‘Pak ISI Tortured Me For Months’: An Activist’s ‘Forced Disappearance’

Ehsan Arjemand is just one of the thousands of victims of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. 

(Graphic: Arnica Kala/The Quint)

“Being a human rights activist is not a crime in any other part of the world. But in Pakistan, it is”, says Ehsan Arjemand.

Being a human rights activist and one of Baloch origin was the reason why Ehsan Arjemand spent the last 12 years as a 'guest' in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Being a human rights activist is the reason why Ehsan walks now with the help of a stick. Investigating enforced disappearances in Pakistan was the reason why he himself was ‘disappeared’ for 12 years. “The only reason why they did not kill, as they did to many many others during my prison time, is that I'm a European citizen a citizen from Norway,” says Ehsan.

“I went to Pakistan to verify data and reports, the numbers I had on enforced disappearances. They had been following me since my stop in Dubai, and when I arrived at the so-called 'Zero point' to enter Balochistan, they took me. I was not allowed to call a lawyer, to contact my Embassy or, for what it matters, to know the charges against me. After 24 hours, I was told I was in the hands of Pakistan's security services. They handed me over from unit to unit for a couple of days, until I ended up in Turbat. There, a mayor started to question me.”

From an 'Anti-State' Element to a Political Prisoner

And a real, true horror story started. Something the majority of us, luckily, only see in movies, something we all thought belonged to the horror stories of World War II. “All my interrogations took place at night. For the first three nights, they kept questioning me, asking me the names of the people with whom I was in touch, the ones providing me with information about disappearances and other human rights violations. They kept asking me about my (non-existent) links to the guerrila, with the political resistance movement, too. I had none and they perfectly knew, they knew I was only a human rights activist, but they did not care. On the fourth day, the torture started, and went on for almost six months.”

Because of that torture, Ehsan will never walk again without a stick. The list is long and includes all the worst things you can imagine, all that one might have seen in only movies or read in books.

“After six months, the physical torture stopped, and I was informed that my status had changed from 'anti-state' element to a political prisoner. Practically, a different kind of torture started. I was deprived of sleep, could not sit for days. And I was forced to watch other people being tortured, put in cells next to the torture room from where I could hear their screams. I was forced to watch an abducted Baloch lady being tortured and raped. Her dying body was thrown in front of my cell and she was left to die of bleeding. I could not get her full name, and I'm still trying to find out her identity: if nothing else, to tell her family she is dead. I've seen many ladies being abducted and tortured, a 14-year-old boy being raped by soldiers. I was forced to watch, when I closed my eyes they would give me electroshock.”

'Would Take Me to Hospital Only When I Was About to Die'

To keep his identity secret, ISI was constantly moving Ehsan from one prison to the other, until he ended up after a couple of years in Nushki, the biggest ISI detention centre with 22 operative sections.

“All the transfers were made at night, I was constantly kept in basements. I did not see sunlight for eight long years. When my body collapsed for a severe lack of vitamin D, they had to take me to the hospital. After that, they made sure to put me in the sun once a month, once in two-three months, enough to keep me alive. I've been denied not only medical treatment but even basic hygeine commodities. Got body lice all over, but they would take me to a hospital only when I was almost dead.”

Prisoners are not allowed to have contacts, there are cameras and microphones, more than one, in every cell. But thanks to the lack of electricity, Ehsan was able to have some limited communication with some companions.

“One day, somebody opened my cell. They fixed my hair, gave me a new set of clothes, blindfolded me and brought me into a room where a non-disclosure agreement was ready to be signed. I had to swear not to talk of what had happened to me. Then, they dropped me in the street: they told me I was not supposed to contact my Embassy or my lawyer (the late Asma Jehangir) and told me I had 48 hours to leave Pakistan. My family paid for my ticket. The most hilarious thing? I had to pay Rs 800 rupees for overstaying my visa.”

Just One of Thousands of Victims

Ehsan is just one of the thousands of victims of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. The practice, so well-experimented with in Balochistan, has now become a standard way for the Pakistani government to deal with activists, journalists, free-thinkers and any political opponent all over the country. Defence of Human Rights, a non-governmental organisation working for the recovery of disappeared people, laments that more than 5,000 cases of enforced disappearance have remained unresolved to date in Pakistan.

According to the 2021 Amnesty International Report, “The groups and individuals targeted in enforced disappearances in Pakistan include people from Sindhi, Baloch, Pashtun ethnicities, the Shia community, political activists, human rights defenders, members and supporters of religious and nationalist groups, suspected members of armed groups, and proscribed religious and political organisations in Pakistan."

The report further states, "In some cases, persons are openly taken into custody by the police or intelligence agencies, and families trying to find out where they are held are denied information by the authorities. Some victims are eventually released or their whereabouts are disclosed to their families but they continue to be held in arbitrary detention including in internment camps. Those forcibly disappeared are also at risk of torture and death during captivity”.

Idris Khattak, a former Amnesty International human rights activist, is still in the hands of a military tribunal. Ehsan, even though the former Interior Minister Rehman Malik at a point had openly admitted that they had him, was never taken to a Court. “I consider ISI the biggest criminal organisation in the world. They act against the Constitution of Pakistan and against any international law. I was kept for so long “to teach a lesson” to Pakistani activists abroad.”

And while Ehsan was in prison, they started to ‘teach’ other lessons to activists abroad: Sajjid Husain and Karima Baloch have been killed, Ahmad Waqas Goraya narrowly escaped an attempt of murder investigated not so long ago by a UK Court.

Ehsan is actually closely followed by ISI goons trying to remind him that he signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Being a human rights activist is not a crime in any part of the world – except in Pakistan.

(Francesca Marino is a journalist and a South Asia expert who has written ‘Apocalypse Pakistan’ with B Natale. Her latest book is ‘Balochistan — Bruised, Battered and Bloodied’. She tweets @francescam63. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for his reported views.)