November 14, 2024
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
In a letter addressed to the President of the country, the daughters of Idris Khattak, an activist who was forcibly disappeared five years ago today, requested for the release of their father on account of his failing health.
In the letter Shumaisa and Talia Khattak, appealed for ‘compassion and understanding’ from the President to bring their father back home.
“The toll this has taken on our father’s health is immense. We are deeply concerned for his well- being, as we know that he has suffered physically and emotionally during his detention,” said the letter. “He is a patient of diabetes, neuropathy, and high blood pressure. His prison conditions are such that he is forced to work in a carpet-making factory while sitting on a wooden bench for hours, which has aggravated his backache. He cannot get required MRI’s done. He suffers from weak eyesight and even though the prison doctor prescribed glasses, he has not been provided with them. The conditions under which he is being held have only worsened his health, and we fear for his life.”
Khattak’s daughters said in the letter that they can barely meet him for 15 minutes each week, (besides when the prison is closed), left only with ‘fleeting memories of the man who used to cook for us, teach us, and share his love of reading and languages’.
“He is now a grandfather to two children, but yet the bond there should have been, does not exist. The kids, aged 2 and 4, visit him in prison every few months, and believe that that is Idris’s home,” said the letter.
‘Disappeared’
Fifty six year old Idris Khattak was forcibly disappeared by Pakistan’s security forces on November 13, 2019, when armed men in simple clothes intercepted his car on his way home. He remained missing for the next seven months.
He was on his way home from Islamabad when his rented car was intercepted near the Swabi Interchange in KP. Khattak’s driver was also picked up at the same time. The family only found out about his abduction after the driver was released on the night of 15 November 2019.
Unconfirmed reports circulated online that showed him to be declared guilty, however Talia and Shumaisa Khattak maintain that they had not received any official information about the status of his case and were relying on updates on social media.
It was not before 16 June 2020, that the Ministry of Defence finally admitted they had Idris Khattak in their custody, and mentioned again in a hearing held by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on 17 June 2020.
The then government of Imran Khan promised to criminalize enforced disappearances through legislation, but the bill tabled before the Senate went mysteriously ‘missing’ itself. It was also not in line with international standards, and its progress was undermined by reports of continued disappearances.
Khattak was found in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi in December 2021 through the family’s own investigation. His daughter Talia was able to visit him in the high security prison ward. His own lawyer could not meet him except on three occasions during the trial, with each meeting being filmed. They could not speak in their native language Pushto and they were continuously monitored by an army officer.
The Offence
In January 2021, in a hearing at the Peshawar High Court, Khattak’s daughters appealed that he should be tried in a civilian court as he was a civilian, however this appeal was denied in an order published on 28 January 2021.
Information about the charges against Idris were revealed in the judgment published on 30 January 2021. He has been charged on multiple counts related to spying and other conduct “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State” under Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) as well as section 59 of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 – which gives military courts jurisdiction to try civilians for some offences under the OSA.
“The ‘offence’ seems to be a meeting with Michael Semple in July 2009 – over 10 years before Idris was forcibly disappeared,” said a statement issued by Amnesty International. “The court order dubs Semple as an MI6 agent. At the time of the meetings, Semple was a fellow at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights and had been a high-ranking UN and EU official in Afghanistan for 20 years. He was expelled from Afghanistan for “unauthorized activity in 2008.” Semple is currently a professor
at Queen’s University in Belfast.”
Idris Khattak himself has worked as a consultant with Amnesty International and other international human rights NGOs. For years, he documented a wide range of human rights violations and humanitarian crises in the region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and former Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA).
The court order made no mention of the way Idris Khattak was picked up and disappeared. It also did not seek any accountability of the authorities for keeping him isolated and apart from his family, as well as keeping his family uninformed of his whereabouts and situation.
“For seven long months, we did not know where he was,” reiterates the letter written by Khattak’s daughters. “The pain of not knowing, of having no closure, was unbearable. “To this day, we have been kept in the dark about the full details of his charges, and our family has been denied any meaningful access to him. He never had a fair trial. He was tried in secret, in a military court, without the presence of his family. Although he had restricted access to a legal representative during the military trial, but neither the final decision nor the charges have been shared with us. He was shifted to a civilian prison in Jhelum for a month but we were still not allowed to meet him there. Eventually, in December 2021, he was transferred to Adiala Jail, where he is still waiting for justice.”
The girls mention that the entire situation has taken a heavy emotional toll on them, as well as his sisters, and his brother. They are facing a financial crisis, especially his brother, for having to visit him almost every week, carrying heavy bags of food, medicine, and provisions for daily use, out of which not all reach him.
Despite the doctor’s advice for a certain diet because of ill health, the prison authorities do not allow the family to send him the required food.
“We are not asking for any special treatment; we are simply asking for justice. We ask that you bring our father home, so that he may be reunited with his family. If there is any credible evidence against him, we ask that he be tried in a civilian court with full transparency and access to legal counsel, as guaranteed by Pakistan’s constitution, laws and international human rights standards,” said the letter.
“No family should have to endure such pain. Our father’s disappearance has not only broken our hearts but has also shattered the sense of safety that we once had in our own country that we have always loved.”