Pakistan silences army's critics with raids, terror charges

A dozen plainclothes Pakistani security forces attempted on Thursday to raid the former home of a human rights activist who recently fled to the United States seeking asylum.

Gulalai Ismail's elderly parents said they were ordered to come outside "just to talk," but refused. The security men eventually left after nearly an hour.

"I told them you have weapons in your hands and no uniform I won't come out," said Ismail's father, Mohammad, a retired professor living in the capital of Islamabad.

Raids like this are part of an expanding push by Pakistan's security services to crack down on anyone who voices criticism of their activities.

Gulalai Ismail's parents are facing charges of financing terrorism, allegedly for funnelling money from their daughter toward terrorist activities.

They deny the charges and are currently out on bail but have been ordered not to leave Pakistan.

Their daughter went into hiding for several weeks after her criticism of the Pakistan army and its powerful intelligence made her a target. Last month she surfaced in the US seeking asylum.

The family supports an ethnic Pashtun movement known as the PTM that is stridently critical of the army's war on terror, particularly in the country's border regions.

Millions of people have been displaced from those areas, and thousands of mostly young men have disappeared, often after being picked up by security forces.

While Gulalai Ismail was criticized and even arrested for her support of the PTM, her father said the real trouble began when she criticised the security forces of sexually harassing and abusing women in the tribal regions, particularly Pakistan's Waziristan region.

"In Waziristan, young girls told stories of how army and non-state actors are harassing young girls and women," her father told The Associated Press.

"She returned saying: 'My job should be to help women who suffer sex abuse in conflict.'"