We just received the news that Baba Jan got abducted from his prison cell by state agents of the Join Investigation Committee. No one knows where he has been shifted and his family and friends are extremely worried for his life.
We appeal to everyone to stand in solidarity with Baba Jan and to take immediate actions for his liberation.
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 21, 2012
Fear and loathing in Gilgit
The news this morning is that Baba Jan passed the night safely in Jutial Jail and will soon be produced in court for the scheduled bail hearing.
He may be presented before the Anti-Terrorism Court by the state, asking for further judicial remand in the new ATA charges.
Baba Jan’s lawyers and comrades are determined to resist any move to hand over custody of Baba Jan to the police or the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and will demand that Baba Jan be questioned by the JIT in Jutial Jail. His supporters, esp. his family, are said to be extremely worried that giving physical custody of Baba Jan to the crime police or the JIT will inevitably lead to further torture. Given the two previous instances, in Oct 2011 and April/May 2012, and the fact that the Anti-Terrorism Act admits confessions of the accused as evidence and that torture is an accepted means of “investigation” in our law enforcement paradigm, this is a well-founded fear. Let us not forget that the Joint Investigation Team is composed of police and intelligence agents and that it was representatives of the same establishments that abducted and tortured Baba Jan and his comrades in violation of judicial remand.
Comrades in Gilgit are unanimous in their assessment that now that the ruling clique of the region know that their attempts to manipulate the judicial system to pressurise the Hunza Five have almost failed, they are extremely fearful about what will happen when they are at liberty, free to talk of their experiences and expose the reality of the collaborationist, anti-people elite to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 20, 2012
Trapped in Jutial Jail in Gilgit, Baba Jan risks being tortured by state agents
Today, the Joint Investigation Team, consisting of police and intelligence officials, came to Jutial Jail, Gilgit, where Baba Jan is being held, in order to take him into their custody.
Fearing that the team had not actually obtained judicial remand from the Anti-Terrorist Court, which would authorise them to take custody of Baba Jan, and further, fearing that the intention would be torture – either as a last-ditch attempt to extract a confession from Baba Jan or as a vindictive expression of their frustration at not being able to break him so far – ordinary prisoners rose up in solidarity with Baba Jan and resisted the attempts of the team to shift Baba Jan out of the prison.
The team had to give up but they are expected to return in a few days.
Later in the evening, however, we heard that there was a real danger that state agents might try to abduct Baba Jan under cover of night and, as in the previous two instances, considering themselves above the law, subject Baba Jan to torture.
The Free Baba Jan Committee strongly condemns any such intention on the part of the authorities and demands that the judiciary of Gilgit-Baltistan play a more vigilant role to avoid a repeat of the previous instances of violations of Baba Jan’s basic rights.
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 19, 2012
Note by Comrade Sherbaz of the Free Baba Jan Committee
Those helping the Hunza Five in Gilgit as well as some more information:
There is a panel of five advocates in Gilgit helping Baba Jan and his friends for the last 11 months voluntarily. They are Ihsan Ali, former president Gilgit High Court Bar Association, Mohammed Nafees advocate, Jafar Ali advocate, Jahanghir Shah Advocate and Shafqatullah advocate. They have been to the various courts involved in these cases and have appeared on each hearing in the courts. These advocates are fighting the cases of the Hunza Five despite the threats and offers from different sections of the government and other political parties. This is to appreciate the efforts of these advocates working in difficult times. Labour Party Pakistan thanks these advocates.
In Karachi, there have been 12 protests by Labour Party Pakistan and Free Baba Jan Committee to demand the release of those detained in Gilgit jail. These advocates used their influence to motivate students and young activists from Gilgit to take part in these solidarity demonstrations and hunger strike camps.
In Free Baba Jan Committee, there are several Left groups and trade unions participating: Labour Party Pakistan, Progressive Youth Front, National Trade Union Federation, International Socialists, Jamu Kashmir National Awami Party, Gilgit Baltistan Youth Adhoc Committee, Biloristan National Student Organisation (Naji) , Biloristan National Front (Hamid) and Karakuram National Movement [1].
In Gilgit itself, demonstrations are not taking place because of the difficult objective situation. However, Baba Jan has become a folk hero of the youth and students in particular throughout the valley. When, in the beginning of this month, the news arrived in Ali Abad, Karim Abad and Nasir Abad Hindi in Hunza valley that Baba Jan had been granted bail, there was a huge wave of sympathy for the comrades and people were preparing their welcome in thousands but Baba Jan was framed in another case.
Why is the government terrified of releasing Baba Jan? The reason is that they are afraid that many more will be in the streets to demand justice for the victims of the Atta Abad Lake and the compensation movement will start again. The religious parties, the parties of the rich and the bureaucracy are also not happy with the politics of Baba Jan and his friends who are very militant in actions and always there to help the most downtrodden strata of the valley. There is an alliance of these three groups to keep Baba Jan inside the jail.
By Sherbaz
Member Labour Party Pakistan Karachi Committee,
Progressive Youth Front,
Member Free Baba Jan Committee Karachi
1) [Eds]: In Lahore, the local membership of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has given a lot of support to the campaign and attended the campaign protests in good numbers.
What a tangled web we weave
This morning, we received strange news from Gilgit: the judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court had dismissed the bail application against the new set of charges filed against Baba Jan under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Not because of any weakness in the arguments presented by the counsel for the defendant, but because it transpired that the court had never actually been officially informed that new ATA charges had been brought against Baba Jan. Further, the court took serious notice of the fact that the police had never produced the accused for judicial remand before the court, nor had they respected the seven-day deadline (from the time of filing of charges) to present the report of the joint investigation team that is constituted in each ATA case.
As a result, the state is now open to charges of contempt of court in the Anti-Terrorism Court. Due to this possibility, the state might actually retract the ATA charges it filed on June 29, 2012, in which case, a new bail application will have to be filed in the court of the district magistrate. In case the state persists with the newest ATA charges, the bail hearing will go back to the Anti-Terrorism Court.
The obvious question, in this Kafkaesque situation, is: how come the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court had accepted the public prosecutor’s plea, in the hearing on June 29, 2012, that the court was no longer authorised to hear the bail petition of the accused as new ATA charges had been filed against him? And having accepted it, how come the court did not take notice of the fact that the various fundamental provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act – production of accused in court for judicial remand, submission of report of joint investigation team within seven days of filing of charges – were simply ignored in the intervening period?
It seems that the state has deliberately exploited the numerous lacunae and grey areas in the relevant legal procedures to extend the baseless detention of Baba Jan for three weeks at least. And now, by their delaying tactics, they have rendered the judicial machinery incapable of admitting the bail plea, thus delaying the whole matter by another week, at least. It is hard to decide the complicity of the dependent judiciary of Gilgit-Baltistan in these manœuvres, but its powerlessness has reduced it to a sham in the eyes of all those who demand justice in the case of the Aliabad killings.
This latest episode proves that the campaign needs to return to the streets, the streets of Gilgit, if need be, in order to force the federal government in Islamabad and the colonial administration of Gilgit-Baltistan to release Iftikhar Hussain, Ameer Khan and Baba Jan from detention and drop all the baseless charges brought against the Hunza Five. By discrediting its own judicial apparatus in the eyes of the people, the colonial regime is sowing the seeds of revolt.
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 18, 2012
Yet another postponement: Monday, 16th July, 2012
Not surprisingly, the bail petition hearing in the case of the latest ATA charges against Baba Jan, has once again been postponed – to Monday, 16th July, 2012.
The campaign is now forced to face the reality of the dumb, brute force that maintains itself in power in Gilgit-Baltistan and more generally in Pakistan.
We live under occupation, our territory occupied by those who pretend to defend us, but defend only their privilege, our minds occupied by the constant propaganda of the mullah-military alliance, our very futures threatened by their compromises and accommodation with the forces of global capitalism, whether it be via their acceptance of the structural violence of IFI-dictated economic policies or their complicity in the occupation of Afghanistan or their zeal in serving as junior partners in the exploitation of the natural resources and geo-strategic potential of Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
In this situation, it is necessary to recognise the responsibility that has fallen on the un-defeated shoulders of the Hunza Five:
– resist repeated torture as well as other intimidatory tactics of the state to extract false confessions from them – which would be admissible as evidence under the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act
– serve as a rallying point and symbol of undaunted resistance in the face of the multiple attacks by the state on the people of Gilgit-Baltistan – whether it be the indifference towards the affectees of the Attabad Lake disaster or the repression both of groups and individuals who demand equal citizenship rights in common with Pakistanis living in the rest of the country as well as of those who speak of the right of self-determination of the GB population or the state-provoked sectarian violence that is a textbook example of the inherited colonial paradigm of “divide and rule”.
– revive the precedent set by Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan , Ram Prasad Bismil and Chandrashekar Azad who struggled for total independence, not just from direct British rule but also from the imperialist-capitalist system India had been enslaved by, who did not give up their struggle for justice and human dignity even in jail
– create the space for an alternative politics of dissent, of truly participatory decision-making in a disputed territory where the state is deeply suspicious of any socio-political awakening among the populace
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 15, 2012
10, 13, 14
For two consecutive dates, the 10th and the 13th of July, 2012, the public prosecutor has not bothered to appear before the administrative judge of Anti-Terrorism Court No. 1 in Gilgit. The newest postponement in the bail application in the case of the new terrorism charges brought against Baba Jan is till tomorrow, 14th July, 2012.
As has been mentioned previously, the Gilgit-Baltistan administration is under pressure both from the federal government and from our campaign to release Baba Jan, but is paralysed by the countervailing deadweight of the so-called “sensitive agencies” that enforce our national security state.
Nevertheless, Comrade Ehsan Ali, counsel for the Hunza Five, is optimistic that if the hearing takes place, Baba Jan’s bail appeal will be accepted.
One can only conclude that the utter lack of basis in the newest set of charges against Baba Jan has left the Deep State with no option but to delay the release of our comrades, in the process further eroding the captive colonial courts of all legitimacy in the eyes of the general public.
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 13, 2012
Images from the Public Rally in Islamabad, 6th July, 2012
End Black Laws like the Anti-Terrorism Act, Free All Political Prisoners in Gilgit. Marching for freedom! Activists from various progressive parties and groups make common cause for the release of the Hunza Five.
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, Workers Party Pakistan, addressing the rally.
Nazli Javed, Labour Party Pakistan, demanding that the restored Chief Justice and his colleagues – for whom she and her colleagues had participated in so many marches and protests during the lawyers movement – explain how the current state of could be described as just.
Yousaf Baloch, National Trade Union Federation, demanding the release of the Hunza Five.
More pictures on http://freebabajan.wordpress.com/
First breath of fresh air!
We have just received news that the bail appeal of two of the Hunza Five, Amir Ali and Rashid Minhas, has been accepted! Both comrades will be released from jail tomorrow morning.
So, the first hurdles in the obstacle course laid out by the Gilgit-Baltistan colonial regime for these two comrades have been successfully cleared. The news that they will soon be amongst us, breathing free, rejuvenates our desire to see all our comrades not only free, but also honourably cleared of all the baseless allegations levelled against them by this gangster state.
Free Baba Jan Committee, July 2, 2012
The state plumbs new depths
Dear all,
The Gilgit authorities has become vicious against Baba Jan. Today, when Advocate Ehsan Ali went to the magistrate in Gilgit for the bail application of Baba Jan in the newest case registered against him for rioting inside jail, he was told by the public prosecutor that the magistrate cannot hear this case. He told the court that police has now inserted charges under the Anti-Terrorist Act (7ATA) against Baba Jan along with other charges. The case has to heard by an anti terrorist court.
In this case, Baba Jan and other prisoners are charged to incite violence inside the jail, an allegation absolutely contrary to the fact.
Ehsan Ali told me that police has included the infamous 7 ATA two days earlier in the charge sheet when they heard that Baba Jan had been granted bail in the main case. Ehsan informed that the local administration is hostage in the hands of the state intelligence agencies. This new act of revenge and sheer state gangsterism has been carried out on the instructions of the intelligence agencies. He was sure earlier that Baba Jan would be granted bail today. But the inclusion of charges under 7 ATA means that it will be another lengthy trial for Baba Jan.
It is now been made absolutely clear that the state is too afraid of a free Baba Jan. They want to keep him in jail. The inclusion of 7 ATA several weeks after the registration of the original FIR is an act of desperation by the state.
Today we have received copies of the different letters from the ministry of Human Rights where we see that the Adviser to Prime Minister Mr. Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar has been regularly writing to the Gilgit authorities about his concern of human rights violations regarding the Aliabad incident of August 2011. It seems that the Gilgit authorities have become very personal against Baba Jan.
Labour Party Pakistan will not give up. The struggle needs to continue, the mass rally in Islamabad by LPP on 6th July will witness thousands protesting against these new acts of personal vendetta against Baba Jan.
Lets organise demonstration everywhere during the week of action in Pakistan from 27th June to 4th July. We ask our international friends to continue the actions for the release of Baba Jan.
We had half a victory. We are now witnessing another state repression against LPP comrades. It will not go very far. We are ready to face this repression also.
In a lead story, published in Bang-e-Sahar, a local news paper of Gilgit, Baba Jan was quoted as saying yesterday before this new act of repression, , “it does not matter, if I am out or inside, our struggle for the liberation of the working class and oppressed nations will continue”
LPP agrees, the struggle to continue, let us defeat this latest attempt at state repression.
Farooq Tariq
member LPP Federal Executive Committee