LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the ‘burglary-style raid’ on the house of its consultant here on Thursday night.

The raid took place at the house of Maryam Hasan, the editor of the HRCP’s annual ‘State of Human Rights’ report launched in Islamabad on April 16.

In its statement, the HRCP claimed that at about 8.45pm on April 19, two armed men broke into the house of Maryam Hasan, took away her laptop, two hard drives and two mobile phones, as well as some jewellery and cash. They took out Rs10,000 from Ms Hasan’s wallet but returned Rs2,000 to her. They told Ms Hasan, who lives alone, that they had also come the day before, but did not take away anything because she had not been home. They questioned her about her professional engagements and intimidated her in a roundabout manner, finally leaving at around 10pm.

The statement further said that the HRCP suspected that the two raiders were “no ordinary thieves” and called on the government of Punjab to apprehend the culprits and establish their identity.

“HRCP will hold the provincial authorities responsible for any attempt by state or non-state actors to harass any persons associated with the Commission.”

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018