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Pakistanis Rally to End 'Forced Disappearances' by Security Agencies

Associated Press

   ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Dozens of people held a rally in Pakistan's
   capital on Tuesday to demand the government release what they say are
   hundreds of people who have been "forcibly disappeared" by security
   agencies in recent years.
   Marking international Human Rights Day, activists and families of the
   missing called on Pakistani Prime Minster Imran Khan to release all
   detainees being held without due process.
   Pakistan's government has repeatedly denied the allegations, claiming
   most of those who are missing went to neighboring Afghanistan to join
   militant groups.
   In an emotional speech in front of Parliament, Amina Masood Janjua, who
   heads the Defense of Human Rights Pakistan group, said Khan needs to
   fulfill his campaign promise from last year, when he vowed to end the
   practice enforced disappearances after taking office.
   Some at the rally held photos of relatives they say are detained. Two
   young girls carried handmade signs saying "I want my daddy back" in
   Urdu. Their father, Mohammad Usama Mirza, went missing in 2016, and
   like many other detainees he hasn't been charged or presented before
   any court.
   Janjua herself is the wife of an alleged detainee, Masood Ahmad Janjua,
   a businessman who went missing in 2005 in the garrison city of
   Rawalpindi. Since then, she has been fighting a legal battle for his
   and other detainees' release. Her husband's whereabouts remain unknown.
   Although Pakistani law prohibits detentions without court approval,
   security officials privately concede that intelligence agencies are
   holding an unspecified number of suspects. The officials say the
   detentions are because of ties to militant groups. The officials all
   spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to
   speak to media.