Human rights advocates called on the US government to reconsider the visa revocation of a respected Pakistani rights defender, in a letter from Human Rights Watch to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff released on Monday.
Amina Janjua, founder of Defence of Human Rights, was told her visa had been revoked just before she was due to visit the United States on September 12, on a trip to highlight the plight of hundreds of her compatriots who have allegedly "disappeared" as part of US-led anti-terrorism efforts in Pakistan.
"At a time when good US relations with Pakistan are of such vital importance, Janjua's last-minute visa revocation is both misguided and suspicious," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "It suggests an attempt to prevent critics of Pakistan's policies from sharing their views," Mariner said.
Janjua has visited Norway, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland as part of her tour to raise awareness of what Amnesty International calls "enforced disappearances" by the Pakistani government since it joined the US-led war on terror in 2001.
On her US trip, at the invitation of Amnesty, Mariner was to meet with members of Congress and other Washington officials to discuss the 563 people who have disappeared, according to Defence of Human Rights.
Amnesty said the missing persons were arbitrarily detained and held in secret facilities mostly for suspicion of links to terrorist activity. Some were also secretly handed over to the US authorities, often for financial reward, ending up in US Navy-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret CIA detention centers, Amnesty said.
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