After 4 Bloggers Abducted By Pakistani Army, Another Human Rights Activist Goes Missing

BOBINS ABRAHAM

Days after four prominent rights campaigners and bloggers "disappeared" mysteriously, activists say yet another Pakistani rights activist has gone missing. According to his colleagues, Samar Abbas, a middle-aged IT worker and head of the anti-militancy Civil Progressive Alliance, disappeared under mysterious circumstances on Saturday.

Abbas's colleagues alleged that his disappearance is not an isolated incident and is part of a larger conspiracy to silence liberal voices. "This seems to be an organised attempt to shut the progressive and liberal voices in the country," Talib Raza, a colleague of Abbas told Pakistani media. Meanwhile the whereabouts of four activists who went missing in a span of days last week still remains unclear. Missing Activists

The four men, Waqas Goraya and Asim Saeed had disappeared on January 4, while poet and academic Salman Haider disappeared on Friday and Ahmed Raza Naseer has been untraceable since Saturday.

Many fear that they might have been abducted by intelligence agencies and their life could be in danger. Rights groups including Human Rights Watch and the United Nations had expressed concern over the rise in abductions and enforced disappearances of activists.

One of Pakistan's most powerful establishments, the all powerful army and the intelligence agencies, including the ISI have been blamed for these arbitrary detentions. For years this has been rampant in Balochistan, where a decades long insurgency seeking secession from Pakistan is gaining momentum.

According to exiled campaigners Pakistan has resorted to a kill and dump policy in the province, where activists are picked up by agencies, tortured in custody, murdered and their bodied dumped in isolated areas.

What has alarmed rights groups in Pakistan is that despite their attempts to bring the disapperences into focus, the practice continues unchallenged and is spreading to other areas.

Southern Sindh, where a movement seeking autonomy for the Sindhi people is gaining momentum, activists say they are witnessing an alarming increase in the number of disappearances.

According to Sindhi freedom movement, Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) over a hundred of their activists have been extra judicially killed by Pakistani agencies in the recent years.


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