My father brought to court premises, seems unwell: Gulalai Ismail

Pakistani activist Gulalai Ismail on Friday said she has received information that her father, who was abducted yesterday from Peshawar, has been brought to the court premises.

"Just got the information that @ProfMIsmail has been brought to the court premises. He is in bad shape, seems untested, unwell and hypertensed. #ReleaseProfIsmail," she said in a tweet.

Gulalai Ismail, who is currently in the US on Thursday said that her father was picked up by "men wearing militia dress" in Peshawar.

"My father has been picked up by men wearing Militia dress from outside of Peshawar High Court an hour ago," Ismail had tweeted.

 

Expressing concern over the "detention" of Ismail's father in Pakistan and "continued harassment" faced by her family, US on Friday urged Islamabad to uphold the rights of citizens.

"We are concerned by reports of the continued harassment of Gulalai Ismail's family, and her father's detention today. We encourage Pakistan to uphold citizens' rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and due process," Acting Assistant Secretary Alice Wells said, according to a tweet by Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

Retweeting it, 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."

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".

"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's rights activist had 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.