Islamabad: The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday urged the Pakistan government to investigate allegations by eminent Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir that elements in the country’s security establishment had hatched a plot to kill her.
The alleged plot should be urgently and thoroughly investigated and all those responsible held to account, the organisation said in a statement.
“A threat against Jahangir is a threat to all those in Pakistan who struggle for human rights and the rule of law,” HRW said.
Asma Jahangir, human rights activist and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, made the allegation on Tuesday at a news conference in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
She accused “high-level security authorities” of having made a plan for her assassination, without naming anyone, according to newspaper accounts of her talk with the media.
Jahangir said the trend of killing progressive intellectuals should be brought to an end. “We are not going to accept this mindset in the country at any cost.”
Jahangir said information about the plot to assassinate her was authentic and received from highly reliable sources.
She asked media persons not to confuse the public if she was killed because “I have no personal enmity with anyone-”. The plan to assassinate her had not been made by any individual but by state security operators, Jahangir claimed.
Replying to a question, she said the interior minister had telephoned her and deployed a Rangers squad for her security but the arrangements were not satisfactory. President Asif Ali Zardari has also discussed the matter with her, she said.
Punjab police chief Mohammad Habibur Rehman has reportedly ordered all regional, city and district police officers in the province to provide Jahangir a complete security cover.
