AHMAD Farhad is a 38-year-old Pakistani journalist of Kashmiri origin who was abducted while returning to his home in Islamabad at 1am on 15 May 2024 by four men. His family witnessed him being taken away into an unknown vehicle. The men also broke the CCTV cameras of the house and took a digital video recorder (DVR) of the house along with them. Ahmed’s family visited the police station the same day but the police refused to file an FIR (First Information Report) or investigate the case. The family filed a habeas corpus petition at the Islamabad High Court to produce him in court and the police subsequently started the investigation on the orders of the Court.
The High Court has ordered the police to report its progress in the investigation to the court. On 17 May, Ahmad’s wife received a call allegedly from his unidentified abductors to withdraw her petition at the High Court to secure Ahmad’s return. He was not released after an application to withdraw was filed by her lawyers the next day, and subsequently, she has decided to continue her case.
Ahmad is a journalist with 15 years of experience and has worked for Pakistani TV news channels, including Bol News, Hum News, Neo News and Capital TV. He is also a renowned Urdu poet, who has raised political themes such as enforced disappearances in his poetry. Ahmad has an active presence on social media. He has been an outspoken critic of political interference by the defence forces in Pakistan and has faced threats in the past due to his dissent.
He was currently working as a freelance journalist after repeatedly being let go by previous employers due to outside pressure. Ahmad had been under surveillance for the last two years, and his laptop was confiscated last year by the authorities. Two months ago, his family members were threatened by the police who demanded that he delete his social media posts against state authorities.
Ahmad has four children, the youngest among them is four years old. Ahmad’s wife has stated that the uncertainty about his whereabouts has been extremely distressing for the family. Enforced disappearances have been used in Pakistan to silence journalists and human rights defenders.
There is no law criminalizing enforced disappearances and there persists a lack of accountability from the state. Families of the disappeared are regularly subject to harassment, surveillance and intimidation by the state for demanding accountability for their loved ones. The practice of enforced disappearances violates the right to liberty, right to a fair trial and the right to freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Pakistan has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment. We condemn this brutality, for how long the voice against violence and injustice will be suppressed.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
