Gulalai Ismail’s father sent on 14-day judicial remand

The father of human rights activist Gulalai Ismail, Professor Muhammad Ismail, was sent to jail with 14 days of pretrial detention on Friday, a day after his daughter alleged which had been collected from outside the Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) by "men dressed in Malitia (sic)".

Professor Muhammad's lawyer, Fazl Khan, said DawnNewsTV that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Peshawar had arrested his client after registering a First Information Report (FIR) against him under the Pakistan Electronic Crime Act (Peca) 2016.

Khan said his client was presented today to Judge Magistrate Naveedullah, where the court rejected the FIA's request for physical detention and instead sent him to a 14-day judicial detention. He added that they would soon submit a bail application.

The lawyer said that on Thursday his client was at the PHC for another case.

"Around 4:30 pm he left the upper court building and was picked up by some unknown men and transferred to [an] unknown location, "Khan said.

Earlier on Friday, Gulalai via Twitter said he had received information that his father had been taken to court facilities.

On Friday morning, US Under Secretary of State Alice G. Wells, who is also in charge of South Asian affairs in the US Department of State, had expressed concern about the "reports on the continued harassment "of the family of human rights activist Gulalai and her father. detention.

"We encourage Pakistan to defend the rights of citizens to peaceful gathering, expression and due process," Wells said in a shared post on Twitter.

In September, the New York Times Gulalai reportedly escaped from the Pakistani authorities the previous month and arrived in the United States, where he applied for political asylum.

Read: Activist Gulalai Ismail & # 39; escapes & # 39; to New York, request political asylum

She had not revealed how she managed to leave the country. All he revealed was: "I did not fly from any airport."

"I can't tell you anything else" NYT He quoted her saying during an interview. "My exit story will put many lives at risk."

According to NYT, no government official was willing to comment publicly on the matter. Security officials said they suspected that Gulalai had left the country.