Defending human rights in a country ruled by the military and dominated by the religious-sectarian extremists is always a dangerous business. Just how dangerous it is, has been revealed by a recent report from the human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, titled “Human Rights Under Surveillance: Digital Threats against Human Rights Defenders in Pakistan.” The report reveals that there is a sustained campaign of cyber targeting – through spear phishing emails, malware attacks, social engineering techniques etc. – on the prominent human rights activists in Pakistan.

Through this targeting, elements purportedly linked to the Pakistan’s deep state, have attempted hacking the activists’ computers and mobile phones for surveillance purposes. Though it is nothing new that the so-called deep state of Pakistan continues harassing journalists, academics, bloggers, human rights activists and even their families through various overt, clandestine and electronic means, journalists like Gul Bukhari, Marvi Sirmed, the family of an exiled blogger like Ahmad Waqass Goraya are the latest additions to this long list. But the Amnesty International report is evident enough how the deep state has been perfecting in most technologically sophisticated way of surveillance and harassment of people having independent or critical thinking.

  The report specifically talks about the case of Diep Saeeda, an activist who has been campaigning for the past few months for the release of another activist Raza Khan, whom the Amnesty International describes as a victim of enforced disappearance. Since Saeeda began the campaign in December 2017, asserts the Amnesty International that there has been a relentless operation to compromise her computer, mobile phone, and social media accounts. Amnesty International says that similar attacks have happened against other rights activists, which points to an extensive network of fake social media profiles used to infiltrate civil society networks for the purpose of digital surveillance.

  As per the Amnesty International report, digital forensic investigation of these targeted and well-orchestrated spearphishing emails and malware attacks has revealed that these can be traced to some off-the-shelf available commercial spyware which has been further customised as well as a custom-built malware. These applications have been found to be hosted by computer servers and websites based in Pakistan. Further analysis of the files hosted on these servers and websites revealed links between the website and the members of the Pakistani military cyber security team. The evidence came in the form of a word document, which appears to provide an overview of the skills, tasks and expertise of this team including checking activity for any new anti-Army accounts, fake accounts for the Chief of Army Staff or Pakistan’s armed forces official media organ, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), targeting different accounts to compromise them, tracing the administrator of websites hosting anti-Army content etc. All this points out that Pakistan’s deep state is indirectly involved in this digital surveillance of the Pakistani human rights activists.

This has a serious ‘chilling effect’ on the civil society, which has been under threat for the past many years from security agencies, terrorist and extremist groups and criminal elements in Pakistan. Activists and human rights lawyers, along with secular bloggers have been regularly threatened and attacked in recent years in the country. Among some of the most prominent cases, in 2014, unidentified gunmen killed Rashid Rehman Khan, a human rights lawyer who had been defending a man accused of blasphemy. In the same year, prominent activist Raza Rumi survived an assassination attempt. In 2015, another prominent rights activist Sabeen Mahmud was shot dead in Karachi. In 2017, four activists linked to a secular and anti-military Facebook page, Mochi, were abducted by unidentified elements.

  And in all these cases, the standard response of the Pakistani state has been to act in the short term, when emotions run high but maintain the status quo as things settle down. On the contrary, the state has been more than accommodative towards those groups and individuals who have frequently issued explicit threats and calls for violence against those who speak out. This is evident from the ‘kid gloves’ approach towards many sectarian organisations. While it is unfair to expect individual protection from the Pakistani state to each human rights activist, the failure to crack down on these extremist and rogue elements indicates its complicity.

  Pakistan may slam the Amnesty International report as a foreign and malicious propaganda, but its own Human Rights Commission too had earlier this year in its Annual Report, expressed concern over Pakistan’s commitment to protecting human rights with an increase in enforced disappearances, blasphemy-related violence and extrajudicial killings. The Commission also raised concern over the threat to freedom of expression, saying that a “climate of fear and culture of silence” prevailed in the country.

  Pakistan’s treatment of its human rights activists and intellectuals is ironic as the country begins its innings as the member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) from this year till 2020. Therefore, it is imperative that the country amends its course and starts cracking down on the rogue elements that imperil the overall human rights situation in the country. But the question always remains when the deep state itself maintains symbiotic relations with the non-state actors, how far the security of the common people and their basic rights would be ensured?