The Pakistan government should investigate reports of summary executions, torture, and mistreatment during counterterrorism operations in Swat, according to a Human Rights Watch report on Friday.
| "The Pakistani military has yet to understand that a bullet in the back of the head is simply not the way to win hearts and minds in Swat." |
Since September 2009, the HRW has received credible reports of extra-judicial executions, allegedly by soldiers in Swat or police, acting at the behest of the military. The HRW has since February researched alleged human rights violations in Swat, based on an initial list of 238 suspicious killings provided by local sources and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
None of the killings were falsely reported in the cases examined, suggesting that the total number of killings is as high as or greater than this. To date, the military has not held any of the perpetrators accountable.
"The Pakistani military has yet to understand that a bullet in the back of the head is simply not the way to win hearts and minds in Swat," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at HRW. "Killing suspects and their relatives is vicious, illegal, and constitutes an appallingly bad counterterrorism practice that just creates more enemies." |