Pakistan releases left-wing political activist from Gilgit-Baltistan

PAKISTAN has freed a political activist who was serving a life sentence in the country’s semiautonomous north, his party said last Friday (27).

Baba Jan, a left-wing political and climate activist from the Hunza Valley in northern GilgitBaltistan, was convicted by an anti-terrorism court for taking part in political riots in 2011 and lost an appeal against his life sentence in 2016.

Pakistani media reported his release came after authorities struck a deal with activists, on the heels of recent protests, to free Jan following the local elections completed last Friday. “We are happy to announce that Comrade Baba Jan ... (has) been released today after more than nine years incarceration,” Ismat Raza Shahjahan, deputy secretary of the Awami Workers Party, said.

A second activist, Iftikhar Katbalai, was also released, she said.

A close friend of Baba Jan confirmed the news, calling it the “happiest day”.

Faizullah Faraq, a spokesman for the local Gilgit-Baltistan government, said Jan’s release had been ordered by a court under a review petition.

Jan has vocally protested what he and supporters describe as political, constitutional and human rights violations in the region, organising rallies and demonstrations in protest.

He also protested the impact of climate change in Pakistan’s north. Analysts have previously warned that his continued imprisonment was fuelling extremist and nationalistic views in the region. Resentment has been building in Gilgit-Baltistan since Islamabad began mulling upgrading its constitutional status in a bid to provide legal cover to a multi-billion-dollar Chinese investment plan in the area.