Lahore, 20 April 2018: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the burglary-style raid on the house of the editor of its State of Human Rights report, which was launched on 16 April in Islamabad. In a statement issued here today, the Commission said:
‘At about 8.45 PM last night, two armed men broke into the house of Ms Maryam Hasan, editor of HRCPs annual report, and took away her laptop, two hard drives and two mobile phones, as well as some jewelry and cash. They told Ms Hasan, who lives alone, that they had also come the day before, but not committed burglary since she had not been at home. They questioned Ms
Hasan about her professional engagements and intimidated her in a roundabout manner, finally leaving at 10.00 PM.’
HRCP suspects that the two suave raiders were no ordinary thieves and calls on the Government of Punjab to apprehend the culprits and establish their identity. HRCP will hold the provincial authorities responsible for any attempt by state or non-state actors to harass any persons associated with the Commission.
Dr Mehdi Hasan
Chairperson
Uzma Noorani
Co-Chairperson
Habib Tahir
Vice Chair, Balochistan
Kamran Arif
Vice Chair, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Salima Hashmi
Vice Chair, Punjab
Asad Iqbal Butt
Vice Chair, Sindh
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For a PDF version of this statement, click here.
