Media Reports on Human Rights Violations in Pakistan

Below you will find a compilation of selected global media reports’ links about ongoing Human Rights Violations in Pakistan. (Last UPDATED on: June 21, 2024)

BLASPHEMY ISSUE, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE & IMPUNITY IN PAKISTAN

September 19, 2024: Police in southern Pakistan shoot dead yet another blasphemy suspect (AP News)

September 12, 2024: Pakistan police officer kills blasphemy suspect in custody (Voice of America (VOA)
June 21, 2024: Pakistan: Islamist mob lynches & burns a local tourist alive over allegations of blasphemy (BBC News)
May 25, 2024: A mob in Pakistan burns down a house & beats a man over alleged desecration of Quran (AP News)
March 8, 2024: Pakistan Blasphemy: Student sentenced to death over Whatsapp messages (BBC News)
February 11, 2023: Mob storms police station in Pakistan’s Nankana Sahib, lynches man accused of blasphemy (Reuters)
December 1, 2022: A ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp message leading to yet another death sentence, 21 years in prison & a total fine of Rs1.6 million (DAWN News)
July 1, 2022: 27 Employees of Samsung Pakistan detained in Karachi after protests over alleged blasphemy. (Express Tribune)
June 26, 2022: Man gets death penalty for a ‘blasphemous’ social media post (DAWN News)
March 04, 2022: Misuse of Blasphemy laws to settle personal grudges rampant in Pakistan (The Print)
Feb 13, 2022: Raging mob stone to death mentally-ill man over ‘blasphemy’ (Daily Mail)
July 1, 2022: 27 Employees of Samsung Pakistan detained in Karachi after protests over alleged blasphemy (WION News)
March 30, 2022: Pakistan: Women teachers slit colleague’s throat over dream ‘blasphemy’ (OpIndia News)
May 29, 2022: Pakistan’s TLP announces bounty of Rs 5 million for beheading BJP’s Nupur Sharma for insulting Prophet Muhammad
January 19, 2022: A ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp message leading to a death sentence in Pakistan (The Guardian)
December 8, 2021: How Islamist Fundamentalists Get Away With Murder in Pakistan (Foreign Policy)
December 21, 2021: Pakistan’s Laws Enable Islamist Extremism (USCIRF – US Commission on International Religious Freedom Reports)
August 09, 2021: Eight-year-old becomes youngest person charged with blasphemy in Pakistan (The Guardian)
November 29, 2021: Pakistani mob burns down police station over ‘blasphemy’. It just takes an allegation (The Print)
May 18, 2021: A mob attacks a police station in the capital to lynch two brothers charged with blasphemy (DAWN News)
MARCH 19, 2018: Pakistan: blasphemy laws, military trials, and impunity (UN statement) (ICJ – International Commission of Jurists)
Feb 13, 2022: A mentally unstable man stoned to death in Khanewal for ‘blasphemy’ (BBC)
February 14, 2022: Man accused of blasphemy stoned to death by mob in Pakistan (ABC News)
September 29, 2021: Pakistan’s never-ending nightmare of blasphemy laws has a new victim — a school principal (The Print)
December 3, 2021: Angry mob lynches factory manager, burns corpse over blasphemy allegations (DAWN News)
December 02, 2021: Pakistan’s Surging Religious Extremism (The Diplomat)
March 17, 2017: Pakistani authorities ask Facebook & Twitter to help identify blasphemers (The Guardian)
March 09, 2013: 178 Christian houses, 18 shops & 2 Churches burnt over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan (New York Times) (ECLJ) (DAWN News)
June 19, 2022: Remarks Against Prophet Muhammad: A History of Blasphemy (Outlook India)
April 13, 2014: Text message of death: Yet another story (DAWN News)
December 21, 2016: “AS GOOD AS DEAD” THE IMPACT OF THE BLASPHEMY LAWS IN PAKISTAN (Report by: AMNESTY International)

ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES ISSUE & IMPUNITY IN PAKISTAN

June 17, 2024: Baloch families abandon Eid Festivities to protest against enforced disappearances of their loved ones (Times of India)
May 24, 2024: Amnesty says Pakistani poet and journalist has been abducted (The Independent)
March 12, 2022: Enforced disappearances endemic to Pakistan: Report (The Print)
December 12, 2022: How the Govt using the PECA act to silence the Pakistani critics (Dawn News Report)
August 11, 2022: Protests by families of the disappeared met with intimidation, harassment and violence (Amnesty International)
December 10, 2022: Missing Persons: Many Pakistani children grew up in protest camps while asking for the release of their fathers (DAWN News)
August 22, 2022: Kin of ‘disappeared’ men stage indefinite sit-in to protest Government inaction (The Wire)
March 11, 2022:‘Missing’ in Pakistan (DAWN News)
November 22, 2021:Devastating impact on families of the vanished – Report (AMNESTY International)
December 10, 2021:Pakistan: Victims of enforced disappearance should not be discouraged from lodging complaints (UNHR-OHCHR)
February 18, 2022:Fresh wave of disappearances alarms HRCP (DAWN News)
August 29, 2021:Pakistan: Authorities must deliver on pledge to end cruelty of enforced disappearances (AMNESTY International)
September 10, 2020: In Pakistan, draft law to criminalize ‘enforced disappearances’ disappears into web of bureaucracy (Arab News)
December 15, 2021:UN condemn conviction of Pakistan human rights defender Idris Khattak by a military court in Pakistan (UNHR-OHCHR)
September 20, 2012 : U.N. abductions team tells Pakistan to end impunity for military (Reuters)
May 01, 2013 : Roots of Impunity (CJP – Committee to Protect Journalists)
March 6, 2014: No end in sight: Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan (ICJ – International Commission of Jurists)
August 15, 2018: A woman whose son has been missing for 6 years tried to set herself on fire at the Sindh High Court (SAMAA TV)
June 20, 2016: Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice’s son goes missing in Karachi (Express Tribune)

REPORTED PAKISTANI MISSING PERSONS DATABASE (Source: Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED.PK)
Living Ghosts: The Devastating Impact of Enforced  Disappearances in Pakistan (Report by: AMNESTY International) 2022

ATHEISM & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN PAKISTAN

December 3, 2022: United States put Pakistan among ‘countries of concern’ under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations (The Express Tribune)
May 23, 2022: Atheists in Pakistan fearful as crackdowns on digital blasphemy continue (The Print)
May 20, 2022: ‘The internet is not safe for us; even speaking anonymously online can feel unsafe’: Pakistani Atheists (Daily Dot)
December 10, 2012: Being Atheist in Pakistan is punishable by death (Washington Post)
August 22, 2019: The Growth of Pakistani Atheist Community on Social Media ~ The Defiance of Pakistani Atheists (The Diplomat)
July 12, 2017: Pakistan’s secret atheists (BBC News)
September 17, 2011: Being Pakistani and atheist a dangerous combo, but some ready to brave it (Pakistan Today)

THE PLIGHT OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN

December 11, 2022: Minorities in Pakistan living in a constant state of hypervigilance (Daily Times)
December 28, 2020: Each year, more than 1,000 Pakistani girls forcibly converted to Islam (VOA – Voice of America)
October 13, 2021: The bill on forced conversions of non-Muslim girls rejected (DAWN News)
October 14, 2021: Pakistan refuses to criminalize forced conversions (UCA News)
January 20, 2022: Pakistan’s dilemma of forced conversions and marriages put minority women at risk (London School of Economics)
March 09, 2013: 178 Christian houses, 18 shops & 2 Churches burnt over alleged blasphemy in Pakistan (New York Times) (ECLJ) (DAWN News)
November 07, 2014: A Pakistani mob burned alive a Christians couple (NBC News)
September 22, 2013: Suicide bombers kill more than 60 Christians at a church service in Pakistan (NDTV)
August 01, 2009: 6 killed in Pakistan as Muslims burn Christian homes (CNN)

DEMOCRACY & FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN PAKISTAN

June 12, 2024: Govt Decides to Not Issue Passports to Citizens Seeking Asylum Abroad (Friday Times)
February 16, 2023: A Tweet against army may serve you years in Pakistani prison (Business Recorder)
December 12, 2022: How the Govt using the PECA act to silence the Pakistani critics (DAWN Report)
June 04, 2022: In Pakistan, ISI decides appointments & promotions of civil servants & even judges (Daily DAWN)
February 28, 2022: Amnesty International asks Pakistan to repeal amendment to draconian cyber law (Amnesty International)
February 28, 2022: Pakistan is among the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist (Foreign Policy Institute)
February 24, 2022: Pakistan: New cybercrime law threatens to to stifle social media dissent (DW News)
June 03, 2021: Escalating Attacks on Journalists in Pakistan (AMNESTY International)
Jan 14, 2022: HRW slams Pakistan over dissent crackdown, alleged rights abuses (ALJAZEERA TV)
March 31, 2021: Pakistan ranks ‘poorly’ in freedom of expression assessment (The Express Tribune)
November 01, 2021: Pakistan’s shrinking space for free expression (iFEX)
May 03, 2018: Freedom of Expression in Pakistan Continues to Face Challenges (Voice of America)

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & CHILDREN IN PAKISTAN

March 11, 2022: State of Violence Against Women & Children in Pakistan in 2021 (SSDO)
March 17, 2022: The biases that remain unbroken in Pakistan (The Express Tribune)
March 19, 2022: Trigger warning: Police torture of minor boy in Quetta causes public outcry (AAJ News)
March 10, 2022: Father guns down 7-day-old daughter in Pakistani city of Mianwali (Daily Mail)
March 02, 2022: Pakistan unable to stop crimes against women: Report (The Print)
November 01, 2022: Growing acid attacks on Women in Pakistan (Pakistan Today)
January 16, 2020: Child Labour: A social evil (Daily Times)
March 10, 2022: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) raises concern about human, sex trafficking in Pakistan (ANI News)