The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) today expressed its dismay over the harassment and intimidation of the family of blogger and human rights activist Ahmad Waqass Goraya.
It may be recalled that Goraya had gone missing in January 2017 for about three weeks. It was then alleged that he had been abducted, held and tortured by Pakistan’s security agencies before being released.
Now, according to the HRCP and a Facbook post by the blogger himself, his family is being targeted.
Goraya informed the HRCP that on June 20, his elderly parents were threatened directly with abduction and torture to ‘teach me a lesson’.
In a statement issued today, the HRCP said that it “unequivocally condemns this latest attempt to cow human rights defenders into silence. To use a person’s vulnerable elderly parents as leverage is nothing short of cowardly. That Mr Goraya has reportedly been warned to refrain from tweeting or writing, in his words “at least till the elections”, is an ominous sign at such a critical point in Pakistan’s democratic development.”
The Commission has also expressed its alarm “at the growing frequency with which human rights defenders are being targeted. HRCP calls for a public and transparent investigation of the incident to make it clear that such callous attempts to intimidate human rights defenders or their families are unacceptable and unconstitutional. This ugly state of affairs simply cannot be allowed to continue.”