Asian Human Rights Commission

[Details of illegal detention centres and torture chambers maintained by the Pakistani authorities are slowly being unearthed. Currently AHRC has obtained details of 52 such facilities; information being received from former detainees themselves—those who have been fortunate enough to be released; their family members, journalists and concerned NGO workers. Sadly the abuse still continues with the new government showing little interest in shutting down these facilities or halting the abuses therein.]

Details of detention centres and torture chambers in Pakistan where missing persons are held for long periods of time and forced to confess involvement in terrorist and sabotage activities, have recently been collected by the AHRC.

Information of the existence and happenings at these detention and torture centres were obtained from persons who had been detained for several years at these places. During their illegal incarceration, their whereabouts had never been known to their family members. Information about these notorious places came to light only after the concerted efforts of journalists, human rights organisations and the families of the victims. They rallied together to collect information about these places of detention where ‘missing’ persons were being held.

Now when persons are eventually released from such places, they are simply abandoned on the roadside. Many of them were released after the active interventions of the higher judiciary, particularly by the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhury. Many have already testified in courts and to the media the manner in which they were illegal kept in custody by the army and tortured.

The Military Intelligence (MI), Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA), Pakistan Rangers, and the Frontier Constabulary (FC) are reportedly the prime culprits involved in conducting illegal arrests, incommunicado detentions, and the use of horrendous forms of torture on suspects to force them to confess their involvement in anti-state activities.

It is interestingly noted that army officials are interrogating persons from Balochistan trying to force a confession of involvement with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA); while those arrested from Sindh are tortured to reveal involvement with the Sindh Liberation Army (SLA). Military rulers seem certain that both these organisations are working to disassociate themselves from Pakistan.

Arrestees from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are reported to be initially held in custody of the army before being transferred to Afghanistan. There, after being detained incommunicado and severely tortured they are handed over to the occupied forces, to be again transferred to Guantanamo Bay—that infamous holding and interrogation centre of the American-Bush era. This is the main reason western countries rarely criticized the government of Pakistan on the issue of missing persons.

However, the newly elected government has totally ignored the issue of missing persons. It has failed to start a probe on the issue of missing persons despite several of them—who were kept incommunicado in military detention—having testified before the courts that they were kept in army camps and tortured. There are still thousands of people missing since 2001; it is also believe that there are still hundreds of human rights activists held in torture centres according to local human rights organisations, media and nationalist and political groups. Thus, this seemingly callous attitude of the current government is creating a sense of frustration and disappointment among the people.

And these are the people who elected the ruling coalition into power expecting a change in the country. Therefore the AHRC had urged the international community, particularly the UN Human Rights Council and other international human rights groups, to intervene in the cases of missing persons of Pakistan who are still being held incommunicado by the law enforcement agencies. Otherwise, there is a high risk of many of them simply disappearing from the face of this earth.

The following are details of 52 detention centres cum torture chambers currently believed to be operating in Pakistan:

Islamabad:

Pakistani detainees gagged, chained and blindfolded, being shipped off to an uncertain destiny by the American Military. (Photo: Google)

In Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan they are: (1) Sector I-9 Islamabad; (2) Cell 20 in Sector I-9 Islamabad; and (3) the 'safe house' of the ISI, Islamabad.

Sindh Province:

In Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, there are three detention centres run by the army. They are: (1) The centre of MI at Shar-e-Faisal, Saddar, near the Hotel Holiday Inn; (2) The torture and detention centre of the ISI is also in this vicinity which could be accessed through the St. Paul's School; and  (3) In the Malir cantonment area in one of the 'safe houses' containing several small cells;

Also in Karachi, the Pakistan Rangers are maintaining a detention centre at Landhi. However its actual location has not been confirmed as the person fortunate enough to be released from that place was blindfolded throughout his stay therein. There is also a similar detention facility in Hyderabad, within the cantonment area, at the Army House, off Qasim Chowk.

Jacobabad is the border district with Balochistan province. This city is used to provide the USAF and NATO air support facilities. Within this area, a detention centre had been located run by the Pakistan army and used as a 'transit centre'. This centre was discovered after two journalists of a prominent television channel were discovered after several months of detention and torture allegedly for taking pictures of an airbase.
 
Balochistan Province:

In Balochistan province there are dozens of military detention centres, where people who are arrested, detained and tortured to force confessions of their alleged activities against the army in the province. Following are places in Balochistan province where Pakistan army and the FC are running their torture and detention centres:

• Quli Camp Cantonment Queta, the capital of Balochistan province. In front of this detention camp is a mountain called as Koh-e-Murad (Dead Mountain) which has been taken over by the Pakistan Army and is used as a dumping area for some sensitive arms and ammunitions. According to local people, arrestees are brought here and detained for several months.

• Safe house of the ISI at Khuzdar Cantonment area. The Khuzdar district is in southeast of the province and all persons arrested from the south and southeast districts by the state intelligence agencies are detained here. The place is notorious for torture.

• The fort at Turbat town, a sub-district of the province. This fort is used for detaining missing persons; and reportedly, to date there are dozens of such person in the facility.  It is under the control of FC.

• In the port city of Gwadar there is one more camp used by the FC for keeping people in illegal detention for long periods of time.

In the northern part of Balochistan province, there are several places of detention and torture in three districts—Sibi, Dera Bugti and Kohlu. Here, the military have their own bases and camps. But in military terms these army centres are called ‘settlements’ instead of cantonments. In these districts the persons arrested are mainly from the central and the northern parts.

The main military detention centres are in Loti gas field, Pir Koh gas field and Dera Bugti gas field. Most of the detainees are local residents of the aforementioned districts. They are usually charged with mutiny against the 'army control' of the districts, blowing up of the main gas supply line, sabotage, bomb attacks on military installations, affiliation with different nationalist parties and association with the Balochistan Liberation Army.

In Kohlu district's military settlement there is one check point. This is maintained by the army and contains torture cells. In Sui sub-district there is also a military check post which runs torture cell besides a main detention centre in the ‘settlement’ at Sui gas field.

Punjab Province:

In Punjab, there are two main cantonment areas where detention and torture centres are maintained only for the purpose of keeping ‘missing persons’. These centres are Multan and Rawalpindi cantonment areas; they are situated in close vicinity of the General Head Quarter (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army.

The Rawalpindi cantonment based detention centre is termed 'safe house' and is reported to be one of the cruelest among all army detention centres. Also reportedly there are still more than four dozen persons detained at these centres over extended periods of time. It is said that those inside are ones who are 'hard to crack'—meaning they had not confessed despite torture in other detention centres.

In Rawalpindi city, there are also centres of detention maintained in hospitals. Here, people from the NWFP and those alleged as Jihadis are detained side-by-side the nationalists from Sindh and Balochistan provinces. In the Multan cantonment, the 'safe houses' meant for rest houses, are used as detention centres and many of the so called ‘high profile’ terrorists are detained.

The following detention centres in Rawalpindi and Islamabad were revealed by Mrs. Amina Masood Paracha, chairperson of the NGO—Defence Human Rights, Islamabad:

• The ISI detention centre in Kent Garrison Chaklala—near the Rawalpindi airport;

• The ISI detention centre behind the military hospital in Rawalpindi - Hamza Centre—Ojri Camp Rawalpindi;

• FIA Centre near Qasim Market;

• Chaklala Airbase Rawalpindi;

• The military hospitals on Mall road Rawalpindi;

• Hamza Centre—Ojri Camp Faizabad. Rawalpindi;

Detention centres at the cantonments in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rahim Yar Khan districts have also been discovered when in 2004, 13 students from Balochistan, belonging to the Baloch Students' Organization were detained at the Dera Ghazi Khan Cantonment detention centre for almost five months and tortured. However the centre is still functioning and its officials are infamous for dumping tortured people on the roadside when it is confirmed that the victim cannot survive further torture.

The cantonment areas of Peshawar and Chirat are used as detention centres for keeping arrested persons from areas dominated by fundamentalists Islamic forces.
 
Furthermore, there are 48 cantonments in Pakistan, all having illegal detention centres that operate as torture cells. All these cantonments have rest-houses which are called 'safe houses' that has been converted into illegal detention centres.

Now that these notorious places of detention and torture where blatantly human rights violations and untold human suffering have been identified to occur on a continuing basis, there is no excuse for the government of Pakistan to ignore it. Yet, this is exactly what is happening.

Therefore, the AHRC urges the international community and the UN to urgently intervene to halt this continuing violation of basic human rights, and calls upon the government to investigate into the se revelations and take immediate steps to release the prisoners held therein.