UN experts have called for an investigation into the killing of Kakar and a “kill list.”
Concern has also been expressed by UN Special Rapporteurs on a purported “Death List” that allegedly specifies the number of people to be eliminated.
ISLAMABAD:
The government of Pakistan has been urged by the United Nations (UN) to look into the death of former senator Usman Kakar and a purported “Kill List” that includes the names of other people who should be killed. Four UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights made the request in a letter that was written jointly and released to the public on Monday. The letter was dated December 27, 2021.
The letter demanded a response from the government within 60 days, failing which the communication and any response would be made public and included in the report to the Human Rights Council. The letter does not currently include a government response, indicating that none has been given.
Usman Kakar, a member of the Pashtun minority, a former senator, and a regional leader of the nationalist Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, was discovered on June 17, 2021, bleeding profusely from a head wound at his Quetta, Balochistan, residence. Although the exact reason for his head injuries is unknown, there are suspicions that he may have been attacked. Ex-Senator Kakar mentioned in his final speech in parliament that he had previously received threats to his life, which he attributed to intelligence services.
In their joint letter, Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Fernand de Varennes, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Morris Tidball-Binz, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, Aua Baldé, the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and Mary Tidball-Binz expressed their concern about an alleged ”
The letter claims that the list of at least ten people was released on Facebook by the once outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesperson (TTP). The article is in reference to several social media posts made by a former TTP member and militant who turned himself in to authorities in April 2017.
Also see: Kakar calls for new NAP to combat terrorism
In a media interview, the former TTP spokesman asserted that he had been freed from jail as a result of a deal with the security services. The tweets mentioned a “kill list” that organisations kept, and he had been asked to head a “death squad” to kill “certain people.”
Also, the former insurgent identified the two officials who had requested that he do the mission because it “was the only way to secure his release.”
In a Facebook post from June or July 2021, the TTP spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said that when he was being held captive, he was given a list of roughly ten persons who needed to be killed for their “anti-state activities.”
Former senators Afrasiab Khattak and Farhatullah Babar, a political activist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Said Alam Mehsud, and Mufti Kifayatullah were on the list, according to Ehsan. Ehsan additionally asserted that he turned down the assassination orders.
The UN Rapporteurs stated that they did not want to make any assumptions regarding the veracity of these claims, but they are concerned about Kakar’s death, its circumstances, and the alleged existence of a “kill list” with a number of names on it.
In addition to “specific information on the practical steps that have been taken to safeguard the physical and psychological integrity” of people identified on the list, the Special Rapporteurs requested the government to “submit any new information” about these allegations.
They inquired as well about the steps taken to guarantee the freedom of human rights advocates and those speaking out against enforced disappearances in Pakistan.
