HRW aghast at Dr Asim’s health condition

May 9, 2016
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INDEPENDENTLY INVESTIGATE AFTAB’S DEATH

NEW YORK: Pakistani authorities should order an independent civilian investigation into the alleged torture and death of Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker, Aftab Ahmad, in Karachi, Human Rights Watch said in a its report published recently. Aftab died on May 3, 2016, while in the custody of the Sindh Rangers.

The HR body further said that the Director General Sindh Rangers Maj. Gen. Bilal Akber, admitted that Aftab was tortured in their custody. The same day, the Sindh provincial government extended the paramilitary’s powers to operate under the Anti-Terrorism Act for 77 days. The use of the Rangers in ordinary law enforcement, for which they have not been adequately trained, raises serious human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, has said, “An independent civilian investigation into Aftab Ahmed’s death should be the first of many steps toward holding the Pakistan Rangers accountable for abuses.”
Military control over the Rangers effectively transfers key law enforcement duties in Karachi to the armed forces, which haave a long record of committing human rights violations with impunity, Human Rights Watch said.

The report further claimed that the Rangers have been implicated in serious rights abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment of criminal suspects, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a nongovernmental human rights organization, has also criticized the Rangers for enforced disappearances and other violations of due process rights, and stressed “the need for transparency in security operations.”

Dr. Asim Hussain, a medical doctor and a member of the Pakistan People’s Party, has been in Rangers’ custody since August 26, 2015, on charges of “harboring and treating terrorists and gangsters” at his hospital, among other charges. HRCP has expressed serious concerns about Hussain’s treatment in Rangers’ custody and its impact on his mental health, and that it “is greatly alarmed by a recent report submitted in court about Dr. Hussain’s psychiatric condition.”

“Giving the military a free hand in law enforcement through the Pakistan Rangers has been a recipe for disaster,” Adams said. “The military should strengthen its call for an investigation into the Aftab case by endorsing an independent inquiry.”

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