Enforced Disappearances And The Criminal Silence In Pakistan!

There is still silence in Pakistan; a complete silence despite the UN`s report over the enforced disappearances of MQM workers by the Rangers (sub-force of Pakistan Army) in Karachi. It looks as if the people who became the victims were neither Pakistanis nor human beings. 

The UN (working group) in its report expressed extreme concerns over the enforced disappearances of specially MQM workers by the Sindh Rangers. The working Group reminded the government of Pakistan that no State should practice, permit or tolerate disappearances. It, referring to article 7,  also recalled that no circumstances whatsoever  might be invoked to justify enforced disappearances and that accurate information on the detention of persons and their place and places of detention should be made promptly available to their family members, their counsel, or any other person having a legitimate interest in the information.   

To tell the truth, The UN (Working Group) report is an endorsement to MQM`s complaints which it had been making for a long time regarding its missing workers during the targeted operation.

When the present operation was launched in 2013, it was claimed that it would not be against any political party or ethnic community including MQM, but be only against criminals. However by now, the highest number of workers and leaders arrested by the LEA`s (law-enforcement agencies) belong to MQM. Similarly, MQM became the only political party whose head office was aggressively raided more than once by the para-military forces during the current operation. Furthermore, the way the officials of law-enforcement agencies seem to be directly and indirectly declaring MQM as the prime responsible of all sort of crimes in Karachi, it clearly contradicts their stance that the on-going operation is not against MQM. 

According to MQM, about five thousands (5,000) workers have been arrested during the last two years, over a hundred have become the victims of enforced disappearances and dozens have been extra-judicially killed by the Rangers and Police. The number of its workers assassinated through target killings despite the presence of law-enforcement agencies on the roads is in addition to these.

Recently, one of MQM`s missing workers Muhammad Hashim`s dead body was reburied in Karachi. He was arrested in May 2015 from his way, but his family members were provided no information about it. In July, the Edhi Foundation staff found his dead body miles away from Karachi and buried there as an unidentified person. In August, the police officials informed Hashim`s family about this. Having recognized him as Hashim, his family members brought his dead body from there and reburied it in Karachi`s graveyard.

Fahad Aziz, an MQM worker, was arrested on his wedding night by the police men when he was returning home from his own marriage ceremony. In the beginning, the police officials did not accept his arrest. But when Fahad`s family members along with other relatives staged a sit-in outside the Chief Minister House and protested for the whole night, the AD. IG Shahid Hayat not only owned his custody, but also accepted that there was no case against him. When he was released, he had been baldy tortured in the custody. However, very unfortunately, Fahad was arrested again about two months ago and has been still missing since.

It is also on record that in the beginning of the operation, MQM`s former Town Nazim Liaquatabad (Hafiz) Osama Qadri went missing suspiciously while he had gone to a shopping mall for inauguration ceremony in Clifton. MQM doubted that he might have been picked up by the LEA`s, but no response came from them. This confusion prevailed for few hours. However, Pakistan media aired the footage of the CCTV camera installed in the said shopping mall in which Osama Qadri was being taken away by some plain dressed personnel equipped with guns accompanied by two policemen. The footage not only confirmed MQM`s doubt, but also mounted pressure on the officials of the Police. As a result, the Karachi police officials released MQM`s member accepting that there was not case registered against him. Thanks to the CCTV camera footage which exposed the culprits, otherwise, Osama Qadri could have been an addition to the list of missing persons of MQM. 

Likewise, another MQM`s worker was arrested by the personnel of LEA`s agencies from his house at mid night and took him away in the unnumbered private double cabin vehicles. The worker`s father told that those were the personnel of the police and other agencies who had detained his son. But the police and Rangers accepted neither the raid nor the arrest. Later on, the brutally tortured dead body of the said worker was found in the area far from his hose. 

Luckily, the CCTV camera installed near the deceased`s house showed how the deceased was arrested by the personnel. Yet the LEA`s officials denied all that altogether excusing that those were the fake personnel.

If, for instance, it was really so, question is how the hell could anyone dare to conduct a raid and kidnap people on gun pint with a fleet of unnumbered vehicles when the Rangers-led targeted operation was in progress and thousands personnel from dozens of law-enforcement agencies were moving on the roads? Was that not their responsibility to ensure the protection of lives and property of people of Karachi for which they have been in Karachi for over two decades?

In addition to all these, there are several cases in which Police and Rangers picked up MQM`s workers and, after months, showed their custody as their recent arrest to the media. Umair Siddiqui, the member of MQM`s election cell, was arrested in February of this year, but was claimed to have been detained in March (after one month) from “90”.

MQM kept on calling attention of all the people and authorities concerned to these incidents through letters, press conferences, speeches and even now its resignations from the Assemblies, but none of them took notice of this open violation of human rights of the Urdu speaking community. Not speaking of ordering inquires over these and taking actions against the black sheep in the agencies, from the Prime Ministers to the Chief Minister Sindh and from the Army Chief to the DG Rangers all constantly maintained that the operation was not against any specific party or community and that it would continue the same way at any cost.

Anyway, MQM also filed petitions to the courts, but it could not get justice from there too. The families of the victims staged protests several times outside the Karachi press club and High as well as Supreme courts appealing their chief justices to take suomoto notice of their victimization, yet not a single disappeared person was recovered from the LEA`s custody nor were any personnel or officials convicted for their war crimes against MQM and Muhajirs. Question is why is there so much silence in Pakistan over what the law-enforcement agencies have been committing in Karachi? Have MQM and Muhajir (Urdu speaking) community been deprived of all the basis rights that other parties and ethnic communities are enjoying in the country?

It is important to notice that the United Nations Working Groups also stated in its report that despite the government of Pakistan had been intimated about the cases of enforced disappearances of MQM workers, no reply had been received from it.

Such an attitude from the Pakistani government further strengthens the general perception in Muahjirs that the on-going victimization is not the act of any individual in the law-enforcement agencies, but it is the result of a racist mentality and the viciously planned policy against Muhajirs. Therefore, taking into account all this, it is the responsibility of the United Nations to closely monitor the continuing operation against MQM and also to take every possible measure which cannot only stop the on-going genocide of the victimized Muhajir community, but also ensure their equal rights in Pakistan like all the other communities.