KARACHI, April 13: A Hong Kong-based rights group has expressed its concern over the disappearance of four Pakistanis including a political activist and a journalist in Balochistan and demanded their urgent release.

In an appeal to President General Pervez Musharraf, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expressed concern over the arrest of Rafiq Khoso, a political activist on 4 April 2007, and Abdul Razzaq Gul, a reporter of Daily Tawar at Turbat city of Balochistan, Shabbir Jan Rind and Bashir Rind, activists of the Baloch Student Organisation, on April 8, 2007 by police authority.

The AHRC said more than 4,000 people had disappeared after their arrest by the law enforcement agencies in Balochistan.

“To date, the whereabouts of most of those arrested are unknown,” it said.

“We call upon the Government of Pakistan to ensure establishing an effectively mandated independent commission to inquire all the allegation of illegal arrests, detention, torture and forced disappearances committed by the military and the police,” it said.

It also demanded effective judicial measures to deal with cases of torture, forced disappearance and extra-judicial killing allegedly committed by agents of the state.