US watchdog urges Pakistan to reveal status of journalist detained since May

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A global media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday urged Pakistan to immediately disclose the whereabouts of a nationally known television journalist Imran Riaz Khan who has been missing since his arrest on May 11, Voice of America (VOA) reported.

Imran Riaz Khan was detained by police at the Sialkot airport in the central Punjab province as he tried to leave the country over fears of his arrest. He has 4 million YouTube subscribers and more than 5 million followers on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Imran Riaz’s X profile is inactive since May 11, his last tweet was regarding former PM Imran Khan after he was arrested on May 9.

Imran Riaz was detained under the charges of inciting people to violence through his reporting.

Riaz was taken into custody under then-Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government.

He was arrested on May 11. This came two days after violence erupted in Pakistan when former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested in the Toshakhana case. Riaz was allegedly a vocal supporter of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and the military.

“Saturday marks 100 days of the disappearance of anchor @ImranRiazKhan, who has not been seen since his arrest on May 11,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement released via X.

The US-based group noted that Pakistani authorities had repeatedly failed to present Riaz in court amid a “larger crackdown” on the media, VOA reported.

Sharif dissolved the parliament and his government earlier this month when its mandated term ended, and a caretaker administration subsequently took charge to oversee elections in Pakistan.

In his complaint filed at a Sialkot police station, Riaz’s father alleged that police abducted his son, and requested his early and safe release.

Former government officials would not confirm the arrest, leading to allegations the powerful military was behind it because the missing journalist would frequently criticize in his talk shows the institution’s alleged meddling in political affairs, VOA reported.

Reporters Without Borders, known globally by its French acronym RSF, claimed in late May that it had received information from “confidential diplomatic sources” that Riaz was tortured and “may even have died in detention.”

Police officers told the court during a May hearing that they did not have Riaz in custody and could not find him in any of the Punjab jails. Pakistani intelligence agencies have also denied holding him.

Human rights groups have since condemned it as an “enforced disappearance.”

But after Khan was removed from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022, the journalist started harshly criticizing the military that Khan alleged was behind his ouster.

The journalist’s arrest came as a part of a nationwide crackdown on Khan supporters after they allegedly vandalized military properties in different parts of Pakistan to protest the short-lived arrest of the former prime minister in May, VOA reported.

Riaz had posted a video on his YouTube channel just before his arrest, accusing the establishment, a reference to the military, of harassing him and threatening to arrest him.

Global press freedom advocacy groups list Pakistan among the countries declared unsafe for journalists, VOA reported.

The CPJ says that at least 97 media workers and journalists have been killed, mostly for their work, in the South Asian nation since 1992. But investigations into these cases have not led to any convictions. (ANI)