The opening quote by Peshawar High Court lawyer Ghulam Nabi sums up a scathing Amnesty International report, released on Thursday, which accuses the Pakistan military of rights abuses on the Afghan border, using new security laws and a colonial-era penal system to act with impunity.
As expected, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) refuted the allegations and termed the Amnesty report a pack of lies and part of sinister propaganda campaign against Pakistan and its armed forces.
“It is a biased report based on fabricated stories twisted to serve an agenda,” said an ISPR spokesperson.
In its report, Amnesty International said that lack of justice was fuelling a rights crisis in the semi-autonomous region where Taliban and al Qaeda-linked violence is concentrated.
Pakistan’s armed forces have arbitrarily detained thousands for long periods with little or no access to due process, said the report, based on interviews with victims, witnesses, relatives, lawyers, officials and militants.
“Almost every week the bodies of those arrested by the armed forces are being returned to their families or reportedly found dumped across the tribal areas,” said Amnesty’s deputy Asia-Pacific director Polly Truscott.
“The government must immediately reform the deeply flawed legal system in the tribal areas that perpetuates the cycle of violence,” she added, referring to the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) legal system in place there.
Although judges have sought to investigate the fate of people who go missing, Amnesty said no military personnel had been prosecuted for alleged torture, enforced disappearance or deaths in custody.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2012.
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