KARACHI, Dec 11: The Pakistan People’s Party has expressed its serious concern over the increasing cases of disappearance and demanded an inquiry into the alleged illegal arrests, abductions by law-enforcement agencies and detentions without trial.

It cited several reports released by various organisations, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and the Amnesty International, and said: “It is shameful that even on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, no answers are given to constant demands by opposition and the human rights groups representing the protesting families of those who are unaccounted for in the military-led government of Pakistan where justice is available only to the privileged.”

In a statement issued here on Monday, PPP’s Central Information Secretary Sherry Rehman said: “It is a sad indictment of our times that in this age, Pakistan has regressed into a state where over 242 abductees remain unaccounted for, with no record of trial, justice, imprisonment or even death to console the families of these silent victims of state terror.”

She pointed out that under the relevant laws, anyone arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime has to be produced before a court of law within 24 hours after his arrest. However, it seems that under this regime, rights of citizens no longer matter, she added.

“The regime’s open contempt for law, as well as its silence in the face of accusations and evidences that it had abducted its own citizens without due process, is a grim reminder of the dictatorship’s systematic oppression of political dissenters,” she said.

The PPP leader said that for the state to hold such large numbers of people in illegal custody without admitting its complicity in such crimes, made everyone believe that Pakistan too was running detention camps where political opponents were being kept away from public sight.

“Mounting evidence of mostly Baloch prisoners who have been released tell a grisly tale of torture at the hands of intelligence agencies, which is itself a shocking reminder to all of us that justice and law are still mere buzzwords to a regime that is willing to go to any lengths to perpetuate its own brand of dictatorship.”

She said by keeping political opponents in illegal custody, the regime was playing a dangerous game that posed a threat to the stability of the federation, which might lead the country to a point of no return. The PPP leader demanded release of all such ‘abductees’ and an end to all such activities.