In Pakistan, intelligence agencies continue to abduct government critics, families say

Pakistani intelligence services continue to abduct social media activists and vloggers who criticize the government. File | Photo credit: AP

Pakistani intelligence agencies continue to abduct social media activists and vloggers who criticize the government and the country's powerful military, their families said, appealing to courts in Punjab province.

Two social media activists of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Naeem Ahmad Yasin and Arsalan Akbar, along with vlogger-comedian Aun Khosa, have reportedly been arrested by intelligence agencies in Pakistan's Punjab province.

They were reported “missing” by their families.

Also read: Is Pakistan using a firewall to censor social media platforms? | Explainer

The Shehbaz Sharif government and the establishment have come under harsh criticism on social media for “abducting” Khosa because she sang a parody song about rising electricity bills.

Days before his abduction, Mr Khosa had sung a song “Bill Bill Pakistan”, a parody of the popular Pakistani song “Dil Dil Pakistan” and posted a video on social media criticising high electricity prices and the additional taxes that are added to them.

Mr Khosa has also denounced the uselessness of the Pakistani passport and the loans given to the country, which is desperately short of cash. The comedian has 137,000 subscribers on YouTube.

The families of three “missing persons” filed petitions with the Lahore High Court, which on Friday, August 16, 2024, ordered the Punjab police chief to locate Mr. Khosa by August 20.

Binish Iqbal, Mr Khosa's wife, told LHC judge Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi that unidentified persons barged into her house a few days ago and manhandled her husband before stuffing him into a van and sped away.

Meanwhile, LHC judge Shakil Ahmad has directed Punjab police to trace missing PTI activist Arsalan Akbar by August 28.

The PTI has expressed concern over the recent “forced disappearances” of its political workers.

Professor Mazhar-ul-Hassan and Zahoor-ul-Hassan, brothers of former PTI social media head Azhar Mashwani, and Khan's close aide Shahbaz Gill's brother Ghulam Shabbir, have also been missing since June last year.

“The fate of the five individuals remains unknown despite efforts by their families to locate them by contacting the police and the court. There is a trend of enforced disappearances, apparently to intimidate those living abroad who are critical of the Pakistani government,” a PTI official said on Saturday (August 17, 2024).

He urged the judiciary to ensure safe recovery of all missing persons linked to the PTI.

Amnesty International also demanded that the Pakistani government immediately reveal their whereabouts and “ensure an effective, independent and impartial investigation into these disappearances.”

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