Kashmiri Activist Beigh raises alarm over suppression of democratic protests in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan

Geneva [Switzerland], September 24 (ANI): Social worker and rights activist from Jammu and Kashmir, Javad Ahmad Beigh has raised the issue of the continued incarceration of members of the Awami Action Committee of Gilgit-Baltistan (AAC-GB), including its chairman, Advocate Ehsan Ali, at the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Addressing the Council, Beigh said Advocate Ehsan Ali and several other members of the AAC-GB had been kept in detention for more than three months. He described Ehsan Ali, a 70-year-old advocate, as the chairman of the AAC-GB. 
Beigh alleged that Pakistan had criminalised genuine protests in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan and was using anti-terror laws against activists raising issues concerning the basic rights of people in the region.
According to Beigh, AAC-GB is a group comprising different social, religious, trade and student organisations and is a prominent non-political organisation working for the basic rights of people living in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan.
He said Ehsan Ali and fellow activists Nusrat Hussain, Mehboob Wali, Nafees Advocate and Mehar Ali had been placed under the Fourth Schedule of Pakistan’s anti-terror laws and accused of inciting violence. Beigh described the charges as politically motivated and said they had been condemned by civil society in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan.
Beigh alleged that the detention of the activists reflected the deteriorating state of democratic rights in the region, where, he claimed, even organising peaceful and democratic protests was being treated as a criminal act.
He further alleged that the Pakistani establishment was attempting to silence dissenting voices seeking legitimate basic rights and accused the administration of using stringent laws, force, torture and intimidation to suppress people’s rights.
Calling for international attention to the issue, Beigh urged the Human Rights Council to take serious note of the detention of activists from Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan and called for an end to what he described as the misuse of anti-terror laws.
He appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to call upon Pakistan to immediately release the detained AAC-GB members, end the alleged misuse of anti-terror laws and ensure independent investigations into what he termed arbitrary detentions and political repression in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan. (ANI)