Intelligence agencies in Pakistan continue to abduct social media activists and vloggers for criticising the government. File
| Photo Credit: AP
Intelligence agencies in Pakistan continue to abduct social media activists and vloggers for criticising the government and the powerful military establishment in the country, their families have alleged, and approached Courts in Punjab province.
Two social media activists of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Naeem Ahmad Yasin and Arsalan Akbar, and Vlogger-comedian Aun Khosa, have allegedly been arrested by intelligence agencies in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
They have been reported “missing” by their families.
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The Shehbaz Sharif government and the establishment have been facing scathing criticism on social media for “abducting” Khosa for singing a parody song on soaring electricity bills.
Days before his abduction, Mr. Khosa had sung a song “Bill Bill Pakistan”, a parody of the famous Pakistani song “Dil Dil Pakistan” and released a video on social media criticising the high prices of electricity and extra taxes added to it.
Mr. Khosa also took on the worthlessness of the Pakistani passport and the cash-strapped country’s loans. The comedian has a following of 137,000 on YouTube.
The families of three “missing persons” filed petitions in the Lahore High Court which on Friday (August 16, 2024) directed the Punjab police chief to recover Mr. Khosa by August 20.
Binish Iqbal, the wife of Mr. Khosa, told LHC Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi that unidentified persons barged into her house a few days ago and manhandled her husband before bundling him into a van and speeding away.
Separately, LHC Justice Shakil Ahmad directed the Punjab police to recover missing PTI activist Arsalan Akbar before August 28.
The PTI has expressed concern over recent “forced disappearances” of its political workers.
Professor Mazhar-ul-Hassan and Zahoor-ul-Hassan, the brothers of PTI former social media head Azhar Mashwani, and Khan’s close aide Shahbaz Gill’s brother Ghulam Shabbir have also been missing since June last year.
“Whereabouts of all five individuals remain unknown despite their families’ efforts to locate them by approaching the police and the Court. A pattern of enforced disappearance is emerging, seemingly to intimidate those living abroad, who are critical of the Pakistani government,” a PTI official said on Saturday (August 17, 2024).
He urged the judiciary to ensure the safe recovery of all the missing people associated with the PTI.
Amnesty International has also demanded that the Pakistan government immediately disclose their whereabouts and “ensure an effective, independent, and impartial investigation into these disappearances”.
