Bangkok, Oct. 28 -- An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad, Pakistan, is scheduled to indict Matiullah Jan, a journalist who has long reported on police abuse, on October 31, 2025, on apparent politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. It gave a call to the Pakistani authorities to immediately drop the baseless charges against Jan under several sections of the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act and for possession of narcotics.

Human Rights Watch highlighted that Pakistani journalists have in recent years increasingly faced serious obstacles to their work, including harassment, threats, assault, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and killings. The authorities have increasingly pressured editors and media own...