US expresses concern over detention of Gulalai Ismail's father in Pak

The United States has expressed concern over the 'detention' of Pakistani women rights activist Gulalai Ismail's father in Pakistan and continued harassment faced by her family. Taking to Twitter the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs on Friday has urged Pakistan to uphold the rights of citizens. 

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Retweeting the aforementioned tweet by Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Ismail wrote, "U.S State Department is concerned about the detention of my father. By persecuting citizens for exercising their human rights Pakistan is damaging its own reputation." Pakistani women rights activist Gulalai Ismail, who is currently in the US on Thursday said that her father was picked up by "men wearing militia dress" in Peshawar. Ismail termed the abduction of her father in Peshawar an attempt to terrorise the women of Pakistan and others who dare to use their "conditional rights". 

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"Abduction of my father is an attempt to terrorise women of Pakistan who've got fathers' backs; to stifle dissent, to terrorise people who dare use their conditional rights," the women rights activist has said in another tweet. 

Ismail managed to escape Pakistan to seek political asylum in the United States in September after being accused of treason. She reached the US months after she was arrested and released for holding a protest demonstration outside the National Press Club in Islamabad.

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About Gulalai's activism

Gulalai Ismail, the chairperson of Aware Girls, a non-governmental organisation, is a recipient of the International Humanist of the Year Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Gulalai, daughter of human rights activist Muhammad Ismail, co-founded the NGO Aware Girls in 2002 with her sister Saba Ismail. The objective behind setting up the NGO was to challenge the culture of violence and the oppression of women in the rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area in the north-west of Pakistan. In May 2019, Pakistan police had accused her of "seditious speeches and inciting people to attack state institutions”.

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(with ANI inputs)