Pakistan pressed over 'abducted’ activists

Hundreds of people have held protests across Pakistan to demand the authorities trace four activists who have gone missing in the past week.

 

No group has said it is holding them. All four aired views critical of the military or militancy on social media.

Activists see the disappearance of Salman Haider and the other men as a worrying sign

Pakistan's parliament expressed grave concern over their fate on Monday. The government says it is investigating the case of one of the four, Salman Haider, who has campaigned against enforced disappearances in Balochistan.


Supporters of the men accuse the security services of having secretly arrested them. Demonstrations took place in several major cities.

"This is state bullying. The people who have done this have broken the law," Senator Afrasiab Khatak, a former head of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told protesters in Islamabad.

"This country does not belong to any general, or any bureaucrat, or a capitalist or a feudal lord, it belongs to its people. We will not remain silent."