Paris: Gulalai Ismail, a 33-year-old Pakistani human rights activist who went underground a few months ago to evade capture by the Pakistani security forces, resurfaced this week in the US and has requested for political asylum there as she fears for her life back home.
In an interview to ThePrint, Ismail says she decided to leave Pakistan as she wanted to send a message of resistance and her pursuit to live life freely.
“I cannot reveal the exact details of how I escaped yet because it can cause a lot of trouble to my family, my friends and my well-wishers back home in Pakistan who helped me in getting out of Pakistan. If they find out who helped me to get out, those people would be killed,” she says.
Ismail’s troubles started this year in April when the Pakistani military began a crackdown against Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) — with which she is associated — and started rounding up those who are part of it. Tahaffuz in Urdu means protection. Ismail was briefly arrested in February by the police for making “anti-state” speeches.
The movement gained prominence in 2018 in the wake of the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 27-year-old Pashtun youth, in Karachi.
Pakistani authorities initially claimed that Mehsud was a terrorist but later they conceded that he was an ordinary citizen and was wrongfully killed. But, so far, no one has been punished for his murder, which triggered the protests in the beginning, and soon the PTM started to attract thousands of Pashtuns from across the country.
Pashtuns are the second-largest ethnic group in Pakistan and inhabit the north-western parts of the country, close to the Afghanistan border. Since the 9/11 terror attack in the US, thousands of Pashtuns have been affected by the ongoing military operations in their region and have often accused the Pakistani Army of human rights abuses like extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and forced relocations — all in the name of war against terror.
Ismail, a Pashtun herself, has worked in the affected region and raised her voice for the rights of Pashtuns. However, the Pakistani authorities, instead of engaging with the affected population and prominent voices like Ismail, began a brutal crackdown — arresting many of her co-workers and forcing people like her to flee the country.
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‘My parents are being punished for supporting me’
Ismail has been raising her voice for the rights of her community even before PTM came into existence.
At the age of 16, she launched an initiative called ‘Aware Girls’, which received the Fondation Chirac Peace Prize for the Prevention of Conflict in 2016.
A year before that, she had received the ‘Youth Award for Excellence in Development’ in London. In 2017, Ismail was the joint winner of the Anna Politkovskaya Award for campaigning against religious extremism. She shared the award with slain Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Ismail’s efforts were even recognised by current Pakistani President Arif Alvi, when he was not in office and when she had won the youth award in 2015. But now it seems that the same president’s ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is out to get her.
Although Ismail is safe, she worries for the safety of her parents, who live in Pakistan and are being harassed by the law enforcement agencies.
“My hometown in Swabi town is being regularly visited by intelligence agencies and the neighbours are asked details about the movement of my family members. I fear that they are collecting this information so that (they) can order a hit against my parents. I am fearful for their lives,” Ismail tells ThePrint.
Her parents are also facing charges of terror financing and the authorities are threatening to take away all their assets, the activist says.
“They are making my parents face fake terrorism charges. My parents are in their late 60s but they are not even respecting their age. This is the age they should be resting at home and yet they have to keep going to courts, face intelligence agencies and continuous harassment,” she adds.
Ismail believes that her parents are being punished because of supporting her. “In our Pashtun culture, it is very rare for women to come out like this and speak against oppression. And it is even rarer to see parents supporting their daughters when they take up such a fight. They are punishing my parents for supporting me and not handing me over to the (military) establishment,” she says.
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‘I do not want to go back and be killed or disappeared’
In exile, Ismail wants to continue to talk about issues concerning the Pashtuns. She chose to come to the US, particularly, because of this reason.
According to Ismail, counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan have been funded mostly by America since the 9/11 but the US civil society and media are not allowed to visit these areas independently.
“The Americans don’t get to see the human rights violations being carried out by the Pakistani military in my region. The world has not been made aware of these abuses and I want to ensure that the world finds out about it. These Western countries should know that they are enabling such human rights violations with their taxpayers’ money and I want to spread awareness about these violations,” she asserts.
When asked about her plans to return to Pakistan, Ismail says that it may not be possible for sometime, given the worsening condition in the country.
“I do not want to go back and be killed or disappeared. I know the military has carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings in the country and thousands of Pashtuns are in secret prisons called internment centers and I do not want to end up like that. I want to go back to a Pakistan where I can live freely and raise my voice for the rights of people without any danger to my life,” she adds.
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