Nisar in contact with intel agencies, hopeful of Salman Haider's recovery
ISLAMABAD: Interior
Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Tuesday that he was in contact with
intelligence agencies and was hopeful that missing human rights activist Dr
Salman Haider would soon be recovered safe and sound.
Lawmakers had invited
the interior minister to brief the House on details regarding the disappearance
of and Fatima Jinnah University professor Salman Haider and at least three
other social activists – Waqas Goraya, Asim Saeed, Saleem Haider and Ahmad Raza
Naseer – who have also gone missing in the past week.
Briefing the upper
house of parliament, the interior minister said the safe recovery of the
missing social activists was the government's priority.
Nisar said the federal
government neither pursues the policy of enforced disappearance of its own
citizens nor will it tolerate this. He claimed that a number of people have
been recovered in the last three and a half years due to the government's
sincere efforts.
The interior minister
said CCTV footage showed a Toyota double-cabin vehicle following Haider's
car on the evening of his disappearance from Islamabad Capital Territory. Nisar
said that footage showed the double-cabin vehicle disappeared for some time,
only to reappear in the footage and was last seen driving towards Rawalpindi.
Nisar said the
government was committed to bring the perpetrators behind Salman Haider's
kidnapping to justice.
There are some clues
and information which I cannot disclose to the House at the moment, he said.
He said Haider was
abducted from Islamabad Capital Territory while the other three activists went
missing from Punjab. He said the Punjab government was also pursuing the matter
on a priority basis.
The government's
agencies are monitoring this issue and it will take the investigations to its
logical conclusion, he said.
Chaudhary Nisar Ali
Khan urged lawmakers to "avoid political point scoring in the nation's
resolve against terrorism".
Nisar's briefing comes
as the Human Rights Watch urged Pakistan to urgently investigate the apparent
abductions of the four bloggers who campaigned for human rights and religious
freedom, saying their near simultaneous disappearances raised concerns of
government involvement.
Haider, Goraya, Saeed,
and Naseer went missing from Islamabad and various cities of Punjab between
January 4 and January 7.
The HRW statement came
as leftwing and liberal activists prepared to hold protests throughout the
country demanding the bloggers' release.
"The Pakistani
government has an immediate obligation to locate the four missing human rights
activists and act to ensure their safety," said Brad Adams, Asia director
at Human Rights Watch.
"The nature of
these apparent abductions puts the ... government on notice that it can either
be part of the solution or it will be held responsible for its role in the
problem."
Pakistan is routinely
ranked among the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.
Liberal activists are
to hold protests in major cities on Tuesday afternoon, using the hashtag #RecoverAllActivists
to generate support on social media.
In April 2015,
prominent activist Sabeen Mahmud was killed by militants who said they carried
out the attack because she promoted liberal, secular views.
In April 2014,
unidentified gunmen attacked but failed to kill Hamid Mir, one of the country´s
most recognised TV anchors.
0 comments:
Post a Comment