The United States has voiced concern over recent disappearances of Pakistani bloggers, expressing the hope that Pakistan would soon be able to find and return them to their families.
“We are deeply concerned over reports about disappearance of journalists, bloggers and human rights activists,” Helaena Wossum White, a State Department’s spokesperson, told Pakistani channel ARY News.
Speaking in Urdu language, White also noted that Washington is aware of Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s pledge to launch a probe into disappearance of blogger Salman Haider and efforts for for recovery of the disappeared.
Pakistan’s Parliament and media have also raised concern over disappearance of the bloggers.
The United States also hopes that Pakistan would be able to recover the bloggers.
At the United Nations, a human rights expert urged Pakistani authorities to make it a top priority to locate, protect and return home four disappeared human rights and social media campaigners.
“I strongly urge the Government of Pakistan to take every step possible to locate the four missing activists, a first step toward reemphasizing its commitment to freedom of expression at the beginning of the year,” David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of expression, said in a statement from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva.
According to reports, the four men –Waqas Goraya, Asim Saeed, Salman Haider and Ahmed Raza Naseer – went missing between January 4 and 7.
