In a bizarre turn of events, a leading Pakistani activist who was abducted from the streets of Karachi Thursday while he was travelling with his wife returned home late Friday night following a public outcry and protesters rallying to demand his safe return. Jibran Nasir may have returned home, but questions on whose custody he was in for more than 24 hours or the purpose behind his targetting remain unanswered.
Amid allegations that he was picked up by the establishment for questioning, human rights activists, journalists and lawyers held a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Friday.
Nasir and his wife Mansha Pasha were returning home after dinner on 1 June when their car was waylaid by a white Toyota Hilux Vigo in Karachi. At the same time, a silver Corolla blocked their car from behind, and according to his wife, “around 15 men in plain clothes with pistols” got out and forced Jibran to accompany them.
Pasha, who is an actor, told Dawn that the “abduction” took place late Thursday night from Karachi’s Defence Phase 5 area by armed men.
According to one report by Geo TV, police in Pakistan’s Sindh province Friday registered a case in this regard under sections 365 (wrongful confinement) and 34 (criminal conspiracy) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
His brazen abduction drew a sharp collective response from the civil society in Pakistan, celebrities and the country’s Human Rights Commission, which in a tweet last night demanded that Nasir be “safely recovered immediately and his abductors held accountable under the law”.
Terming the developments “very disturbing”, Salman Sufi, head of the Pakistan Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit said that “Jibran has always spoken against violent extremism and rioting”. Sufi also wrote on Twitter that he would “continue to advocate” for Jibran’s release if the latter was in the custody of law-enforcement agencies.
“Everything I write in praise of him as an activist, as a mentor and as a friend sounds reductive. Jibran Nasir, to me, represents the very best of us. Release him,” wrote actor Osman Khalid Butt.
But this spate of abductions or ‘forced disappearances’ did not begin with Jibran. According to reports in the Pakistani media, journalist Sami Abraham was ‘taken away’ in a similar fashion last month and returned home only six days later.
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A voice against sectarian violence
A lawyer by profession, Jibran Nasir (36) has emerged as a leading voice against sectarian violence in Pakistan over the past decade.
In 2013, Jibran was profiled by Foreign Policy as one of three prominent Pakistanis “pushing back against killing in God’s name”.
A bitter critic of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he launched multiple campaigns — including #ReclaimYourMosques and #NeverForgetPK — to highlight the dangers of religious extremism in the aftermath of the 16 December 2014 attack on Peshawar Army Public School.
Jibran was arrested and later released in January 2015 for leading a demonstration near the residence of the chief minister of Sindh, demanding that the government take action against banned terror organisations.
In 2013 and 2018, he contested for a seat in Pakistan’s National Assembly and the Provincial Assembly of Sindh as an Independent candidate but lost both times.
On 31 May, Jibran had shared a picture on Twitter showing Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir with his predecessor General Qamar Javed Bajwa with a caption suggesting that Munir was still taking orders from Bajwa.
Jibran has also been critical of the institutional crackdown against leaders and supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)