that the state should provide for the families of the disappeared as long as they are not found – since many of the missing people were the sole bread winners in their families.


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