Raza Khan’s disappearance, like that of Zeenat Shehzadi earlier, is part of a new phase of such illegal abductions in Pakistan, violating due process and rule of law. Targeting young people from ordinary backgrounds, without social capital or networks, signals the miltablishment’s growing desperation to control the narrative on the military, religion and India, I argue in this opinion piece for the Washington Post: In Pakistan, promoting peace with India can be bad for your health — and freedom (Dec. 22, 2017; updated text below). Since then, a journalist covering this issue narrowly escaped an abduction attempt in Islamabad, and another journalist was picked up and beaten in Karachi, then released.
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Filed under: 'War on terror', democratic political process, Freedom of expression, journalism, Pakistan-India, Peace | Tagged: #BringBackRaza, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, Activism, enforced disappearances, Fawad Hasan, India, journalist attacked, missing persons, Pakistan, Raza Khan, Taha Siddiqui | Leave a comment »