Our findings reveal a series of systemic failures: failure to exhaust non-violent means before resorting to force; the dangerous and unlawful use of less-lethal weapons; poor planning, preparation and training for policing of protests; unnecessary and unlawful use of lethal force.

The briefing documents how security forces used mounting and ultimately lethal force – including live ammunition – against largely peaceful protesters during the assembly in Kathmandu on 8 September, at which at least 19 people were killed and more than 300 injured.

Amnesty International calls on Pakistani authorities to:

✅ Immediately disclose the whereabouts of the activists and ensure their safe return
✅ Conduct prompt, independent and effective investigations into their disappearance and prosecute those responsible
✅ End enforced disappearances

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These enforced disappearances are part of a disturbing pattern of targeting dissent inside the country, particularly in provinces such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

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#EndEnforcedDisappearances

The Pakistani authorities must immediately disclose Ghani’s fate and whereabouts and ensure his safe return. Further, authorities must conduct a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigation into his abduction, and bring to justice those responsible. 4/4

Ghani had previously been named in a criminal case on charges of “anti-state” slogans during a protest and had delivered a lecture at the local university on student politics the day before his abduction. We are very concerned about Ghani’s safety. 3/4

According to eyewitnesses, plain-clothes men accompanied by uniformed law enforcement officials, abducted Ghani, intimidated bystanders in the hospital and confiscated the mobile phones of all family members present. 2/4

It also explores how these workers are largely invisible in government policies on climate change, water and sanitation due to their caste, gender and occupation, despite being among the most affected by these policies.

Our research documents the huge barriers that Dalit women sanitation workers in Khulna and Satkhira districts on the south-western coastal belt in Bangladesh face to access safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and their vulnerability and exclusion in climate change relief programmes.