PESHAWAR, Dec 8: Supporting the campaign launched by civil society groups against “enforced disappearances”, the Amnesty International on Friday urged the government to maintain a central register of “detainees” and to regularly publish a list of “recognised places of detention”.

In a press release issued here, the AI said that despite growing anger against “enforced disappearances” the government had not acknowledged its responsibility over “hundreds of people ... detained at secret locations.”

In a week observed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan to highlight “cases of enforced disappearances”, the AI has released an update on its report published in September. The updated report brings forth new cases, besides describing how families searching for their relatives have begun forming protest groups.

“The Pakistani government needs to treat this issue with the gravity and urgency it deserves… (We) are talking not only about the fate of hundreds of people but also the devastating effects on their families. The situation involves serious breaches of international law,” said Angelika Pathak, who works as a researcher for the AI.

President Pervez Musharraf dismissed the AI’s September report, refusing to comment on it when questioned about it by the BBC, she said. Foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told some AI delegates that legal procedures were too longwinded to be followed in Pakistan.

“Politics, economics, security — all have variously been given as excuses as to why the government needs to break international law. But there is never an excuse for violating human rights. Human rights are the starting point for approaching politics and security,” said Ms Pathak.

The day the AI released its report — Sept 29 — a magazine editor, Abdur Rahim Muslim Dost, was arrested as he left a mosque in Peshawar, she said. “His fate and whereabouts are still unknown. He had just published a book describing how he was arrested by the military authorities in 2001, handed over to the Americans and detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.”