Balochistan is suffering from a humanitarian crisis where thousands of people have been extrajudicially arrested in daily operations of security forces.
Thousands of Baloch political activists, lawyers, intellectuals, doctors, students and teachers of Balochistan have been extrajudicially arrested and moved to unknown locations where they are subjected to inhumane torture. In many cases, their mutilated bodies were later found dumped in desolated areas or buried in mass graves
The continuation of daily operations by security establishments have compelled families to flee their hometown and migrate to seek safety in other cities and countries. But in recent days, enforced disappearances of Baloch civilians from Karachi and Punjab have been recorded. Those activists who have fled to abroad are also being threatened in order to stop them from highlighting human rights violations in Balochistan.
Baloch immigrants are compelled to live as refugees in foreign countries and for being human rights activists, they are concerned for their safety and lives in abroad too.
Rashid Hussain, a human rights activist who was active in highlighting the human rights violations in Balochistan was arrested by the secret agencies of UAE on 26 Dec 2018 without any crime and handed him over to Pakistan after 6 months of incommunicado detention.
The illegal detention of an innocent activist Rashid Hussain who was kept in custody for 6 months without any crime, is a condemnable act of UAE. The social media activists have been campaigning against his illegal detention from day one but the UAE’s government failed to fulfill its obligation.
Although Baloch Human Rights Organization and Amnesty International have also appealed to the government of UAE to present Rashid in court if he has committed any crime and punish him according to the law but the United Arab Emirates violated its constitution and extradite Rashid Hussain to Pakistan.
The government of Pakistan declared Rashid Hussain as a facilitator of Chinese Consulate attackers. We appeal to the government of Pakistan that if there is any evidence or proof against Rashid then he should be given the right to prove his innocence in the court. Thus, declaring a social media activist as a criminal and keeping him in custody is totally against constitution and law.
Balochistan is suffering from severe crisis due to the human rights violations where the silence of media remains the main reason behind. Through this press conference, we appeal to the journalists to support BHRO and other social media activists to highlight the extrajudicial treatment of Rashid Hussain protect those social media activists who have always highlighted the human rights violations.
