UNITED
NATIONS

Economic and Social Council

Distr.
GENERAL

E/CN.4/1999/62
28 December 1998

Original: ENGLISH

COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-fifth session
Item 11 (b) of the provisional agenda

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING QUESTION OF:
DISAPPEARANCES AND SUMMARY EXECUTIONS

Report of the working group on Enforced
Or Involuntary Disappearances

227. During the period under review, the Working Group transmitted to the Government of Pakistan 16 newly-reported cases of disappearance one of which occurred in 1998 and was sent under the urgent action procedure. Subsequently, during the same period, the Working Group clarified the case which occurred in 1998, on the basis of information received from the source that the person had been released from custody. The case concerned the Chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP), who is reported to have been abducted on 18 January 1998 by armed men in plain clothes using vehicles bearing government number plates. At the same time, the Group retransmitted to the Government one case updated with new information from the source.
     
228. The majority of the 76 cases of reported disappearance in Pakistan concerned members or sympathizers of the political party Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), who were allegedly arrested in Karachi by the police or security forces during 1995. Most of the other reported cases allegedly occurred in 1986 and between 1989 and 1991, and concerned persons of Afghan nationality with refugee status in Pakistan, most of whom were said to have been affiliated with the "Harakate Inghilabe Islami" party of Afghanistan. The abductions reportedly took place in Peshawar, North-West Frontier province, by persons belonging to a rival party, the "Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan", which was alleged to be acting with the acquiescence of the Pakistani authorities. Four other cases reportedly occurred in 1996 and concerned members of the same family who were reportedly abducted from their home in Islamabad by agents of the military intelligence.
     
229. The majority of the cases transmitted in 1998 are said to have occurred between 1995 and 1996 in Karachi or other parts of urban Sindh in the context of State police operations conducted against Mohajirs believed to be affiliated to MQM. Responsibility for most of the disappearances was attributed to the police and the paramilitary rangers.