Pashtun leader Arif Wazir dies in Pakistan after gun attack, ISI using COVID-19 as garb to silence criticism against country

Arif Wazir, a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) in Pakistan, died on Saturday in an Islamabad hospital after being attacked by unidentified gunmen outside his home in Wana of Waziristan.

The attack comes after Pakistani Police arrested Arif Wazir on April 17 for an alleged anti-Pakistan speech during his recent visit to Afghanistan. He was released on bail three days ago. Mohsin Dawar, a member of Pakistan's Parliament and member of the PTM, accused “state-sponsored terrorists” of carrying out the attack.

Rights group Amnesty International in a statement said that the Pakistani authorities must carry out an independent and effective investigation into the attack on Wazir on May 1, adding that the suspected perpetrators must be held accountable.

PTM has campaigned for civil rights for Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic minority, since 2018 and held many rallies recently against the involvement of Pakistan Army for killing of thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes. The PTM has insisted on an end to the practice of extrajudicial killings and unlawful detentions of Pashtun people.

‘‘It is with the heavy heart I report that our comrade Arif Wazir has succumbed to his injuries. Wazir’s father and brother were killed by terrorists years ago. Our struggle against their masters will continue," said Mohin Dawar, a member of Pakistan’s parliament.

Pakistan based journalist and Balooch origin Sajid Hussain living in Sweden in exile has been found dead in Uppsala about 60 kilometres from Stockholm, Sweden. His body was found on April 23 in the Fyris river outside Uppsala city. A Balochi by origin, Hussain was working as a part-time professor in Uppsala when he went missing since the first week of March.

His sudden disappearance is raised many questions as many believed that at a time when the world needs attention to deal with the coronavirus COVID-19, the Pakistani Army and Pakistan's Intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is busy in silencing critics of Pakistan.

Hussain fled to Sweden in 2012 when Pakistan agencies started to search his residence and questioned his family members after his report highlighting human right abuses in the Balochistan by Pakistan Army. Hussain first moved to Gulf countries then after some time he finally settled in Sweden.

‘‘When a new wave of the “kill and dump policy” came about, and the issue of enforced disappearances once again engulfed Pakistan’s restive province of Balochistan, Hussain had to flee the country in 2012. For many years after that, he lived like a nomad, a refugee, spending some time in one country and then moving to another. It was not an easy decision, leaving behind his friends and family back home – his wife, 9-year-old daughter, and 5-year-old son, whom he loved dearly," says Shah Meer Balooch in an article written in The Diplomat.

Sajid Hussain is not alone. There has been a spate of attacks of Pakistani journalists and activists known for criticizing Pakistan. A Pakistani blogger Ahmad Waqas was assaulted by two men outside his home in Rotterdam in Europe in February.

Criticism of the Pak Army and ISI is not allowed in Pakistan and unprecedented crackdown at press has forced many to seek refugee abroad.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) latest report observed that Pakistan’s human rights record in 2019 is ‘greatly worrisome and ongoing global pandemic was likely to cast a long shadow on prospects for human rights. HRCP in his report also noted of police extortion, refusal to register first information reports (FIR), and custodial torture emerged in all provinces.

A report of USA Freedom Network on Press freedom reveals that since 2000 a total of 133 Pakistani journalists have been killed. The legal proceedings in all the 33 incidents of journalists’ killings that took place from 2013 to 2019 have been documented and the finding is 100 per cent impunity for the killers, zero per cent justice for the 33 murdered journalists.

A Pakistani-British journalist Gul Bukhari known for a critic of Pakistani Army was abducted in June 2018 from Lahore and held for several hours by Pakistani Army. Later they denied their involvement in the abduction of Bukhari. She was asked to appear before authorities for questioning. She left Pakistan and now has settled in the United Kingdom.

Pakistan has become one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. In the past few years, dozens of prominent journalists have been forced to left their organization or they are not allowed to write articles against the Pakistani Army.