Amnesty International alleged that thousands of men and boys have been detained by the armed forces and those people are held in secret places of detention and never seen again. Pakistan military authorities have rejected allegations leveled against the Pakistan army by Amnesty International in its latest report titled "The Hands of Cruelty" - Abuses by Armed Forces and Taliban in Tribal Areas," an ISPR spokesman said.
While refuting the allegations through a statement, the spokesman termed the Amnesty International report a pack of lies and part of sinister propaganda campaign against Pakistan and its armed forces. The ISPR spokesman said it is a biased report based on fabricated stories twisted to serve an agenda.
The Taliban and other armed groups continue to pose a deadly threat to Pakistani society - thousands have been killed in indiscriminate attacks or those deliberately targeting civilians over the last decade, said Polly Truscott, Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director. In a report issued on Thursday, AI claimed that lack of justice was fuelling a rights crisis in the north-western, semi-autonomous region where Taliban and al Qaeda-linked violence is concentrated.
The AI blames Pakistan's armed forces for arbitrarily detaining thousands for long periods with little or no access to due process. The UK based human rights group said that cases of death and torture have been documented, detainees are not brought before court and relatives have no idea of their fate, sometimes for extended periods of time.
"Almost every week the bodies of those arrested by the armed forces are being returned to their families or reportedly found dumped across the tribal areas," said Polly Truscott, Amnesty's deputy Asia-Pacific director. "The government must immediately reform the deeply flawed legal system in the tribal areas that perpetuates the cycle of violence," she added.
Although judges have sought to investigate the fate of people who go missing, Amnesty said no military personnel had been prosecuted for alleged torture, enforced disappearance or deaths in custody. It demanded the repeal of "sweeping powers" of arrest and detention given to the armed forces in 2011, and called on the jurisdiction of the courts and parliament to be extended to the tribal areas.
Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States and that its forces have for years been fighting home-grown militants in the north-west. Amnesty also singled out the Taliban and other militant groups for targeting human rights activists, aid workers, journalists and alleged spies.
The report stated that the Taliban brutally killed personnel of security forces after capturing them and hence violating the law of international human rights. According to the Amnesty, people were killed in the areas where Taliban and militants have strongholds, posing great threats to the Pakistani community.