Daughters of Asma Jehangir assaulted, threatened
Armed men of the Pakistan Muslim League Q (PML-Q) recently assaulted and kept confined two daughters of Asma Jehangir and their friends for several hours in Lahore.
Asma Jehangir is a well-known lawyer, human rights activist and the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to freedom of religion or belief.
According to a statement of the Asian Human Rights Commission, the two were beaten severely and threatened. The gunmen also made threats and used very filthy language towards Asma.
When police were called to the scene they took the side of the gunmen who claimed to be police officers. However, only two out of
the group were policemen and the 20 others belonged to PML-Q, the statement claimed.
The incident occurred around 1:30am in Lahore when Muneeza Jehangir, Asma's eldest daughter, along with her younger sister Sulema Jehangir and their friends, were making a video clip for her television channel Geo TV.
When they were filming the torn posters of the ruling party, which contained photographs of President Pervez Musharraf and other party leaders, the armed men arrived and held the two sisters and their companions at gun point.
They were ordered to follow the gunmen but as they refused the gunmen beat them up in public and dragged them into the PML-Q main election office of the province. At the office, they were beaten again.
Asma Jehangir reached the party office hearing about the incident but was refused entry at the gate by gunmen. She managed to climb the iron gate of the party office and saw her eldest daughter and her friends detained by the armed men and her youngest daughter being carried to a room by some people.
She immediately informed the Ghalib Police Station. Police reached the scene after some time and took the side of the armed men and put pressure on the parents of the friends of Asma's daughters to hand over the video tape, which they did.
The statement claimed, police threatened the parents that they should not report this incident otherwise the girls would be kidnapped, raped and killed. The police also pressured the parents to stop Asma from making this incident known and claimed that she would bear the responsibility for whatever might happen in the future.
Asian Human Rights Commission said they condemn this incident of kidnapping, the illegal holding and threats of violence against the daughters of Asma Jehangir. This incident is an attempt to harass human rights activists and their family members for speaking out against the military regime, it added.
It called upon the government of Pakistan to conduct an enquiry into this matter and arrest the culprits. Asian Human Rights Commission also called upon the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to cause an enquiry into this incident and to take other appropriate actions.
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