Forced disappearance in Pakistan originated during the military dictator General

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...

(1999 to 2008). The practice continued during subsequent governments. The term missing persons is sometimes used as a euphemism. According to Amina Masood Janjua, a human rights activist and chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, there are more than 5,000 reported cases of forced disappearance in Pakistan. Human right activist allege that the law enforcement agencies in Pakistan are responsible for the cases of forced disappearance in Pakistan. However, the law enforcement agencies in Pakistan deny this and insist that many of the missing persons have either joined militant organisations such as the TTP in Afghanistan and other conflict zones or they have fled to be an illegal immigrant in Europe and died en route. Since 2011, the government of Pakistan established a Commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearance in Pakistan. The Commission reports that it has received 7,000 cases of enforced disappearance since its inception and it has resolved around 5,000 of those cases.

Background

The practice of enforced disappearance is a global problem that afflicts people in various countries and with different ethnicity, religions and political backgrounds. Although the enforced disappearance is a crime under international law, the U.N. has recorded thousands of disappearances in over 100 countries in recent decade. Some of the countries which are crucially charged with the allegations of enforced disappearances include

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, Sri Lanka,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, Syria, African countries,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, China,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, US and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

From 1999 to 2008

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001,

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a State (polity), state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or po ...

allegedly began during the rule of military dictator General

(1999 to 2008). Pakistan went under immense terrorist activities. A large number of people became the victim of suicidal attacks. During '

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

', many people were suspected as terrorists and then taken away by Govt agencies. Many of them were then handed over to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

authorities to be imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray. After Musharaf resigned in August 2008, he was charged with various

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

violations.

From 2009 to present

According to Amina Masood Janjua, a human rights activist and chairperson of Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, there are more than 5,000 reported cases of forced disappearance in Pakistan.Defence of Human Rights Pakistan is a not for profit organization working against forced disappearance in Pakistan. The families of missing persons have also staged protest across Pakistan demanding to know the whereabouts their missing family members.

Balochistan

Most of the cases of forced disappearances in recent year were reported in Pakistan's Balochistan province which has been witnessing a low-level insurgency for more than a decade and a half. According to

Voice for Baloch Missing Persons The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) is a non-governmental organization which represents family members of people who have been subject to enforced disappearance in Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pa ...

(VBMP) around 528 Baloch people have gone missing from 2001 to 2017. A senior Pakistani provincial security official says that missing person figures are 'exaggerated', that 'in Balochistan, insurgents, immigrants who fled to Europe and even those who have been killed in military operations are declared as missing persons'. Reports have shown that many people have fled the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

to seek asylum in other countries because of the unrest caused by separatist militants. Similarly separatist militants have also been found responsible for forced disappearances cases. Separatist militants usually wear military uniform while carrying out their militant activities. Hence they often get mistaken as security officials.

People who have at any point gone missing

* Masood Ahmed Janjua (Husband of Amina Masood Janjua) *

Safdar Sarki Safdar Sarki, ( sd, صفدر سرڪي) (born December 25, 1965) a Pakistani-American physician and American citizen, is a former chair of the World Sindhi Congress and Secretary General of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, an activist in the Sindhi na ...

Saud Memon Saud Memon (circa 1961 – 18 May 2007) was a Pakistani businessman from Karachi dealing in yarn and textiles. Memon was said to own the Al-Qaeda safe house in Karachi where American journalist Daniel Pearl was killed. Memon was wanted by law-e ...

* Aafia Siddiqui and her three children *

Hafiz Abdul Basit Hafiz Abdul Basit ( ) is a citizen of Pakistan who is believed to have been detained on suspicion of involvement to assassinate Pakistan's leader President Pervez Musharraf. Disappearance A devout Muslim, Basit disappeared from his home on Janu ...

* Muzafar Bhutto * Zeenat Shahzadi, a 24-year-old female journalist who was investigating a disappearance case, was allegedly abducted by some armed personnel on 19 August 2015 and went missing. Her disappearance caused her younger brother to commit suicide. She was later recovered from near the

Pakistan-Afghanistan border The Durand Line ( ps, د ډیورنډ کرښه; ur, ), forms the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, a international land border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to th ...

in October 2017. * In early January 2017, five social media activists –

Salman Haider Salman Haidar is a former Indian people, Indian diplomat who served as the Foreign Secretary of India. His tenure was from 1 March 1995 to 30 June 1997. He also served as High commissioner (Commonwealth), high commissioner of India to the Unit ...

, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, Aasim Saeed, and Ahmad Raza Naseer – went missing from different parts of Pakistan. Salman Haider was also a poet and academic. However, after few days, all of the bloggers returned to their homes. Their families confirmed their return and reported that all of the bloggers were unharmed. Some have reported to have been handed over to the CIA and/or flown to Bagram, Afghanistan and later shipped off to Guantanamo Bay. Reports of forced abductions by the Pakistani state first began arising in 2001, in the aftermath of the

United States invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operatio ...

and the commencement of the US-led

. Many of the missing persons are activists associated with the Baloch nationalist and

Sindhi nationalist Sindhi nationalism also known as Sindhi Nationalist Movement (Sindhi: سنڌي قومپرستي يا سنڌي قومي تحريڪ) was launched in the 1972 to separate Sindh from Pakistan. After Bangladesh became independent in 1971, G.M. Syed g ...

movements.

Criticism

The cases of forced disappearances were criticized by human rights organizations and the media. They have urged the government of Pakistan to probe these incidents. In 2011, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was formed, but there was little progress in the investigation. In January 2021, the

Islamabad High Court The Islamabad High Court is the senior court of the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan, with appellate jurisdiction over the following district courts: * Islamabad District Court (East) * Islamabad District Court (West) Justice Aamer Far ...

, after hearing a petition on a disappearance case from 2015, ruled that the prime minister of Pakistan and his cabinet were responsible for the state’s failure to protect its citizens “because the buck stops at the top.” The court also termed enforced disappearances as “the most heinous crime and intolerable.”

Government response

In 2011, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was formed by the government of Pakistan to investigate the cases of forced disappearances in the country. According to Amnesty International, the commission has so far received 3,000 cases of such disappearances. By 2021, the Commission reports that it has received 7,000 cases of forced disappearance since its inception and it has resolved around 5,000 of those cases. In June 2021, the Pakistan's interior minister introduced a bill in National Assembly of Pakistan which criminalized enforced disappearance in the country with 10-year imprisonment for anyone found guilty of it. The bill was later passed by National Assembly of Pakistan in November 2021.