PAKISTAN: A human rights defender and his friend are missing after their abduction by the officials of Frontier Corps in the presence of police

PAKISTAN: A human rights defender and his friend are missing after their abduction by the officials of Frontier Corps in the presence of police

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights defender was abducted by the officials of the Frontier Cops (FC) while he was going to attend court proceedings in the session court on December 21, 2010 and has been missing since then. Before his abduction he had told his friends and relatives that he had been receiving threats from some officials and he feared that he might be abducted by the law enforcement agencies. He was abducted in the presence of five police officials who were escorting him to the court.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Mr Siddique Eido, 31, son of Mr. Eido Baloch, activist of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), was abducted from a check post of Frontier Cops (FC) in Karwat, on December 21, 2010, and his whereabouts have been unknown since then. On the day of his abduction, Eido went to the District and Session court of Gwader and was returning back to his home in sub-district Pasni, Gwader in the security of five policemen, including one Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) and four police constables. As they reached the check post of FC in Karwat area on coastal highway, he was stopped by the officials of the FC and he with his friend, Mr. Yousuf Langove, were dragged into a van. The policemen tried to protect them but were severely beaten by the Frontier Cops and kept in custody for some hours. In the meanwhile, Eido and his friend were sent to an unknown location.

Before his abduction, Eido was receiving threatening calls from law enforcement agencies to stop his activities. He informed the local human rights organizations and lawyers about these threats and asked the local authorities to provide him security. The Pasni police provided him security to attend a trial in the session court, Gwader where a case of murder against him was pending. Because of his involvement in denouncing cases of human rights violations and in helping the HRCP to file cases of disappearances from Balochistan province in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he was falsely charged of in a murder case of a coast guard of Pasni along with 10 other persons. At the time of murder, Mr. Eido was Punjab, another province, to attend an HRCP annual general body meeting.

On January 17, Eido’s family members received a letter from the Supreme Court of Pakistan which read that the crisis management cell of the court has received his case of disappearance and that this case would be heard in the Supreme Court on February 25. The letter from the court also says that it confirms that Eido was in Punjab province to attend the HRCP meeting and was not in Balochistan when the murder of the coast guard was occurred.

The family members of the Eido are aware of a number of recent incidents of extra judicial killings after persons went missing. They are afraid that the same thing may happened to Eido and his friend and that FC and the other law enforcement agencies may kill him before the hearing of Supreme Court.

Since last year a new trend of enforced disappearances has been observed, with Baloch activists being abducted by law enforcement officials and kept incommunicado for several days. After a while, it is learnt that they had been extra judicially killed. This method makes it easy for the abductors to wash away all evidence of the disappearance: no question of FIRs, legal process or blame. Widespread disappearances at the hands of the state agents started at the time of former President Musharraf. Now under a civilian government, this phenomenon continued and the disappearances are followed by extrajudicial killings, in particular in the province of Balochistan.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please letters to the authorities to immediately take action for the safe recovery of Mr. Eido and his friend Mr. Yousuf. Please urge them to take details of Eido and his friend’s abduction from the police officials who carried him to court proceedings and prosecute the officials of the FC who are responsible for his and his friend’s disappearance.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to UN working group on disappearances calling for his intervention into this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER