Pakistan on Friday confirmed that it had detained the father of a prominent activist who has fled the country, in an incident that has fueled fears of a clampdown on dissent and sparked condemnation from the US.
“Prof. Mohammad Ismail has been detained by the law enforcement authorities in Peshawar in a case of cybercrime as per our laws,” Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mohammad Faisal wrote on Twitter. “Being a citizen of Pakistan, Prof. Ismail is entitled to due process and right of defence provided in the Constitution.”
Ismail had been taken away by unknown men on Thursday outside a court in Peshawar, a western city near the border with Afghanistan, said his daughter, Gulalai Ismail, a women’s rights activist who fled to the US and is seeking asylum.
Photo: AP
Rabia Mehmood, a Pakistani researcher for Amnesty International, tweeted that he was in the custody of the cybercrime wing of the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells said that she was concerned over “reports of the continued harassment of Gulalai Ismail’s family, and her father’s detention today.”
She tweeted that the US called on Pakistan to “uphold citizens’ rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and due process.”
On Friday, Gulalai Ismail tweeted a copy of what she said was the initial investigation report showing that her father had been accused of “hate speech and false information against Government institutions of Pakistan.”
FIA officials had no immediate comment.
A senior Pakistani security source who spoke to reporters over WhatsApp said: “We [have] nothing to do with this.”
Gulalai Ismail is an international award-winning activist who has championed the rights of Pakistani girls in a deeply patriarchal country.
She has spoken out against sexual violence and disappearances allegedly carried out by the army in northwestern Pakistan — a red line for the powerful security establishment, which has run the country for much of its history.
Fearing for her life, she went on the run for four months before turning up in the US in September.
She told reportesr during an interview in Washington last month that she feared for her parents, saying they have become socially isolated, with security forces interrogating anyone who so much as texts them.
Mehmood tweeted that the couple had “continuously been harassed by the law enforcement agencies” through late night raids, surveillance and false cases.
A witness told Gulalai Ismail her father “was dragged into the vehicle while being physically tortured & abused”, she tweeted.
“I knew they wouldn’t spare me ... but I hadn’t imagined them persecuting my elderly parents,” she added later.
Rights watchdogs have long warned of a shrinking space for dissent in Pakistan, one of the most dangerous places in the world for activists and journalists.
They can face abductions, torture, even killings if they cross red lines that a journalism watchdog last year said had been “quietly, but effectively” set by the army.
That can include social media and online posts.
In 2016, a controversial law was passed that prohibits posts that are deemed to compromise state security or offend anything from “the glory of Islam” to non-defined notions of “decency and morality.”
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS