Global rights groups urge Pakistan to release Pashtun human rights defender

Washington: Several international human rights organisations, including Freedom House, have called for the immediate and unconditional release of Pashtun human rights defender Idris Khattak, who has been detained in Pakistan since November 13, 2019 because of his human rights work.

The joint statement, issued on the seventh anniversary of Khattak’s detention, was signed by 31 organisations, including Freedom House, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Front Line Defenders, Physicians for Human Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

“Idris Khattak is a well-known Pashtun human rights defender who spent decades documenting human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas. On November 13, 2019, he was abducted and disappeared. For the next seven months, his family did not know whether he was alive or dead,” the statement said.

It said that in June 2020, Pakistani authorities finally admitted that Khattak was in the custody of the country’s military intelligence service, and in late 2021, he was convicted by a military court of violating the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

“His trial was marked by egregious due process violations - it was held in secret, he was denied access to counsel, a forced confession was introduced as evidence, the prosecution relied on secret evidence that was never shown to the defense, and he was not allowed to present key defense witnesses,” the statement mentioned.

The organisations expressed particular concern that Khattak has been denied adequate medical care, including for his diabetes, and as a result, his health has deteriorated significantly.

“Since then, Khattak’s health has deteriorated further, yet Pakistani authorities continue to deny him an independent medical exam and appropriate medication and treatment,” the statement noted, referring to the concerns raised by UN experts in April.

Calling on democratic governments to forcefully demand his release, the organisations requested that Pakistan be denied benefits that are conditioned on meeting human rights standards, such as participation in the European Union’s GSP+ trade programme, until it releases detained human rights defenders such as Khattak.

In November 2025, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention confirmed that Khattak has been arbitrarily detained, including in violation of his freedom of expression.

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