UN condemns 'widespread' torture by police in Pakistan

A UN committee has condemned the "widespread practice of torture" in Pakistan by police, the military and intelligence agencies in a report published Friday, and called on Islamabad to implement urgent reforms to the law.

"The police engage in the widespread practice of torture throughout the territory, ... with a view to obtaining confessions from persons in custody," the UN Committee against Torture wrote in its first report on the situation in the country, made public after months of investigation.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

"The Committee is seriously concerned at reports that members of the State party's military forces; intelligence forces (...)and paramilitary forces (...) have been implicated in a significant number of cases of extra-judicial executions involving torture and enforced disappearances."

It urged Pakistan to "incorporate into its legislation a specific definition of torture" that can be applied without exception, including to the army, which is regularly accused of abusing its powers.