US, Amnesty call for release of Ismail, father of activist Gulalai who fled Pakistan in 2019

 By UNNATI SHARMA

Gulalai Ismail, who is in exile in US, alleges evidence is being fabricated against her father Mohammed, a retired Urdu professor facing terror financing charges in Pakistan.

The US government and international agencies have called for the release of Mohammad Ismail, the father of a prominent Pakistani human rights activist who is in exile, after he was remanded to police custody in a sedition and terror financing case in Pakistan.

On Thursday, the US State Department and the human rights NGO Amnesty International sought the release of professor Ismail after his daughter Gulalai Ismail, who fled to the US from Pakistan in 2019, expressed fears over his life and highlighted the targeted harassment of her family.

 In a tweet, the activist alleged her village home in Swabi Marghuz was raided and fabricated papers/receipts were implanted in the files of her home.

While the State Department said it is monitoring allegations of harassment against the Ismail family, and urged Pakistan to uphold due process and the rule of law, Amnesty called for all charges against Ismail to be dropped unconditionally.

The move came a day after an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar rejected the bail plea of Ismail and sent him to custody for three more days. He had been arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on 2 February.

Who are professor Ismail and his daughter Gulalai?

Mohammad Ismail (66) is a retired professor of Urdu, who is also a social activist and a member of Pakistan NGOs Forum.

Ismail’s daughter Gulalai (35) is a noted social activist who has been a vocal advocate for human rights since she was 16. As a teenager, she founded an NGO called Aware Girls to educate young girls about their rights in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-west Pakistan.

She became a state target after she prepared a report on women who had allegedly been victims of sexual abuse during a Pakistan Army crackdown near the border with Afghanistan.

She had six cases registered against her in Pakistan’s courts for “anti-state activities”, and was banned from leaving the country. However, she fled to the US in 2019 after months of hiding.

Following Gulalai’s escape, her parents have been on a state list for alleged terror financing activities.

In July 2019, her parents, professor Ismail and mother Uzlifat Ismail, were booked in a case under the anti-terrorism laws of Pakistan, accused of taking money from India for distribution among terrorist organisations in Pakistan. However, a year later, the case was  dismissed by a Peshawar anti-terrorism court judge over lack of evidence.

But weeks later, additional charges were filed against Gulalai’s parents for facilitating an attack on a Peshawar church in 2013 and a 2015 attack on a Shia mosque in Peshawar, which they denied.

On 24 October 2019, the professor was also abducted by a group of unidentified men as he was leaving the Peshawar High Court after a hearing. The men were later identified as members of the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Wing in Peshawar.

What human rights organisations say

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent monitoring group, in a statement said the case against professor Ismail and the “interminable cycle of ludicrous charges, arrests and court dates are nothing more than heavy-handed tactics targeting his daughter — a respected rights activist”.

London-based international NGO Peace Direct also urged the Pakistani authorities to protect Gulalai’s family members still in Pakistan from any forms of harassment and intimidation.

Ismail had tested positive for Covid-19, which his family says has weakened his health significantly, exacerbating the risk to his well being if he is sent to jail.