Pakistan Army calls Amnesty report “a pack of lies”
According to the report issued by Amnesty International, the Pakistani military and the Taliban are guilty of rights abuses with a lack of justice fuelling a crisis in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.— File Photo
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military has rejected a report by Amnesty International accusing it of human rights abuses on the Afghan border, calling the allegations a “pack of lies and part of a sinister propaganda campaign” against the armed forces.
In a short statement on Thursday, a spokesman for the armed forces said that the by the London-based human rights group has issued a “biased report based on fabricated stories twisted to serve an agenda”.
According to the report issued earlier today, the Pakistani military and the Taliban are guilty of rights abuses with a lack of justice fuelling a crisis in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.
The military is using new security laws and a colonial-era penal system to act with impunity in the northwestern, semi-autonomous region where Taliban and al Qaeda-linked violence is concentrated, the watchdog said.
The military has arbitrarily detained thousands for long periods with little or no access to due process, said the report, based on interviews with victims, witnesses, relatives, lawyers, officials and militants.
Cases of death and torture have been documented, detainees are not brought before court and relatives have no idea of their fate, sometimes for extended periods of time, said the human rights watchdog.
“Almost every week the bodies of those arrested by the armed forces are being returned to their families or reportedly found dumped across the tribal areas,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty’s deputy Asia-Pacific director.
“The government must immediately reform the deeply flawed legal system in the tribal areas that perpetuates the cycle of violence,” she added.
Although judges have sought to investigate the fate of people who go missing, Amnesty said no military personnel had been prosecuted for alleged torture, enforced disappearance or deaths in custody.
It demanded the repeal of sweeping powers of arrest and detention given to the armed forces in 2011, and called on the jurisdiction of the courts and parliament to be extended to the tribal areas.
Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States and that its forces have for years been fighting homegrown militants in the northwest.
Amnesty also singled out the Taliban and other militant groups for targeting human rights activists, aid workers, journalists and alleged spies.
It also reported that the Taliban had brutally executed captured Pakistani troops in contravention of international humanitarian law.
No matter what mistakes they might have made or whatever that is that they have been known for, Pakistan Army remains the only force that has till yet saved Pakistan from breaking apart, and that is why all these anti Pakistan agents and forces are spreading blind lies about them, trying to inflict hatred among us civilians against our army.
Long Live Pakistan Long live Pak Army!
Always in denial, this is something habitual!
The Army has absolute power in FATA. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
Gerry you are absolutely right. How and where can one trust establishment for anything. You must have remembered the assassination of President J.F Kennedy, weapons of mass destruction never found in Iraq and many more such happenings. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION, well have we all forgotten Nuclear Bomb on Hiroshima!
Really who you can trust man. President Richard Nixon in his book mentioned that by using SHIA-SUNNI conflict Muslims can be kept far busy fighting within themselves and that is what west has always done and is doing right now as we can all see.
BUT we Muslims are still sleeping for I dont know what. We still look at western powers to help us and give us aid and what not we look at them for where as first we should look upon what we are doing. Why are we being used as puppets by west to fulfil their interests? and I am talking about all the Muslim countries in this world.
Why do we give these human rights organisations a chance to humiliate us? Please wake up!
ISLAM tells us that killing one person is equivalent to killing the whole humanity. ISLAM DOES NOT TEACH EXTREMISM.
OMG – can one trust the army to conduct the election under its control – who can one trust in pakistan
Gerry trust in God, Jesus lovs you.
Certainly not Amnesty Internaional….
We ALL trust and salute our armed forces. And you as an outsider dont need to worry about our internal affairs. Not your concern AT ALL. Regards.
So What you think to trust over there ? Tel me about it
Umm, the elections are not under the Army’s control. Thanks for putting a spin on the issue, nice try.
After all the Army was in charge when the present Government of Pakistan was elected. Todays Pakistan Army is a lot different from the corrupt Pakistan Army of the past. We need to have some confidence and not fall for the antics and agenda of foreign forces out to destroy Pakistan under the guise of Do-Gooders.
kia karay. in ko poojay?
i cant believe the comments below
even if yyou werent involved in the murder of these civilians
you basically are justifying them.
which will make you guilty in the court of Allah Subhanahu wataaa laa
Nationalism is dead when your army which was ARMED to PROTECT is murdering its own people.
our enemies must be having Laugh
Allah Talaah will not forgive the killers of innocent people in the name of Islam which the terrorists are busy doing . Allah Talaah is with the Army and those who are fighting these misguided terrorists and their supporters who are actually helping the enemy by weakening the state and indulging in all kinds of heinous crimes .
Well ,the root cause is a few misguided missiles who in their quest for heaven want to make life hell for others on this earth…wonder why lowest literacy is prevalent amongst the Muslim world and highest rate of violence…..while the world has moved on , muslim community is still debating and deciding as to what is haram and what is halal…egs..music,dance,birthday celebrations etc…
I dont know what planet you are living in Jennifer but is the Muslim countries today who have the most rapidly increasing scientific output per year. Iran is the first in the world and Turkey is the second (as per report by Inst of Scientific Information). Western countries particularly US is dropping behind science at a very rapid speed and even the present state of science in US is being contained by Asian and South Asian immigrants. Furthermore Muslims in USA have shown a higher education rate than non Muslim mainstream.
We have several root causes, but there are two large ones. With a name like your’s, you are probably referring to the misguided religious extremists, which of course is one of the problems. The other problem is misguided racial extremists who believe nuclear weapons belong to a certain race and would like to denuclearize Pakistan. I know that it is a popular mantra that we should not blame others for our problem, but this mantra is mostly being chanted by those who are the other problem.
Now that India has become a larger economic superpower than China and USA put together (I surmise that from the comments of Indians on Dawn), I do wonder where do the Indians find the time to comment on Pakistani fora, they certainly outnumber Pakistanis on our fora, as you can tell by the ratings on this article.
take your anti-muslim views elsewhere please.
Really? How abt 100s of misguided drones killing civilians? Or 1000s of misguided soldiers who killed and raped innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or where were ur human rights when innocents in gaza were being killed. Westerners need to stop this hypocrisy, it’s getting too visible. And btw look around ur societies and see how many issues u have, from mothers putting their babies in microwaves to abortion laws to child sex. Live ur and life and let us live ours
latest news is this…29 persons have been proved guilty by our judicial system in swat, a conflict which eaten up thousands of paksitanis and injured several thousands others.and not to mention the millions of IDPs.so all this havoc and only 29 persond proved guilty rest all are released honorably by the courts.till the time our judicial doesnt start functioning properly this kind of reports will keep on coming.
Dear Umair, the courts free people because there are no hard evidences against them. Collecting evidences is the job of police and presenting them in a convincing manner in a court is the job of public procesutors ( in simple words, those lawyers that are recruited by the government for fighting its cases). Now police and public prosecutors are both under the provincial government not under the judiciary. Also, to tell you that laws are also not made by judiciary, rather by federal and provincial legislatures. So I think you are a bit harsh on judiciary, for the shortcomings of the police and provincial government prosecution department, and for the loopholes of the laws that are made by legislatures.
Sorry that’s not an excuse for army to take law into their own hands. If it is valid for army then it should be valid for all the citizens of Pakistan, and they should start taking law into their own hands and start killing and looting and intimidating people. For ordinary citizen of Pakistan faces equally daunting challenges if not more to their everyday life than what army is facing.
Zero tolerance for human rights abuses, but which army in world isn’t guilty of human rights abuses? I would love to see one example.
you said it brother. I notice there are some people commenting here who have nothing to do with Pakistan but commenting it.
Jamshed Khan, your question should be “which army is guilty of human rights abuses against it’s own people?”. I guess you were thinking of Israeli or US atrocities but they are not against their own people. This great honor goes only to armies of Muslim countries, like Iraq (under Saddam), Libya (recently) and now Syria!
I think Pak Army is right, for God Sake what else do you want from them?
Agree.
Americans and Russians are the biggest violators of human rights in wars.
If they use force then they are human right abuser and if they don’t use force then they are friends of Taliban and helping terrorism against West.
Exactly, they are Damned if they Do and Damned if they Don’t. This is the exact same policy of certain World Powers that have been responsible for all these Arab Spring escapades in the Middle East which have set back Women’s rights in countries like Libya, Tunisia, Iraq, Syria and Egypt by at least 50 years. Actually these so called Democratic Revolutions have destroyed the very infrastructure of these countries and these powers would like to do the same with Pakistan and some of our wanna be Intelligentsia will cooperate with these forces to further their own selfish agenda’s
I am a pro Pakistani and a anti war person …….but when it come to the respect of the army I know one thing army Made a lots of mistakes but that doesn’t give any right to any news agency to distroy or spread rage , or ruin the image of Pakistan armed forces. Good or bad the young and old soldiers and officers are all our Pakistani brothers.
excellent, so first stop spreading rage against Indian army..
I think your lost this a Pakistani news network not some crappy indian news broadcaster. So please if you are so angry at us leave this website.
this is not timesofinda my dear. You have writen a silly coment and are wrong by miles. Being a kashmiri I dont even want to start what india army is upto in my home.
Yes they are your brother who killed your other brethren. That is your internal matters and nobody has right to say anything. Wait till they come to kill you and your death will be statistical interest to media,government and next day nobody will even remember you !!!!!!!
Dear Abbas, no one has the right to ruin army image but army has the right to kill and abuse it’s own citizens?
Well done Amnesty International.
It seems Amnesty is just another tool of USA like UN to politicize every party like Pakistani Army is Evil, everyone who lives in FATA is Evil, Drones are Good, USA is supporting peace everywhere and the list goes on and on.
Why no one ever speaks of the death toll of Pakistani civilians and army men in Afghan war? Why no one speaks for the aggressive nature of USA Army in more than a 100 countries of the world but they are very quick to point out “defensive” approach of Pakistan Army? Why they only see people picked up by Pakistan Army and not USA like Dr. Afia? Why noone speaks of AMERICAN RAMBO Raymond Davis killing 2 people on crowded Mall Rd of Lahore in broad daylight as a blatant act of terrorism? Why no punishment is given to him for killings yet he is arrested for a plain parking ticket, only because the wrong parking was done in USA and Pakistan is just a battleground for them?
It makes sense for them to use every tool they have to win the war be it the media or the people’s minds but it kills me more than anything that the soul representative of my identity, my nation, my dear rulers of my country, the owners and the leaders of Pakistan share the view of protecting everyone except Pakistanis.
Of course they have more important issues to “discuss” about, not even implement, like splitting provinces for their constituency sake and not for administration purpose, discussing about the history and how everyone ruined it and not doing anything, carelessly throwing money on laptops, what else could you expect from a person who can not make a speech without reading from the note, to decide Pakistans future? Foreign policy? Education?
They are the only ones to be blamed for each and everything going on in the country right now. Someone from outside (Amnesty or others) should be the last ones to tell us about our issues. Alas, only if anyone was sincere with the country!
100% agreed
This song is being sung by every Pakistani and all the time. Question comes to mind, “What are you going to do about it?”
I would say if there is any hope, it would be Imran Khan as the leader of my country
wonderful, standing ovation
Umar Khan Sahib,i agree with your statement.
Mr Khan : The answer to your question is simple: Everyone outside of Pakistan knows what Pakistan is doing. No one forced Pakistan to hide OBL or regrow the Taliban. The rest of the world sees Pakistan for what it is, that is why no one cares about your losses, they are self inflicted.
Absolutely agreed. There are apologists in our ranks who take everything coming from west as gospel truth. west is their religion. They dont understand that human rights, freedom, liberty, democracy are the catch words for imperialism to perpeutate and sustain itself in the undeveloped world where our country is situated. Army does not conduct an operation, its bad, its in allegiance with the Taliban. Army conducts an operation, its bad, it commits human rights abuses. So that makes me think that drones are very good as they are coming from the god of the fake liberals here.
Agree, but some of us can now see through the western propaganda, lets just do our bit in uniting the Muslims and leave rest to ALLAH (SWT)
Well scrbed. Agreed
The army is above the law. If they can torture ordinary citizens of Rawalpindi by stopping traffic everyday when they commute to and from the GHQ and JSHQ the tribal areas are must be a playground for them.
Appalling and disgusting – Pakistan came on being on the name of Islam but it turned in to a draconian state where rights of ethnic and religious minorities are violated with frequency.
Oh so now when we detain terrorist, its a human right violation??? what about Guantanamo???
How can someone rate this down? What is their logic?
Rule of law should be supreme.
Only which law?
The Judiciary has not been able to sentence a single member of the Military for alleged torture, enforced disappearance or deaths in custody. Nothing else need be said about the kind of justice provided to ordinary citizens of the country.
Amnesty International should also visit Guantanmo Bay….I would be anxiously awaiting their report / findings on it….;)
Amnesty International has been criticizing the US government about Guantanamo for years. Looks like you have not been reading newspapers.
In addition to the govt, the courts also, surprisingly, seem to be helpless when it comes to allegations of the relatives of missing persons as cases are heard but nothing concrete comes out in their decisions. No heads have ever been heard to have rolled even when dead bodies are returned.
Pakistan must investigate unlawful detention and torture by its military and award exemplary punishment to these criminals!
And what about the US Army killing innocent children in Afghanistan for fun ? Where is the report on that ?
The US Security Forces (their police departments, ATF and Homeland Security) also carry on regular harassment and imprisonment of their own minorities on a regular basis. Over 3.2 Million American citizens are languishing in Prisons and Jails, which is 1% of the population of United States, which is more than the incarceration rate of any other nation in the World.
I agree that outdated FATA laws from British colonial period should be discarded and law and democracy should be extended to all tribal areas. However, Amnesty International has a very selective vision. They fail to see depredations of TTP terrorists, and also shut their eyes to illegal use of drones to kill many people extra-judiciously, including women and children, not to mention innocent male civilians, who are automatically considered terrorists.
Good, so there is a blind eye to killings with drones but yes Pakistan Army is guilty. There is all legal detention in Guetanamabay but Pakistan Army is guilty, CIA can kill civilians in Lahore but yes Pakistan Army is guilty.Supporting Syrian rebels is ok to kill any body but yes Pakistan Army is guilty……What a fun of this nation is being enjoyed
well said mate….
Two wrongs do not make one right….
Very true. But, TTP and Al-Qaida has to be eliminated by some one. That some one is Pakistan army. You cannot sue fire brigade for fighting fire!
Very well said.
Pakistan Army is so right in each and everything they do and nuts like you all turn your back on it. Your army’s inability put you under drone age.