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Peace activist goes missing from Lahore hours after making Facebook post

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saeedhk

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Activist Raza Khan has gone missing from his house in Lahore. He helps manage progressive space Low-key Lokai and is the convener of Aghaz-e-Dosti which is an initiative to bring Indian and Pakistani students closer.

His last Facebook post:

Today we Discussed on the following points at Lowkey Lokai
The events of the last few weeks & particularly the agreement have jolted the ordinary forward looking citizen.

- What is our future in a country where the state gives in to a mob?
- Who will protect the citizens if the civil-military play against each other?
- Is this the beginning of a new kind of fascism?
- How important are the narratives furthered by barelvi militancy in the context of extremism?


The Boys at it again
[MENTION=26195]DW44[/MENTION]
 
Must have gone on vacation to some isolated location with jo comms infrastructure and forgot to tell anyone beforehand. Another possibility is that khooni liberals might have abducted him to satiate their bloodlust. I am disgusted that you would point fingers at the boys who can do no wrong. How dare you, you anti Pakistan Indian/Jewish agent? Shame on you. Be a patriot and stand by the boys. Also, learn to take a hint. You want your thread to get some replies, don't post about this stuff. Post about the persecution of Muslims in India/Myanmar/Israel. No one gives a flying flip about this.

Some of the people who went missing earlier this year are still yet to be recovered. A mutual friend with one of the abductees has been running around all over Islamabad for any information on his whereabouts and well being for half a year to no avail. Another recently resurfaced missing journalist, Zeenat Shahzadi, has gone missing again a week after reappearing.
 
I hope he is found safe and well but the Last time people were in the news for go missing when Maryam accused the security services of abducting them but it transpired that it was nothing of the sort and not even an FIR was filed. It was pure Noora politics to get attention.
 
DW44 said:
Must have gone on vacation to some isolated location with jo comms infrastructure and forgot to tell anyone beforehand. Another possibility is that khooni liberals might have abducted him to satiate their bloodlust. I am disgusted that you would point fingers at the boys who can do no wrong. How dare you, you anti Pakistan Indian/Jewish agent? Shame on you. Be a patriot and stand by the boys. Also, learn to take a hint. You want your thread to get some replies, don't post about this stuff. Post about the persecution of Muslims in India/Myanmar/Israel. No one gives a flying flip about this.

Some of the people who went missing earlier this year are still yet to be recovered. A mutual friend with one of the abductees has been running around all over Islamabad for any information on his whereabouts and well being for half a year to no avail. Another recently resurfaced missing journalist, Zeenat Shahzadi, has gone missing again a week after reappearing.
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Khooni liberals are the worst of the worst.

Regarding Zeenat Shahzadi, she was recovered from Pak-Afghan border by LEAs and it was said it was nothing more than a love story gone wrong. She has disappeared to Pak-Afghan border again.

Perhaps, Raza Khan is also vacationing somewhere near Pak-Afghan border.
 
What appalls me is the efficiency of the Boys when it comes to tracing and disappearing misbehaving pupils while the likes of LeJ, who spew hatred and kill our fellow countrymen, are never traced and disappeared.

What a nation!
[MENTION=26195]DW44[/MENTION]
 
Dangerous times. But what can you expect from a country where the state approves of this militancy, the Army funds it and the people accept it.
 
saeedhk said:
Activist Raza Khan has gone missing from his house in Lahore. He helps manage progressive space Low-key Lokai and is the convener of Aghaz-e-Dosti which is an initiative to bring Indian and Pakistani students closer.

His last Facebook post:

Today we Discussed on the following points at Lowkey Lokai
The events of the last few weeks & particularly the agreement have jolted the ordinary forward looking citizen.

- What is our future in a country where the state gives in to a mob?
- Who will protect the citizens if the civil-military play against each other?
- Is this the beginning of a new kind of fascism?
- How important are the narratives furthered by barelvi militancy in the context of extremism?


The Boys at it again

[MENTION=26195]DW44[/MENTION]
Click to expand...

hardly something for which anyone would take him out!
 
saeedhk said:
What appalls me is the efficiency of the Boys when it comes to tracing and disappearing misbehaving pupils while the likes of LeJ, who spew hatred and kill our fellow countrymen, are never traced and disappeared.

What a nation!

[MENTION=26195]DW44[/MENTION]
Click to expand...

What should appall you more is that public reaction has been divided overwhelmingly between two camps: one that is completely unaware and doesn't care, and the other that has reacted positively to this (i.e. in favor of the abduction). Actual condemnations have been few and far between. Boys can get away with all this because of public support so this will continue as long as the people of Pakistan continue to stand by the boys when something like this happens. Public support for them can not be countered because you can't speak against them in the media (missing journos), textbooks or even in cyberspace (dozens that we know of have gone missing for that this year alone, on top of probably hundreds that we don't know of). Some gems from the comments section of a story titled "Find Raza: Civil society calls for recovery of missing activist on Human Rights Day" on Dawn :

"Haahahaaahaha another one of u picked up .activist bloger. Ur collegue saying i wil protest fr u .they riaset wil think 1000 times b4 picking one of us. ***** ����. kaam na kro k civil mai loog apna keemti ahem time nikal k aein . Tmhare mehmaan nawazi krein . Phr tm mummy pappa k saath asylum k liay apply kro . Loserz . Get a job activist bloger . They wil keep picking u anti state elements with pleasure."
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"Who actually is civil society because i dont knw who this fella is nor care about him missing"
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"Civil society means " woman in expensive Saree showing her curves""
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"ACTIVIST? FOR WHAT? WHY? WHO FOR? Is he fanning fire against Pakistan? Then why does anyone want him cleared to spread more chaos?"
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"The very reason he has been taken into safe custody proves the case against him. I have never seen one so-called activist carrying a proper understanding of Islam. Most are generally mislead youth, who are as well high on drugs and debauchery. Not one man of TAWHEED.
YOU GIVE PROOF THAT HE WAS A MAN OF TAWHEED? AND HENCE, INNOCENT."
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It's the same story on ET though comments from their comments section, which is not as heavily moderated as Dawn's, cannot be reproduced here without significant censorship thereby making them unreadable. To think that these are coming from the more moderate and educated sections of society, I can imagine (fairly accurately) what the average man on the street has to say about the issue. Most other media outlets haven't even reported this story.
 
MenInG said:
hardly something for which anyone would take him out!
Click to expand...

Today we Discussed on the following points at Lowkey Lokai
The events of the last few weeks & particularly the agreement have jolted the ordinary forward looking citizen.

- What is our future in a country where the state gives in to a mob?
- Who will protect the citizens if the civil-military play against each other?
- Is this the beginning of a new kind of fascism?
- How important are the narratives furthered by barelvi militancy in the context of extremism?
Click to expand...

People with even modest following on social media have been going missing by the dozens all year for discussing those very things or the underlying issues that lead to the ones listed here.
 
DW44 said:
What should appall you more is that public reaction has been divided overwhelmingly between two camps: one that is completely unaware and doesn't care, and the other that has reacted positively to this (i.e. in favor of the abduction). Actual condemnations have been few and far between. Boys can get away with all this because of public support so this will continue as long as the people of Pakistan continue to stand by the boys when something like this happens. Public support for them can not be countered because you can't speak against them in the media (missing journos), textbooks or even in cyberspace (dozens that we know of have gone missing for that this year alone, on top of probably hundreds that we don't know of). Some gems from the comments section of a story titled "Find Raza: Civil society calls for recovery of missing activist on Human Rights Day" on Dawn :











It's the same story on ET though comments from their comments section, which is not as heavily moderated as Dawn's, cannot be reproduced here without significant censorship thereby making them unreadable. To think that these are coming from the more moderate and educated sections of society, I can imagine (fairly accurately) what the average man on the street has to say about the issue. Most other media outlets haven't even reported this story.
Click to expand...

A complete blackout on Pakistan media. Jibran Nasir is the only one who is willing to discuss and follow up on such disappearances and stand up to Mullah Burqa and his ilk. A lovely individual. I hope I see him as the PM of Pakistan in my lifetime.

I pray for his safety.
 
saeedhk said:
A complete blackout on Pakistan media. Jibran Nasir is the only one who is willing to discuss and follow up on such disappearances and stand up to Mullah Burqa and his ilk. A lovely individual. I hope I see him as the PM of Pakistan in my lifetime.

I pray for his safety.
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I may not agree with Jibran on everything but a brilliant individual overall, he raises issues on all forums against all kind of people and appreciates where required as well. Don't think he is ever going to be anywhere close to being a PM though as one can be activist or a politician (cant be both).

It's always shameful if people go missing instead of facing trial (if they posed any kind of threat). At least in Raza's case it doesn't look like he has done anything wrong (from his facebook posts).
 
While I am critical of army so many times, lets be neutral here. I have openly criticized them multiple times on various media platforms, but never got abducted. So there's a big chance that there's some actual bad element behind the posts which required such action or its purely a political drama? (Balochi guys gone missing sort of thing).

King-Misbah said:
So the usual lot blaming the army with no proof! Well done.
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If army has done it, there wont be any proofs lying around.
 
maxamax said:
While I am critical of army so many times, lets be neutral here. I have openly criticized them multiple times on various media platforms, but never got abducted. So there's a big chance that there's some actual bad element behind the posts which required such action or its purely a political drama? (Balochi guys gone missing sort of thing).



If army has done it, there wont be any proofs lying around.
Click to expand...


Two questions to consider:

Are you living in Pakistan?
Do you have a following on social media?
 
I have not followed Pakistani media for sometime now. But one thing I noticed

Hamid Mir's tone changed after an attack on him.
There was another anchor who got arrested in Saudi Arabia (on some fraud thing) and got released after few weeks. After that his narratives have been completely different to what it was before his arrest.

Have any of you guys felt the same or I am thinking too much here?
 
Recently, the capital was held hostage by religious ideologues claiming "Islam is under attack" in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where over the last 40 years any genuine progressive movement has been crushed or alienated, where not a single truly liberal party (by international standards) exists and the religious right has been a permanent political powerbroker.

The government and even the most powerful institution in the country capitulated in the face of what was rightly described as terrorism by the IHC. The country went to a near standstill and eventually accommodated these violent demonstrators.

Yet there's not a peep of protest when these progressive activists go missing. There's either indifference or in some cases a callous disregard for these peoples' whereabouts. That shows you how far to the right the political centre has shifted - and yet you get some Pakistanis claiming its the liberals who are messing up the country.
 
saeedhk said:
LHC has ordered police, intel agencies to recover Raza Khan.
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LHC, or any other court, has no sway whatsoever over the intelligence agencies. We already have a judge from another high court publicly acknowledging the possibility that he could go missing and no one would be able to do a thing about it. The saying "if you want to see who really rules you, find out who you can't criticize" comes to mind and there's a very clear pattern in terms of who all the missing persons were criticizing up until they suddenly vanished into thin air.
 
I will not be surprised if blasphemy allegations are raised against them,considering that this happened last time when bloggers went missing.
 
DW44 said:
LHC, or any other court, has no sway whatsoever over the intelligence agencies. We already have a judge from another high court publicly acknowledging the possibility that he could go missing and no one would be able to do a thing about it. The saying "if you want to see who really rules you, find out who you can't criticize" comes to mind and there's a very clear pattern in terms of who all the missing persons were criticizing up until they suddenly vanished into thin air.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The Boys are untouchable.Heck, even missing persons activist went missing from Sindh a couple of months ago.
 
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