Details of political victimisation in Gilgit Baltistan

1 November 2009

The 'Home Department' of Gilgit-Baltistan expelled Col. Wajahat Hasan Mirza (Chairperson: APNA – All Parties National Alliance) and his young brother Col. (R) Nadir Hasan Mirza of Gilgit-Baltistan Thinkers Forum. Both were sent to Islamabad on a PIA flight.


26 April 2010

Pakistani authorities arrested political activists from Gilgit city. Amongst those arrested included activists from both Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) - the term used for Pakistani occupied Kashmir (whose main cities are Muzaffarabad and Mirpur). Many of them were forcefully exiled from Gilgit-Baltistan for a period of three months while some were detained in Gilgit district jail. Those who were driven out of their own homeland included Col. Wajahat Hassan Mirza (Chairperson: APNA – All Parties National Alliance), Col. (Rtd.) Nadir Mirza (Chairperson of Gilgit-Baltistan Thinkers Forum), Mr. Farooq Umar Advocate (Chairman: KNM - Karakoram National Movement), Shafqat Inqalabi of Balwaristan National Front (BNF), along with kashmiri guests Raja Mazhar Advocate, Sardar Saghir (Chairman: JKLF - Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front - Amanullah group), Professor Abdul Razzaq Khan Khalique (Spokesman for APNA), Arif Shahid (Secretary General: National Liberation Front – now Chairman of renamed JKNLC – C for Conference), Sabir Kashmiri (Senior Vice-chairman of JKLF - Rauf Kashmiri group), Farooq Niazi (human rights activist) and Mehmood Baig (former President of NSF - National Students Federation). Hotels and houses in Gilgit were raided by police around midnight without search warrants. Apart from Shafqat Inqalabi, all of those mentioned above were arrested and sent to Islamabad. Meanwhile, Shafqat Inqalabi was arrested and sent to JIT (Joint Investigation Team) Gilgit for 36 hours before being 'deported' (from his home territory) in a police van to Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.

22 March 2011

Nawaz Khan Naji, Yawar Ali, Manzoor and other BNF activists were arrested in Ghizar. Naji was bailed out after four days and his colleagues were released on bail by the civil court after twenty days of incarceration.

26 March 2011

Gilgit-Baltistan's Home Department made out an anti-state case against Tahir Ali Tahir of BNF under 124(a). They arrested him from Gahkuch and transferred him to district jail Ghizar from where he was bailed out by the Court Chief after spending two and a half months in prison.


5 August 2011
Pakistan's FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) confiscated travel documents of Shafqat Inqalabi at Lahore air port. His name had been put on Pakistan's notorious ECL (Exit Control List) by its' interior ministry, thus preventing him from travelling abroad to pursue an independent livelihood. The government of Pakistan through it's clandestine agencies had already destructed his construction business in AJK. He cannot even travel in Pakistan as his ID card was confiscated too. Shafqat continues to live as a prisoner in his own homeland.

Other recent examples of political victimisation:

- Engineer Manzoor Hussain Parwana (GBUM - Gilgit Baltistan United Movement) was arrested under ppc 121 and ppc 124(a) in Gilgit and imprisoned for a month before being bailed out a couple of days before last Eid.

- The Labour Party's Baba Jan was arrested by Police of Hunza-Nagar after public agitation in Hunza incident under anti-terrorism law and has been kept in jail for over a month now.

- Senior leftist leader Engineer Aman Ullah was also arrested and subsequently bailed out in Hunza recently.

The following: Shafqat Inqalabi, Manzoor Parwana and Baba Jaan are considered to be facing threats to their lives from Pakistan's clandestine agencies. Their families continue to bear incessant pressure from the latter.