Pakistani dissident exiles in UK on casualty list | Pakistan

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Pakistani exiles living in London who have criticized the country’s powerful military have been warned their lives are in danger, raising new concerns about authoritarian regimes targeting foreign dissidents in the UK.

British security sources are said to be concerned that Pakistan, a strong UK ally, particularly on intelligence matters, may be ready to target individuals on British soil.

The Observer has been informed of other warnings given by other intelligence services across Europe to Pakistani dissidents, including rights activists in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, journalists and members of the Pashtun Tahafuz movement, a group representing ethnic Pashtuns.

Last month, a man from east London was accused of conspiring with other strangers to assassinate exiled Pakistani blogger and political activist Ahmad Waqass Goraya in the Netherlands.

Muhammad Gohir Khan, 31, of Forest Gate, east London, appeared at the Old Bailey after being arrested at St Pancras station in London from the Netherlands.

Mark Lyall Grant, former British high commissioner to Pakistan and former British diplomat to the UN, said if figures in the Pakistani military threatened exiles in the UK it would be taken very seriously by the government British.

If there is any illegal pressure, especially on journalists in the UK, I would expect law enforcement and the UK government to take note and provide an appropriate legal and / or diplomatic response.

Karima Baloch, who campaigned for an independent Balochistan, was found dead in Toronto, Canada, last December. Photograph: Azad from the Baloch students organization

Lyall Grant, also a former UK national security adviser, added that any evidence that officers from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the military’s security arm, were intimidating people in the UK cannot would not be ignored. If UK nationals or UK residents acting legally are harassed or threatened by the ISI, or any other person, then the UK government will certainly take an interest.

He said the development reflected a broader trend in authoritarian states such as Rwanda, Tanzania and the Philippines, among others, becoming emboldened enough to start silencing critics.

Since Imran Khan came to power in Pakistan in 2018 with military backing, civil rights groups have documented an erosion of press freedom there with an increase in violent attacks on journalists. The concern now is that Pakistan appears to be moving from suppressing criticism at home to targeting critics based abroad.

London-based Pakistani political scientist and commentator Ayesha Siddiqa said she received a death threat notice known as the Osman Warning from the Metropolitan Police. The Mets Counterterrorism Command said there was credible information about a threat to my life. It’s a matter of life and death, she said.

Officers even asked her husband if anyone offered him money to ask his wife to return to Pakistan. It’s that bad, Siddiqa added.

Gul Bukhari, an Anglo-Pakistani YouTuber and columnist who has openly criticized the military, fled to the UK after being kidnapped by security forces in Lahore in 2018. I feel threatened in London, he said. she declared.

Bukhari, who used a security alarm bracelet last year, has been advised by the Met not to share her address with anyone.

Taha Siddiqui and his wife, Sara Farid, in front of their The Dissident Club café in Paris last summer. Photograph: Mohammed Badra / EPA

Siddiqa is among others who have received safety advice from the British police.

Fears among the exiled Pakistani community have been high since the mysterious deaths of two Pakistani dissidents last year. Journalist Sajid Hussain, known for covering human rights violations in Balochistan, disappeared in March 2020 in Uppsala, Sweden, before being found dead in a river two months later.

Hussain’s friend Karima Baloch, who campaigned for an independent Balochistan, was found dead in a lake in Toronto, Canada, seven months later. Although Swedish and Canadian authorities have rejected the criminal acts, other activists are not convinced.

Baluchis husband Hammal Haider, a UK resident, says he does not feel safe in Europe. Anyone who criticizes the Pakistani military is a potential target, he said. European authorities must take these threats seriously.

Compounding the situation is the suggestion, according to Siddiqa, that the Pakistani community in the UK is heavily infiltrated by those loyal to the military.

Last year, a leaked Pakistani government memo accused a number of Pakistani journalists based in Europe and the United States of producing anti-state content for foreign media under pseudonyms. He appointed a journalist from a minority community living in exile in Western Europe. Speaking to the Observer on condition of anonymity, the reporter said he was also subject to a warning from the intelligence branch of the Pakistani military. He said authorities in his adopted country confirmed a threat to his life.

In the past six to eight months, I have not done any proper journalism because I have been threatened to such a serious level that I have had to take a step back, said the exiled journalist.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the monitoring of Pakistani journalists in exile. We are aware of a number of cases that have not been made public. It is widely accepted that these types of threats can only come from Pakistani military or intelligence services, said CPJ Steven Butler.

London-based political scientist Ayesha Siddiqa has been warned by Metropolitan Police that her life is in danger. Photograph: BK Bangash / AP

Exiled in Paris, prominent Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, who escaped kidnapping in Islamabad in 2018, said his family and partners have been repeatedly harassed in Pakistan.

They have received several visits from people identifying themselves as belonging to ISI, he said. They told my dad that I shouldn’t think I’m safe just because I live in France. His wife, photojournalist Sara Farid, added: He feels there is no safe place or country for dissidents. Whenever I can’t reach Taha on her phone, the first thought is like it’s in Pakistan, they got it.

In neighboring Germany, Abdullah Abbas, information secretary of the Balochistan Human Rights Council, said the deaths of Baluch and Hussein made him keep his head down. It rekindled my old fears of being gone or killed, even in Europe. He said he was afraid to walk alone in Berlin.

Also in Germany, Aurang Zeb Khan Zalmay, editor-in-chief of the Pashtun Times, an online portal highlighting human rights violations in tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, said he was under surveillance. intelligence officials. Many of my friends are not even willing to take a selfie with me and post it online for fear of being watched or questioned when they return to Pakistan, he said.

Khan’s appearance at the Old Bailey last month precedes a plea hearing on October 29, with a trial tentatively scheduled for next January.

A statement from the Pakistani government said: As a responsible state, Pakistan abides by the norms and principles of international law and complies with the legal and diplomatic frameworks that govern the interaction between states, including on community matters. There is no question of a threat being made against any national of a State, including Pakistani own nationals living anywhere under any pretext. The unsubstantiated allegations appear to be part of the rather blatant ongoing disinformation campaign against Pakistan to slander the country and its state institutions.

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