Rights Group Urges Pakistan To Investigate Disappearance Of Two Afghan Media Activists

In a statement issued Friday, September 4, the group said the two Afghan media and cultural activists disappeared in Islamabad two months ago and that their whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

According to their families and previous media reports, Hashemi and Ehsas disappeared after leaving their residence together on July 4. Their vehicle was later located through its GPS system in Islamabad's D-12 area, but the two men were not found in or around the vehicle. Families have said repeated efforts to determine their whereabouts have so far produced no clear information.

The Human Rights Activists Union said unverified information recently received by the families and their relatives has raised concerns that the two men may have been detained by a Pakistani intelligence agency.

However, there has been no public confirmation from Pakistani security or intelligence authorities that Hashemi and Ehsas are in government custody.

The group said that if the two men are being held by any Pakistani security or intelligence agency, their families and the public have the right to know where they are being detained, their physical condition, the legal basis for their detention and whether any judicial proceedings have been initiated.

“If they are not in detention,” the group said, Pakistan has a responsibility to take effective and transparent measures to establish their whereabouts and determine what happened to them.

Earlier reports stated that the families had been unable to obtain clear information about the two men and the families confirmed the disappearances and that the vehicle was found on a public road in Islamabad.

The families have previously appealed to Pakistani authorities for an urgent and transparent investigation. A recent international appeal also urged the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and other international organizations to follow up on the case.

The Human Rights Activists Union further called on international and human rights organizations, including relevant United Nations mechanisms dealing with enforced disappearances, to urgently pursue the case and press for information about the two Afghans.

The disappearance has drawn concern among Afghanistan's media and cultural communities, particularly as many Afghan journalists and artists living in Pakistan face uncertainty over their legal status and the possibility of deportation to Afghanistan.

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