ISLAMABAD – Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called onPakistan to resolve hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances for which”no one has ever been held accountable”.

“Disappearances are a tool of terror… if committed as part of awidespread or systematic attack, they constitute a crime against humanity,”a statement issued by the rights watchdog on Monday said, calling onPakistan to “take concrete steps to end impunity”.

Pakistan has many enforced disappearances over the past decade, mainlyconfined in the past to conflict zones near the Afghanistan border or tosouthwestern Balochistan province, where separatists are battling forindependence.

However in recent years a growing number of such abductions have takenplace brazenly in major urban centres such as Karachi, Lahore and even thecapital, Islamabad.

Many people are believed to still be in custody. According to Amnesty, theUnited Nations has more than 700 such cases pending in Pakistan, while astate commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances lists hundreds ofadditional cases.

Victims include bloggers, journalists, students, peace activists and otherhuman rights defenders.

Few punishments, Amnesty said, are “as cruel and deliberate…. Familiesare plunged into a state of anguish, trying to keep the flame of hope alivewhile fearing the worst. They may be in this limbo for years”.

According to the non-government organisations (NGO), Pakistan has recentlyaccepted UN recommendations that make enforced disappearances a crime buthas refused to ratify an international convention protecting anyone fromenforced disappearances. – Agencies