His wife says he went missing around 2 am on 6 September. His wallet and glasses were left at home, while his phone was switched off. After nearly 18 hours of searching and media pressure, the family finally received an FIR from the NCCIA, suggesting that Ghauri was picked up over his social media posts about Major General Faisal Naseer, formerly DG(C) in the ISI and also known as ‘Dirty Harry’, who has been appointed National Coordinator of NACTA, Pakistan’s domestic security organisation responsible for counterterrorism, for a three-year term. The appointment has led to speculation that this could be a demotion, prompting social media criticism and mockery of Dirty Harry. Hours after the post, he was picked up.

This is a familiar pattern in Pakistan. A civilian agency appears at the front, picking up journalists or reporters in the middle of the night, dressed in civilian clothes and without a warrant, over even the slightest criticism of the military.

And the alarm around Faisal Naseer does not exist in a vacuum.

Senior journalist Arshad Sharif was forced to leave Pakistan after multiple sedition cases were registered against him following his criticism of the military establishment. He later travelled to Kenya, where he was assassinated.

Months later, Sharif’s mother publicly named Faisal Naseer and accused him of conspiring in the targeted, premeditated, planned and calculated murder of her son. Imran Khan subsequently also accused Faisal Naseer of being behind the assassination attempt against him in November 2022, saying that Naseer had masterminded the plot.

In October 2022, Pakistani politician Azam Swati accused Faisal Naseer and another intelligence officer of physically torturing him in custody and called for their removal. Imran Khan also publicly condemned Swati’s custodial torture and urged the then army chief, Bajwa, to take action.

These are not ordinary accusations. Faisal Naseer has, over the years, been publicly accused by a slain journalist’s mother, a former prime minister, and a senior Pakistani politician of involvement in grave acts ranging from custodial torture to assassination plots and the killing of a journalist.

This history is precisely why the disappearance of another journalist after criticism of Faisal Naseer cannot simply be brushed aside.

Journalism is not a crime.

If the Pakistani state has a case against Bilal Ghauri, it must disclose his current whereabouts, give him access to a lawyer, and produce him before a non-military court. People cannot simply be taken from their homes and made to disappear.

We demand the immediate release of Muhammad Bilal Ghauri.