Enforced disappearances in Pakistan


Enforced disappearances in Pakistan originated during the military dictator General Pervez Musharraf. The practice continued during subsequent governments. The term missing persons is sometimes used as a euphemism. According to Amina Masood Janjua, a human rights activist and chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Pakistan; a not for profit organization working against enforced disappearance there are more than 5,000 reported cases of enforced disappearance in Pakistan. This is a form of targeted killings and state sponsorship of terrorism of its own citizens by The Establishment specially against the civilian nationalists such as Baloch, Sindhi, Pashtun, Punjabis, Muhajir Hazara, Ahmadiya, Shias.

The Establishment

is the terminology used in Pakistan to describe the deep state cooperative federation of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Pakistani intelligence community. Involved in numerous successful military coups in Pakistan, the Pakistan Army army has directly ruled for nearly half of its nation's existence since Pakistan's creation in 1947, and rest of the times the army has had veto power over the civilian rule. The Establishment was behind the 1953-54 Constitutional Coup, 1958 Pakistani coup d'état. 1977 coup, and 1999 Pakistani coup d'état, The army has been involved in enforcing martial law against the elected governments in claiming to restore law and order in the country by dismissing the legislative branch, the Parliament, four times in past decades, and has wider commercial, foreign, and political interests in the country, facing allegations of acting as state within a state. The Establishment's sphere mainly consists of the country's high-ranking military officers who also control the collaborating senior civil servants, members of the Judiciary, the most important financiers and industrialists and the media moguls. The Establishment in Pakistan considers the key and elite decision makers in country's public policy, ranging from the use of the intelligence services, national security, foreign and domestic policies including the state policy of sponsoring terrorism.

From 1999 to 2008

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, forced disappearance in Pakistan allegedly began during the rule of military dictator General Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan went under immense terrorist activities. A large number of people became the victim of suicidal attacks. During Musharraf's tenure, during 'War on Terror', many people were suspected as terrorists and then taken away by Govt agencies. Many of them were then handed over to the United States authorities to be imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray. After Musharaf resigned in August 2008, he was charged with various human rights violations. According to Amina Masood Janjua, a human right's activist and chairperson of , a Nonprofit organization working against enforced disappearance there are more than 5000 reported cases of enforced disappearance in Pakistan, however, she asserts that the number of unreported cases is much higher. On the other hand, according to government, this figures is inflated.

From 2009 to present

According to Dawn newspaper report, in the first seven months of 2016, there were 510 reports of forced disappearance in Pakistan. In 2011, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was formed to investigate the cases of forced disappearances. According to Amnesty International, the commission has so far received 3,000 cases of such disappearances.
Founder of Aware Girls, Gulalai Ismail, was threatened with death by the Inter-Services Intelligence after she joined the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement and protested against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by the Pakistani state. After raising awareness of sexual assault committed by Pakistani security forces on women, Gulalai Ismail fled the country as police forces were on their way to arrest her.

People who have at any point gone missing

Some have reported to have been handed over to the CIA and/or flown to Bagram, Afghanistan and later shipped off to Guantanamo Bay. Reports of forced abductions by the Pakistani state first began arising in 2001, in the aftermath of the United States invasion of Afghanistan and the commencement of the US-led War on Terror. Many of the missing persons are activists associated with the Baloch nationalist and Sindhi nationalist movements.

Balochistan

According to Voice for Baloch Missing Persons around 528 Baloch have gone missing from 2001 to 2017.
A senior Pakistani provincial security official claims that missing person figures are 'exaggerated', that 'in Balochistan, insurgents, immigrants who fled to Europe and even those who have been killed in military operations are declared as missing persons'. Reports have shown that many people have fled the province to seek asylum in other countries because of the unrest caused by separatist militants.
Similarly separatist militants have also been found responsible for enforced disappearances cases. Separatist militants usually wear military uniform while carrying out their militant activities. Hence they often get mistaken as security officials.
As of 2018, the Pakistani state was using Islamist militants to crush Baloch separatists. Academics and journalists in the United States have been approached by Inter-Services Intelligence spies, who threatened them not to speak about the insurgency in Balochistan, as well as human rights abuses by the Pakistani Army, or else their families would be harmed.

Criticism

The cases of forced disappearances were criticized by human rights organizations and the media. They have urged the government of Pakistan to probe these incidents. In 2011, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was formed, but there was little progress in the investigation.