EFSAS comments on the grave human rights violations in Pakistan
June 7, 2019
While the detailed investigative Report of M. Ilyas Khan on human rights violations in Pakistan that appeared on BBC News on 2 June specifically underlined the human rights abuses blatantly and excessively high-handedly perpetrated by the Pakistani State against the Pashtun ethnic group in western Pakistan, it was also a chilling reminder that the problem of human rights violations had reached pandemic proportions in the country. No ethnic group other than the dominant Punjabi has been spared by the Pakistani State, specifically its all pervasive military establishment. Whether it is the Baloch, who have been literally in the firing line of the military establishment, the Sindhis, who have fared little better, the Ahmadiya religious minority that has been targeted under draconian blasphemy laws, or the subjugated residents of Pakistan Administered Jammu & Kashmir, their plight has been the same albeit with varying degrees of intensity. Unlawful detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, and extra-judicial killings of critics of the government and innocent civilians alike have become the norm rather than the exception in Pakistan.
