The Revolutionary Communist International protests the arrest of the leaders of the Awaami Action Committee Gilgit Baltistan (AAC-GB) and of the Inqalabi Communist Party by police in Pakistan. We send our solidarity to the arrested comrades, who are facing repression for opposing the plunder of the land and resources of the region by the capitalists and imperialists. We call upon the labour movement internationally and all of our readers to protest this blatant act of repression.
Among the arrested are chairman of the AAC-GB Ehsan Ali, media officer Waheed Hassan, vice chairman Mehboob Wali, chairman of the AAC-GB youth wing Asghar Shah, Masood Ur Rehman and other leaders of the AAC-GB. Ehsan Ali is also the leader of the Inqalabi Communist Party in Gilgit Baltistan, while Waheed Hassan and Asghar Shah are also leading members of the party.
The reason for this repression is clear. The Awaami Action Committee has mobilised continuously against the plundering of the region.
We appeal to all our supporters and to the wider labour movement internationally to protest against this brutality. Raise your voices in protest, go to Pakistan’s embassies to deliver letters and petitions of protest, publish images of protests on social media, and apply pressure on prominent trade union leaders, left-wing members of parliament and others to raise their voices in protest. We will not allow the state authorities to get away with this act of political repression. In order to defeat these attacks, we appeal for international solidarity!
The Awaami Action Committee
This movement started many years ago against the ending of the flour subsidy in Gilgit Baltistan, a movement which mobilised thousands of people across the whole region. In the end, the movement was successful and the government of Gilgit Baltistan was forced to accept its demands.
Subsequently, this movement, organised under the leadership of comrade Ehsan Ali Advocate, went on to agitate for further demands of the local people, who are living in extremely difficult conditions. Last year, the movement scored another victory, which helped to reduce the prices of flour and forced the government to concede on other issues, such as the supply of electricity, healthcare and education for the people in this crisis-ridden region.
After these victories, Ehsan Ali was elected as the official chairman of the movement, which extended and began organising in all the districts of Gilgit Baltistan.
But last year, the brutal government of Gilgit Baltistan, under the dictates of Islamabad, put Ehsan Ali on the Fourth Schedule, which meant he was placed under the continuous surveillance of the police by the authorities. The black law known as ‘Fourth Schedule’ was initially used to monitor terrorists and ban terrorist organisations, but now the state is showing its teeth by using this law against leaders of mass movements fighting for the rights of the people.
Under this law, the movements of Ehsan Ali were restricted and he was told to report to the police before leaving the city or attending any political activities. Ehsan Ali never cared about such restrictions, however, and he carried on his revolutionary activities, organising the movement for the basic rights of the people of his region.
In December last year, he was briefly arrested in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, but he was released after a protest by dozens of lawyers.
Last week, when he was going to Skardu, the main city of Baltistan, to organise a meeting of the AAC-GB, Ehsan Ali was stopped by local police and asked to return home. The AAC-GB was planning a grand meeting to address various immediate issues facing the people, including the proposed minerals bill. The grand meeting, scheduled for 24-25 May, struck fear into the state authorities, who wanted to stop it from being held. It was for that reason that they forbade the comrades from travelling to the meeting in Skardu.
Ehsan Ali and his comrades peacefully protested against this brutal, draconian measure to restrict his movement in Gilgit. At that protest, the participants raised slogans against the dictatorial rule and oppression by the Pakistani state in Gilgit Baltistan. They also raised slogans against the ruling classes of both India and Pakistan for waging imperialist wars in the region, wars which have not benefited the people but have plunged them further into poverty, misery and the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Now they have been arrested for that protest and have been charged with disturbing the public order for raising slogans against the state authorities. Ehsan Ali has been remanded in police custody by the court until 28 May, while some of the other comrades arrested have been remanded until 22 May. Their lawyers were not allowed to move bail applications. The whole thing represented a farcical mockery of a judicial process.
Three of those arrested are members of the Inqalabi Communist Party (RCP), the Pakistani section of the RCI. The AAC-GB has called for peaceful protests against this repression. The Inqalabi Communist Party published the following statement:
“The fabricated and false cases and arrests against the elected chairman of the Awaami Action Committee Gilgit, Ehsan Ali Advocate, and other leaders and workers are completely unconstitutional and dictatorial measures. This crackdown is being carried out so that the resources and people of Gilgit Baltistan can continue to be plundered without any hindrance by depriving them of their real representative leadership. We strongly condemn this state mismanagement and police brutality and demand the immediate release of the prisoners. Otherwise, not only the people of Gilgit will be on the streets: we will protest across the country and appeal to the workers of the world to raise their voice against this barbarity.”
Protests organised in solidarity
Yesterday, on 15 May, protests were held in Gilgit and Hunza for the release of the comrades while police continued to arrest more activists under the charges of disturbing public order. Comrades Waheed Hasan and Asghar Shah, who are also members of the RCP, were arrested. The protests will continue, however, and more protests will be held today and in the coming days.
The RCP has also announced protests in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad for Saturday 17 May, in which political activists and students will participate in order to agitate against the brutality of the state.
The leadership of the Joint Awaami Action Committee of Azad Kashmir has also issued a statement of solidarity and has condemned this brutality, demanding the release of all the arrested leaders.
We demand the immediate release of Ehsan Ali and all members of AAC-GB. We demand that the fabricated case brought against them be quashed.
We also demand the immediate removal of Ehsan Ali’s name from the notorious Fourth Schedule, and that his right to free movement be immediately restored. We demand an end to all restrictions on his political activities.
We also demand that all the demands of the AAC-GB be accepted immediately, especially the fourteen-point charter of demands to which the Gilgit Baltistan government has already agreed, but has delayed implementing.
We appeal to the workers of the world to support the just struggle of these comrades, the AAC-GB and the Inqalabi Communist Party, against the brutal oppression of Gilgit Baltistan, and for the overthrow of capitalism, which is at the root of this oppression. The comrades have made clear that they will not be stopped by state repression and brutality, and they will continue to fight injustice and oppression until the goal of socialist revolution is achieved.
Further details and statements will follow.
Again, we appeal to all our readers and supporters and the wider labour movement to protest this injustice. We call upon our readers to pressure prominent trade union leaders, left-wing members of parliament and others to raise their voices in protest. Organise your own protests and publish images of them on social media. Deliver letters of protest to Pakistani embassies around the world, and let the authorities know that the eyes of the international labour movement are on them.
Long live the unity of the working class!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Free the leaders of the Awaami Action Committee Gilgit Baltistan!
End state repression!
Workers of the world, unite!
