An activist abducted last month has broken his silence on his week-long disappearance, but is refusing to point fingers at his abductors.
Ahmad Waqas Goraya was among five activists who had vanished in Pakistan in early January. Human Rights Watch, opposition lawmakers and activists have said their near simultaneous abductions pointed to government’s involvement with a history of enforced disappearances.
Goraya was freed at the end of January along with at least three others and swiftly fled back to the Netherlands, where he has lived for the last decade.
“I felt I would never come back, I would never see my son and family,” the 34-year-old said during a phone interview in which he frequently became agitated.
Goraya, who like the other activists criticised religious extremism and the establishment, refused to say anything about his captors or what happened during his ordeal.
But he angrily rejected accusations that he was a traitor for daring to be vocal about alleged abuses of power in Pakistan, insisting he was a true patriot.
“Nothing was against Pakistan, nothing was against Islam, I was critical of policies because I want to see a better Pakistan,” he said, adding in a later message: “We want a Pakistan with rule of law.”
Goraya also said he feared a virulent ultra right-wing campaign to paint him as a blasphemer, while he was missing, has followed him to Europe.
Goraya said allegations of blasphemy had surfaced on social media sites frequented by the Pakistani community in the Netherlands, prompting him to seek police advice.
“I’m looking over my shoulder ─ I have been warned by people it is a crazy world.”
Campaigners and opposition politicians believe the disappearances in January were part of a strategy to stamp out criticism and dissent online.
Officials have denied any role in the disappearances, which sparked protests in cities across Pakistan by progressives concerned that the space for free speech is shrinking.
But, Goraya said, they have had their intended effect. “Hundreds of our friends deactivated their (social media) accounts, their pages,” Goraya said, adding that well-known liberal blog ‘Roshni’ (whose name means “light” in Urdu) was among those deleted, despite the fact its administrator was based in London.
Goraya said he has spent almost a decade in the Netherlands but had come to Pakistan in late 2016 to gauge the possibility of returning to Lahore with his family.
“I could have applied for Dutch citizenship after five years but we never went that way ─ it would mean giving up my Pakistani passport,” he said. “The plan was to move permanently back to Pakistan. But now we have to re-plan our whole life.”
