(10 Jan 2017)
International and local rights groups on Tuesday urged the Pakistani government to investigate the abductions last week of four anti-Taliban activists - disappearances that critics claim reflect a crackdown on secular dissent.
Rights groups and relatives held rallies in Islamabad and Peshawar, demanding information about the four.
The four, including a poet and university professor, were snatched from various Pakistani cities, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said, adding it would hold the government responsible if any harm comes to them.
No militant group has claimed abducting them and authorities have not said any of the four were arrested or detained.
Human Rights Watch said that in their work and writings, the four men had criticised militant groups and the Pakistani military establishment, and often spoke up for religious freedoms.
The Interior Ministry has ordered the police to find one of the four - the professor, Salman Haider - but hasn't mentioned the others.
Along with Haider, the other three - Ahmad Waqas Goraya, Asim Saeed and Ahmad Raza Naseer - have written blogs and ran social media pages critical of sectarianism and Pakistan's security policies, at great personal risk.

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