Pakistan: Demanding right to life seen as act of dissent

Highlighting the human rights violations in the country, a Pakistan activist said that demanding the most basic right, the right to life, has become an act of dissent in the country.

Usama Khilji, writer and director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy forum for digital rights, while writing for Dawn newspaper, said that voicing concerns over being unable to live peacefully and being subjected to forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, profiling and harassment is a natural, reasonable reaction. However, those who raise such concerns are branded "dissidents from the margins", added Khilji.

Their intentions are always questioned, the all-time favourite label of "treason" is slapped on them, and they are showcased as the kind of citizens one must keep away from, said Khilji.

A number of residents in Islamabad, who have started to frequent the camp set up outside the National Press Club in Islamabad by the Baloch Students Council, Islamabad, are seeking the release of Hafeez Baloch, a student of M.Phil in physics at the prestigious Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, and demanding end to racial profiling and harassment at university campuses, said Khilji.

Hafeez Baloch was reportedly profiled and harassed. On February 8, during a visit to his native village in Khuzdar, Balochistan, masked men in a black vehicle stormed the tuition academy where he was teaching young students, and forcibly took him away in front of his minor pupils.

While his family has filed a complaint with the police in Khuzdar, there is still no information regarding Hafeez's whereabouts.

Khilji stated that students in Pakistan should be made to feel secure instead of being threatened by the state as they pursue their education peacefully. They should be granted the right to due process rather than becoming victims of "disappearance", added Khilji.

( With inputs from ANI )

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