{"id":10131,"date":"2017-03-09T18:25:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T18:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/pakistan-activist-waqass-goraya-the-military-tortured-me\/"},"modified":"2017-03-09T18:25:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T18:25:15","slug":"pakistan-activist-waqass-goraya-the-military-tortured-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/pakistan-activist-waqass-goraya-the-military-tortured-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan activist Waqass Goraya: The military tortured me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WaqassImage copyright Waqass Goraya
Image caption Waqass Goraya says someone has to stand up to the military in Pakistan <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A liberal Pakistani activist who went missing earlier this year has said a "government institution" with links to the military held him and tortured him. <\/p>\n

Waqass Goraya, one of five activists who disappeared in early January, told the BBC he was tortured "for pleasure". <\/p>\n

The activists were freed after several weeks - but until now none of them have said who was behind their mistreatment. <\/p>\n

Pakistan's army has previously denied any involvement in the case. There were vocal protests seeking their release.<\/p>\n

Pakistan is one of the the world's most dangerous countries for reporters and human rights activists, and critics of the powerful military have been detained, beaten or killed.<\/p>\n

Waqass Goraya - who now lives in the Netherlands - told the BBC he had been tortured "beyond limits". <\/p>\n

He described being punched, slapped and forced into stress positions during the three weeks he was held. He worried he would never be released.<\/p>\n

"We knew it was over\u2026 We will die under torture," he told the BBC. <\/p>\n

He also spoke at a side event at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva about his experiences. <\/p>\n

Mr Goraya believes he was detained because he ran a satirical Facebook page critical of the influence of the Pakistani military in the country's political system. <\/p>\n

The page has also criticised military policy in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province. Mr Goraya strongly denies breaking any laws. <\/p>\n

"I hadn't done anything criminal - otherwise I would've been in a court not in illegal detention," he told the BBC. <\/p>\n

Image copyright AFP <\/figure>\n

At a press conference in January, a spokesman for Pakistan's powerful military said it had had nothing to do with the disappearance of the bloggers.<\/p>\n

Pakistan's interior minister had previously said the government did not tolerate "enforced disappearances". <\/p>\n

After Waqass Goraya and the other activists disappeared, a campaign demanding their release sprang up around the hashtag #recoverallactivists. But a counter-campaign both online - and backed by a number of TV anchors - accusing them of blasphemy also began. <\/p>\n

Blasphemy is an emotive issue in Pakistan - and can legally be punishable by death. <\/p>\n

Mr Goraya says the allegations of blasphemy are false, and that alleged blasphemous postings have been fabricated. <\/p>\n

Following a court petition by an Islamist leader, on 8 March legal proceedings were begun calling for the prosecution of those behind a number of social media pages allegedly run by the missing activists. <\/p>\n

All of them are now believed to be outside Pakistan. Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has previously raised concern about the blasphemy allegations against the activists - but following the court ruling threatened to block "all social media websites" that had blasphemous content. <\/p>\n

Mr Goraya believes the blasphemy allegations are an attempt "to shut us down - to threaten our families - to build pressure on us". <\/p>\n

A protest was held in Islamabad on 8 March by religious groups calling for action against the activists and criticising the government for letting them leave the country. <\/p>\n

Image copyright AP
Image caption Activists saw the disappearance of the bloggers as a worrying sign <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Goraya says he believes that by speaking to the UN, he can help build pressure in Pakistan to pass a bill currently before parliament that would force the security services to provide information on a "missing person" in their detention within three days of a request. <\/p>\n

He also wants accountability for what happened to him. <\/p>\n

"The government should investigate it. We have evidence - strong evidence - it will directly lead to the persons responsible." <\/p>\n

Mr Goraya still has nerve damage in his hands and feet, as well as problems with his hearing - but says he is determined to continue activist work. <\/p>\n

"They are still picking people, more and more people are being harmed - our friends, our colleagues - so how can we stop? Someone has to stand up." <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Waqass GorayaImage caption Waqass Goraya says someone has to stand up to the military in Pakistan A liberal Pakistani activist who went missing earlier this year has said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}