The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday said that Pakistan’s interim government should take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of candidates and political party activists who were at risk of attack from the Taliban and other militant groups.
HRW Pakistan Director Ali Dayan Hassain said that Pakistan’s interim government should use law enforcement agencies and‚ if required‚ the army‚ to provide as much protection as possible to candidates and political parties from Taliban’s attacks. He said unless the government, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and security forces ensured that all parties were able to campaign freely without fear‚ the election may be severely compromised.
The parliamentary elections are scheduled on the 11 May. Since April 21‚ when election campaigning formally began‚ the Taliban and other armed groups have carried out more than 20 attacks on political parties‚ killing 46 people and wounding over 190. Earlier in April‚ 24 people were killed and over 100 injured in election-related attacks.
On March 18‚ a spokesperson for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) declared elections part of an “un-Islamic democratic system which only serves the interests of infidels and enemies of Islam‚” and warned voters to stay away from political rallies by the major coalition partners in the outgoing government.
Particularly at risk have been the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP). On April 28‚ the TTP again declared that it “had decided to target those secular political parties which were part of the previous coalition government.”
The HRW director further said that the interim government‚ which took over on March 17 after the end of the government’s 5-year term‚ should provide protection to individual candidates at high risk. He said the government should also facilitate election campaigning by political parties targeted by the Taliban by providing adequate security for rallies and campaign meetings. The interim government should redeploy civilian law enforcement to sensitive areas‚ particularly in Quetta‚ in insurgency-wrecked Balochistan province‚ Karachi‚ Sindh province‚ and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the Afghan border, he said.
Numerous deadly attacks were carried out against political parties in April. On April 27‚ an attack on a PPP election meeting in Karachi killed three and injured another 20. On April 25‚ two people were wounded in a grenade attack on a PPP election office in Noshki‚ Balochistan province‚ and eight were killed in attacks in Karachi for which the Taliban took responsibility. On April 24‚ a bomb attack near the home of a politician from the PPP injured three people in Peshawar‚ the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The Karachi-based MQM party shut down its election offices in protest after an April 23 attack on an election office in the city killed five and wounded fifteen party activists.
However‚ on April 27‚ two people were killed and over 25 injured in bomb attacks targeting the MQM election office in Karachi’s Orangi Town area. Earlier‚ on April 11‚ S.M. Shiraz‚ an MQM candidate‚ was shot dead in Karachi. On April 10‚ Fakhrul Islam‚ an MQM candidate‚ was shot dead in Hyderabad‚ Sindh province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for these attacks on the MQM. The MQM has declared it will only campaign door-to-door and not hold major rallies in light of threats to its activists and the government’s failure to address the situation.
