*ISLAMABAD: The Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has releasedreport of the human rights record in Pakistan. *
*HRCP slammed the nation’s deteriorating human rights record in a reportreleased Monday, highlighting extrajudicial killings and enforceddisappearances across the turbulent country.*
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report noted that deathslinked to terrorism continued to decline in 2017 but warned of an uptick inviolence against so-called soft targets.
“A study shows more Pakistanis died in incidents described as ‘encounters’than in gun violence or in suicide attacks,” HRCP said, pointing toresearch showing 495 people died in what law enforcement called shootouts.
The issue of encounter killings has made headlines for months in Pakistanfollowing the death in January of Naqeebullah Mehsud — a young social mediastar and ethnic Pashtun — by police in Karachi, who claimed he was amilitant.
Hundreds of people are believed to die each year at the hands of securityforces under pressure to crack down on kidnapping, murder and gang violencein the chaotic port city.
Thousands of ethnic Pashtuns have rallied across the country since Mehsud’sdeath, calling for an end to such killings and for investigations intoenforced disappearances or cases of alleged abductions by Pakistan’ssecurity agencies.
Activists claim a variety of groups are targeted in such abductions,including journalists critical of the military and communities living nearconflict zones believed to nurture links with militants.
“It is high time that we sign the international convention on enforceddisappearances,” HRCP spokesperson I.A. Rehman told reporters.
“We won’t see any end of these disappearances until all those involved areprosecuted.”
According to the group, Pakistan’s commission of inquiry on enforceddisappearances received 868 cases in 2017 alone.
Pakistan also continues to fare poorly in protecting religious minoritieswhile violence against women remains troubling, with 5,660 related crimesreported in the country’s four provinces in the first 10 months of 2017.
However, the report did include notable achievements on the rights front,including the inclusion of a transgender category in Pakistan’s latestcensus and the right to identify as transgender in the country’s passports.