Activist tells UN Pakistan misuses terror law in Gilgit-Baltistan
Javed Ahmad Beigh told the UN council in Geneva that activists are being detained and harassed, Indian outlets reported.
Kashmiri activist Javed Ahmad Beigh has accused Pakistan of misusing anti-terrorism laws to detain and harass political activists in Gilgit-Baltistan, telling the UN Human Rights Council that the practice is being used to silence dissent, according to Indian news outlets.
The remarks were made during an intervention at the 63rd session of the council in Geneva, Malaysia Sun reported. Asianet Newsable, India Gazette and India's News.Net carried similar accounts of the speech on Thursday, but none of the four outlets published the full text of Beigh's statement. All four outlets published the item on the same day, suggesting a shared source or syndicated copy.
Beigh condemned the detention of activists from Gilgit-Baltistan and argued that anti-terrorism provisions had become an instrument of political repression, the reports said. He urged Pakistan to end what he described as the misuse of those laws and made an appeal to the UN, although the available excerpts did not state what specific action he requested.
The reports did not name any of the activists who were allegedly detained or harassed, and they did not provide dates, locations or the legal provisions under which the detentions were said to have occurred.
The outlets described the territory as 'Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan', a framing that Skardu Times does not use. Skardu Times identifies the region by its official name, Gilgit-Baltistan.
None of the four reports included a response from the government of Pakistan. The claims made before the council could not be independently verified. The claims have not been confirmed by any Pakistani authority or independent rights group.
The UN Human Rights Council holds regular sessions in Geneva where activists and non-governmental organisations can raise concerns about member states. Gilgit-Baltistan is administered by Pakistan as a semi-autonomous region, and political groups there have long demanded full constitutional protections and representation in national institutions.
Skardu Times will update this report if the full statement or a Pakistani government response becomes available.
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