(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has voiced outrage at the actions of Pakistani military intelligence officers in kidnapping and torturing two journalists who filmed an airbase used by the US military in the southern province of Sindh. Mukesh Rupeta, a correspondent with the Pakistani independent television station Geo TV, and freelance cameraman Sanjay Kumar were […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has voiced outrage at the actions of Pakistani military intelligence officers in kidnapping and torturing two journalists who filmed an airbase used by the US military in the southern province of Sindh.
Mukesh Rupeta, a correspondent with the Pakistani independent television station Geo TV, and freelance cameraman Sanjay Kumar were finally taken before a judge on 22 June 2006 after being held secretly for more than three months. They are now formally detained on a charge of “divulging official secrets.”
“It is high time that Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told his intelligence services to refrain from such unacceptable practices,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Like Hayatullah Khan, these two journalists were kidnapped and tortured for filming US military equipment on Pakistani territory.”
Reporters Without Borders added: “President George W. Bush’s government also has a duty to remind its Pakistani ally that the war on terrorism in no way justifies such excesses. We call for the immediate release of Rupeta and Kumar, as well as the release of Munir Mengal, who was also kidnapped by intelligence agents.”
Reporters Without Borders has registered at least 21 cases of Pakistani and foreign journalists being kidnapped by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) since Gen. Musharraf became president in October 1999.
Rupeta and Kumar were detained on 6 March 2006 while filming the base at Shahbaz, in Sindh province, where the US military has equipment and troops. Thereafter, Geo TV received no news of its missing correspondent for more than three months.
They were handed over on 21 June to the Jacobabad police, who formally arrested them under the Official Secrets Act. Rupeta is also reportedly accused of forging passports for members of the Hindu community, of which he is a member.
The two journalists were taken on 22 June before a judge in Jacobabad, who gave the police permission to hold them for another seven days while they pursue their enquiries. The judge also said they should be transferred at once to a hospital for a medical examination.
Both showed clear signs of having been tortured when they appeared in court. Rupeta told journalists in the courtroom, “I cannot tell you what they did to me. I thought they were going to kill me.” His mother, who was also present in the court, fainted upon seeing the signs of torture.
