Protest in front of Pakistani embassy in Tokyo

June 27^th, 2012, Asian Solidarity School of Japan did solidarity action with Hunza 5 and Faisalabad 9 in front of the Pakistan embassy in Tokyo.

Kenji Kunitomi spoke to second secretary of the Pakistan embassy in Japan, Mr. Nadiem Bhapti inside a room of the embassy and demanded all the political prisoner immdiately. He welcomed our message and promised it to pass Pakistan government.

Comment from the Free Baba Jan campaign: We thank our Japanese comrades who organised this very important action. This action is significant in view of the level of Japanese development aid to projects in Gilgit-Baltistan and the huge volume of Japanese tourists visiting the region.

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Open letter from the Asian Solidarity School of Japan

Free ‘Hunza 5’, Free Baba Jan,
Free ‘Faisalabad 9’
Justice for all the Political Prisoners In Pakistan

Urgent letter to Mr, Noor Muhammad JADMANI, the ambassador extraordinary of Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Japan

Asian Solidarity School of Japan
1-50-4-103, Hatsudai, Shibuya-ku Tokyo, 151-0061, Japan
Tel 03-3372-9401 Fax 03-3372-9402

2012 June 27

We have been very much concerned about situation of human rights in your country.

We know following information from our friends in Pakistan who have devoted themselves in trade union movements, democratic movements and human rights movement.

Ameer Khan, Amir Ali, Baba Jan, Ifthilar Hussain, and Rashid Minhas are political activists fighting for democratic rights of working people in Hunza Valley, who have been arrested, beaten, and tortured in custody and now imprisoned in Gilgit-Baltistan,

Their lives are imminent danger, Five activists(Hunza Five) should be hospitalized for urgent treatment for the injuries inflicted during their beatings and tortures by the police and military intelligence officers. Namely Baba Jan who was heavily injured by violent torture by military intelligence. They heve been left without proper medical attention and no access to lawyers and family members.

Why they were arrested and imprisoned for more than ten months? What is their crime? They are not terrorists.

They have been involved in activities supporting the victims of huge landslide disaster affecting the Attabal Lake region in the Hunza Valley on 4 January 2010. 6,000 people have been displaced and further 25,000 people stranded as a result of the disaster.

People affected by the disaster demonstrated demanding financial compensation on August 11 last year. But the reaction of regional authorities was to kill two persons who join the demonstration.

The ‘Hunza Five’ have been supporting the demands of people affected and mobilizing national attention for the forgotten victims. Instead of responding to their concerns, the regional authorities have reacted by imprisoning them on the false charges, torturing them and threatening their lives.

We demand to release Baba Jan and ‘Hunza 5’ immediately.

And also we have been concerned about very harsh oppression and punishment for trade union activists in Faisalabad.

Textile workers union in Faisalabad organized strike demanding to increase minimum wage in July 2010, It was legitimate because the demands of union was to fulfill the government’s explanation of annual budget in the parliament to increase basic wage the standard of factory workers. But bosses of textile companies denied the demand, hiring groups of gang, and attacking strike-workers by gun. Some of trade unionists were injured by the conflict.

After the strike, 4 leaders of the union were arrested in July 2010, and 2 leaders also arrested 4 months later..According to the police authority, arrested workers are terrorists because they set fire in a factory during strike struggle, But this was completely false.

If those striking workers set fire a factory, why was it possible to restart production at the factory just after 3 days the strike?

But these six trade unionists were sentenced totally 491 years(!) in jail for anti-terrorist acts. And the other 3 trade unionists in Faisalabad also arrested this year on same case.

They are not terrorists but trade union leaders who have been involved in legitimate activities to defend living conditions and rights of workers and their families.

We demand to release these 9 workers from jail immediately.

We sincerely ask the Pakistani ambassador in Japan to inform our message to the government of Pakistan.

With best regard

Asian Solidarity School of Japan