ICC Note:
At the beginning of January, five human rights activists in Pakistan disappeared. Many believe government security forces are behind the forced disappearances and have started organizing demonstrations demanding their release. According to reports, the activists were abducted because of the online blogging regarding religious extremism being present in Pakistan’s political and military circles. Recently, an Islamic organization accused the missing activists of blasphemy for these comments. 
01/20/2017 Pakistan (Asia News) – Christians and Muslim human rights activists are demanding the release of the five activists who disappeared in Pakistan. They went missing two weeks after they had posted comments critical of religious extremism present in political and military circles. They are: cousins ​​ Waqas Goraya and Aasim Saeed, both bloggers; Salman Haider, well-known poet who teaches at Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in Rawalpindi; blogger Ahmed Raza Naseer, who suffers from polio, kidnapped while he was in his Skeikhupura shop, near Lahore and  Samar Abbas, president of the Civil Progressive Alliance Pakistan.
Speaking to Asia News, Nadeem Anthony, a Christian lawyer, expresses great concern about the fate of the liberal intellectuals and lay people in the Islamic Republic. “The stern action by agencies including enforced disappearances and raids on offices of NGOs is condemnable. The government cannot justify themselves by using these methods, it is not their job to silence people.”
The lawyer believes that the opinions expressed by the five disappeared were not [illegal], “The victims were not against Pakistan and were only raising awareness about injustices with the poor.”
”There has been a recent campaign against human right activists [saying] that we are acting on [a] foreign agenda. In fact, we are actually helping the government. It’s only a few days since 2017 and situation of human rights is worsening. We shall continue our protests.”
Yesterday, the Commission on Human Rights of Pakistan (HRCP) organized a seminar to turn the spotlight on the limited possibilities of expression for social organizations operating in the country. The participants demanded the release of the four Lahore bloggers and Rawalpindi professor. A student of the University Law College in Lahore has also denounced their disappearance, but was punished, tortured and held hostage for several hours by other fellow students linked to the radical Jamaat-e-Islam.
According to the Commission, in 2015 there were 1,390 cases of enforced disappearances. Of these, at least 191 have taken place between January and November in the province of Balochistan, repeatedly denounced by Salman Haider, the missing professor.
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