LAHORE, Dec 3: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) will organise a week of protests against `enforced disappearances’, to highlight the situation of the hundreds of people `picked up’ across the country.

According to a press release issued here on Sunday, the week of protests will begin with a seminar on `enforced disappearances’ in Lahore on Dec 4. A press conference on the issue will be held in Karachi on Dec 6 and a meeting on the same day in Quetta. On Dec 7, a seminar on involuntary disappearances will be held in Peshawar.

The week of protests will end with a demonstration in Islamabad on Dec 9.

HRCP has remained engaged in the process of collecting data on `disappearances’ over the past several months. According to details so far available, hundreds of people are missing.

The increase in such cases over the past two years, particularly in Balochistan and Sindh where nationalists are being targeted, is particularly horrifying.

HRCP is continuing the process of collecting information on, verifying and documenting all cases of `disappearances’.

The objective of the week of protests is to highlight the denial of fundamental freedoms and the due process of justice to hundreds of citizens, as well as the unbearable agony suffered by the families who for weeks, months or years have no information about their relatives, and are unaware as to whether they are dead or alive.

HRCP reiterates its demand that authorities discover the whereabouts of all those reported missing and end secret captivity at detention houses reportedly dotted across the country.