Protests in Pakistan over rights activist's murder

Sabeen Mahmud was assassinated after holding a panel discussion on rights abuses.

Karachi:  Rights campaigners, journalists and members of civil society took to the streets in Pakistan on Tuesday to protest the assassination of social activist Sabeen Mahmud last week.

Mahmud, national director of The Second Floor (T2F), a community space for open dialogue, was gunned down in Karachi on Friday night shortly after hosting a panel discussion on rights abuses in Pakistan’s insurgency-stricken Balochistan province. The panel included Mama Qadeer, Ali Talpur and Farzana Majeed, members of Baloch Voice for Missing Persons, and prominent journalist Wusutullah Khan.

The program, titled Unsilencing Balochistan, went ahead at the T2F offices in Karachi a week after the same discussion was called off at the 11th hour at Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS). Intelligence agencies were blamed for the canceling the discussion.

Mahmud's killing drew condemnation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the United Nations, European Union, United States, Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

In Karachi, the Baloch Human Rights Organization (BHRO), journalists and friends of Mahmud held a protest at Karachi Press Club and called for the formation of a judicial commission to probe her murder.

Baloch rights activist Mama Qadeer told demonstrators he has received death threats since Mahmud’s murder.

“I have been warned that I will suffer the same fate,” he said. “We are undeterred and will continue our struggle for the recovery of missing persons.”

The demonstrators announced that protests would be held on a daily basis to ensure Mahmud's killers were brought to justice.

In Lahore, the Awami Workers Party, a leftwing political party, held a demonstration and called for a transparent and fair probe into Mahumd’s murder.

“Mahmud has become one of the many progressives who have been silenced for seeking alternatives to the exclusive narrative of Pakistani nationalism perpetuated by the state and the ruling elite over the past six and a half decades,” read an AWP statement.

“The AWP holds the military establishment responsible for her murder. It feels that the message behind her murder is simple: there can be no discussion or debate on Balochistan and other oppressed nationalities. Such conversations are automatically equated to anti-state activities and suppressed.”

A demonstration was also held Tuesday at Islamabad’s National Press Club.

Speaking at the rally, rights activist Hina Jailani said “we want to tell agencies that we now have a body of material in front of us to convince us that you are behind the assassination of Sabeen Mahmud”.

“If the judicial or any system doesn’t indict you. We ourselves will charge you with murder,” she said. “We demand that the army rein in elements who want to destroy civil society. They should respect freedom of assembly.”

TV anchor and columnist Hamid Mir, who was shot last year, said that people know who killed Mahmud and those who think she was an enemy of Pakistan are enemies of the state themselves.

Source: UCAN