Asif Sakhi, vice president of the left-wing Awami Workers Party (AWP) Gilgit-Baltistan, was arrested by Pakistan’s security forces Saturday, May 24. Sakhi’s arrest is considered part of the Pakistani government’s crackdown on activists opposed to its economic policies.
Sakhi has been a part of the movement against the land grabbing in the Gilgit-Baltistan region and was a candidate for the provincial legislative assembly from the AWP in the last elections. He has been arrested for his activism in the past as well.
Activists have claimed that Sakhi was initially arrested without a First Information Report (FIR), an essential legal document in Pakistan that initiates the criminal justice process. However, AWP claimed on Sunday that he was charged with involvement in violence between two villages. The party denied the charges against Sakhi, claiming it sees them as “shameful intimidation tactics” by the state authorities.
Human Rights Council of Pakistan (HRCP) stated that Sakhi’s arrest without a First Information Report (FIR) “is a serious breach of basic liberties and the rights of freedom of expression” and demanded his immediate release.
HRCP also noted that “the recent arrests of political activists, including Ehsan Ali and others, indicate a troubling pattern of repression in Gilgit-Baltistan.”
Land dispute and federal control in Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan. The local population has accused Pakistan’s federal government of exploiting the region’s resources and neglecting the needs of the inhabitants.
Ehsan Ali, who was also recently arrested, is the head of the Gilgit-Baltistan Awami Action Committee (AAC), composed of different organizations including AWP. The AAC has been resisting the exploitative policies of the federal government in the region, including leading an ongoing agitation against the Land Reforms Act of 2025.
Days after the arrest of Ali and others from the AAC, on May 21, the Gilgit-Baltistan assembly adopted the controversial Land Reforms Act, despite activists manifesting opposition both inside and outside the assembly.
The act gives state authorities unprecedented rights to manage the common land in the region, while failing to address the grievances against the existing system, which was devised during the colonial period and deprives local people of control over the land resources.
Stop the crackdown, say activists
Activists in Pakistan have claimed that the new Land Reforms Act in Gilgit Baltistan is part of the federal government’s ambitious Green Pakistan Project (GPI), under which the Pakistan army, along with private investors, is slated to be granted land for large-scale farming.
Launched in February, the GPI has provoked huge public protests in Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces over the possible displacement of thousands of farmers. The proposal to build new dams on the Indus River is also part of the GPI, which has been met with mass opposition by farmers and political parties in Sindh.
Activists in other parts of the country have also been arrested in connection to protests against the GPI and other economic policies adopted by the Shehbaz Sharif government, such as inviting direct foreign investment in mining. Activists claim these policies are pro-corporate and do not benefit the local people in any way apart from causing environmental harm and displacement.
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Salaar Fayyaz Ali, leader of the left-wing Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was arrested earlier this month for trying to organize farmers in the region against the proposal of mining leases.
Haqooq-E-Khalq Party (HKP), which condemned the arrest, alleged that the arrest of Sakhi is part of the Pakistani state’s attempts to silence opposition to the GPI. It demanded that “the crackdown on activists resisting” the GPI must end now.
