SALON

Thursday, Dec 13, 2012 11:15 AM UTC

Rights group accuses Pakistani military of abuse

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Rights group accuses Pakistani military of abuseFILE - In this Thursday Oct. 2, 2003 file photo, a Pakistan army soldier guards captured al-Qaida activists and other militants at Angore Adda, in Pakistani tribal region near the Afghanistan border. Amnesty International has accused the Pakistani military of carrying out widespread human rights abuses in the country's northwest tribal region where the army is fighting a domestic Taliban insurgency. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File) (Credit: AP)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Amnesty International accused the Pakistani military on Thursday of carrying out widespread human rights abuses in the country’s northwest tribal region where the army is fighting a domestic Taliban insurgency.

The military has regularly held people without charges and tortured or otherwise mistreated them in custody, the London-based rights group said in a new report. Some detainees do not survive and are returned to their families dead, or their corpses are dumped in remote parts of the tribal region, it said.

“Detainees who are released alive and their families are threatened with dire consequences if they speak publicly about their treatment in detention,” said the report, titled “The Hands of Cruelty: Abuses by Armed Forces and Taliban in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas.”

The military did not immediately respond to request for comment on the report.

Amnesty criticized the Taliban for a range of rights abuses, including the killing of captured soldiers and innocent civilians.

The army and the Taliban have been engaged in a bloody fight in the northwest in the past several years. The militants have carried out scores of attacks around the country that have killed thousands of people.

Amnesty acknowledged the challenge Pakistan is facing in fighting the Taliban along its border with Afghanistan. But it criticized the government and the military for failing to investigate the alleged abuses. It also said a combination of new security laws and colonial-era regulations often provided the military a legal cover for abuse.

The rights group said it was unaware of any serving or retired member of the military, law enforcement authorities or intelligence services being prosecuted for alleged involvement in unlawful detentions, torture or other ill-treatment.

“Without urgent action by the Pakistan government to guarantee respect for human rights in the Tribal Areas, millions will continue to be locked in a perpetual state of lawlessness,” said Amnesty.

The report was largely based on over 100 testimonies from victims of human rights violations in detention, witnesses, relatives, lawyers, Pakistani officials and militants.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations