{"id":699,"date":"2026-04-04T22:41:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T02:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/?p=699"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:41:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T02:41:37","slug":"grave-situation-in-gilgit-baltistan-pakistan-links-provided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/grave-situation-in-gilgit-baltistan-pakistan-links-provided\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Grave situation in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan&#8221; \u2013 LINKS PROVIDED"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">&#8220;Ehsan Ali and four other members of the Awaami Action Committee (AAC) were arrested in March by the Pakistani government on false charges of terrorism. The real reason for their arrest is that the AAC has been leading a grassroots movement to resist the Pakistani government\u2019s looting and political repression in the region of Gilgit-Baltistan. The AAC has gained a large following among poor and exploited people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Recently, the Pakistani government used the pretext of its war with Afghanistan to suppress political dissent by arresting activists. This is a <strong>blatant violation of the democratic right to free speech and the right of assembly<\/strong>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">The situation is life or death. Ehsan Ali, the leader of the AAC, is elderly and and in poor health. He has been denied medical care by the authorities and we have received reports that orders have been given to \u201clet him die\u201d in prison.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">Last year, the Pakistani government imprisoned and tortured prominent leaders of the AAC for months. But we were able to get them released thanks to an international campaign of pressure on the Pakistani state. We mobilized protestors around the world to send thousands of letters and phone calls to Pakistani consulates. Prominent left-wing figures like Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labour Union and Yanis Varoufakis, as well as several trade unions publicly endorsed our campaign and helped us to free the political prisoners. <strong>We need to free them again, and in order to do this, we need to spread the word as far as possible! This is where we could use your help.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">We are asking people around the world to participate in our day of action on April 2:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"rgb(17, 85, 204)\"><a href=\"https:\/\/marxist.com\/hands-off-ehsan-ali-and-aac.htm\" data-ogsc=\"\"><em>https:\/\/marxist.com\/hands-off-ehsan-ali-and-aac.htm<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">In Montreal, we will be demonstrating outside the Pakistani Consulate (3421 Peel St) on April 2 at 8:30-10am<\/span><\/em><\/strong><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">[N.B. by the time this info reached SAWCC it was too late to inform members.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em><span data-ogsc=\"black\">Use your platform to share information about the political repression of the AAC in Pakistan.&#8221;<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">FYI, documentation from other sources as well on the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><span data-ogsc=\"black\">Report from the UN Human Rights Council<\/span><\/strong><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0(dated 26 June 2025)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">on the issue of Gilgit-Baltistan and the repression there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"blue\"><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.un.org\/en\/A\/HRC\/59\/NGO\/291\" data-ogsc=\"\">https:\/\/docs.un.org\/en\/A\/HRC\/59\/NGO\/291<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><span data-ogsc=\"black\">Report from URPO<\/span><\/strong><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0(Under-represented People&#8217;s Organization), Netherlands<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">dated 20th\u00a0March 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"blue\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unpo.org\/unpo-raises-alarm-over-denial-of-medical-treatment-to-gilgit-baltistan-activist\/\" data-ogsc=\"\">https:\/\/unpo.org\/unpo-raises-alarm-over-denial-of-medical-treatment-to-gilgit-baltistan-activist\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><span data-ogsc=\"black\">Article from the <em>Pakistan Journal of Development Economics<\/em>\u00a0(<\/span><\/strong><span data-ogsc=\"black\">2023), in which\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"black\">some of those who have been detained are referenced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span data-ogsc=\"blue\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pide.org.pk\/research\/pakistans-historical-neglect-of-gilgit-baltistan\/\" data-ogsc=\"\">https:\/\/pide.org.pk\/research\/pakistans-historical-neglect-of-gilgit-baltistan\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>image source: https:\/\/marxist.com\/hands-off-ehsan-ali-and-aac.htm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Ehsan Ali and four other members of the Awaami Action Committee (AAC) were arrested in March by the Pakistani government on false charges of terrorism. The real reason for their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sawcc-ccfsa.ca\/EN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}