(RSF/IFEX) – In a 29 November 1999 letter to the Pakistani minister for Kashmir Affairs, Abbas Sarfraz, RSF expressed its concern about the kidnapping and death threats against Sardar Ashiq Hussain, an editor with the Kashmir Press International (KPI) news agency. RSF urged Sarfraz to order an inquiry and “to ensure that those responsible for […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 29 November 1999 letter to the Pakistani minister for Kashmir Affairs, Abbas Sarfraz, RSF expressed its concern about the kidnapping and death threats against Sardar Ashiq Hussain, an editor with the Kashmir Press International (KPI) news agency.
RSF urged Sarfraz to order an inquiry and “to ensure that those responsible for this act are quickly arrested and prosecuted.” RSF also urged the police to provide protection for the editor, allowing him to bring charges against his kidnappers and continue his work.
According to RSF’s information, on 6 November, Sardar Ashiq Hussain was kidnapped from his office at Rawalakot, Azad Jamu and Kashmir (AJK). He was released twenty-six hours later. According to the editor, the kidnappers were Nauman Ashraf, son of the AJK revenue minister, Shaid Sarwar, his public relations officer, and Suhail Rafiq, Muhammad Abshar and Muhammad Zarin, officials of the People’s Students Federation, the student wing of the Pakistan People’s Party. The KPI news editor told RSF’s correspondent: “They asked me to have published a six-column news story in favour of the minister before I could be released. They told me that I had been kidnapped with the knowledge of the local administration, and therefore it would come to my rescue.” Sardar Abid Hussain, the chairman of the state government’s Pearl Development Authority, arrived with a former state adviser on 7 November at the temple where the editor was being held and held talks with the kidnappers which resulted in the editor’s release.
Sardar Ashiq Hussain met the local deputy commissioner on 8 November, but no arrest was made. He added: “The state police took the accused under their protection to the local sessions court on 8 November, which granted them bail. They are roaming around in the same vehicle used in my kidnapping. Then, the minister’s son warned me in a phone call of dire consequences if I travel to Rawalakot, my native town, to pursue the case. I cannot visit my parents and other relatives anymore.” He met the Pakistani minister for Kashmir Affairs, Abbas Sarfraz, who told him: “We cannot interfere in this case because it will become a political issue. It may provide our rivals with an opportunity to claim that we are interfering in AJK government affairs.” On 23 November, the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists threatened that its journalists would begin a hunger strike if the AJK premier did not take any action against the minister.
