Government needs to take clear stance against persecution of dissidents in NL, activist says

The Dutch government needs to be more vocal about attacks by foreign governments against dissidents on domestic grounds, Pakistani dissident Ahmad Waqass Goraya said to the NL Times. “You can move somewhere, you can protect someone, but the Dutch government needs to step up and say you cannot do this on our soil”, Goraya said.

In February, an attack against Goraya in Rotterdam was foiled. "Even when they tried to attack me, my interpretation was more that they wanted to scare me. There are people like me in the Netherlands who don’t speak out”, Goraya said.

“In every Pakistani embassy are people from the ISI, the Pakistani secret service”, Daniel Bastard from Reporters Without Borders told NOS. “Their job is to make sure that citizens in exile do not raise sensitive topics."

Goraya is a human rights activist who is known for speaking out against corruption in the Pakistani government and the disappearance of journalists and activists in Pakistan. He is an advocate for the separation of church and state. Goraya has been threatened many times in the past for his beliefs. He has been living in the Netherlands since 2007 with his family.

Dutch authorities have been adequately protecting his safety, Goraya said, but it took them a long time to realize the severity of the situation. “It took them four years to believe what I was saying. They took it very lightly in the beginning.” His concerns were taken more seriously after Pakistani journalist Sajid Hussain disappeared in Sweden in March 2020 and was found dead more than one month later.

Goraya and his family still have to live with the constant worry that someone could carry out another attack. “The constant fear and anxiety that my family feels should not be there”, Goraya said.

A 31-year-old British/Pakistani man was arrested in London in July for planning the attack on Goraya in February together with others. His hearing will be held on October 29. Italian authorities informed Goraya that further assassination plans have been made since then.

Politically motivated attacks thought to be linked to foreign governments have taken place in the Netherlands in the past, despite indications that an attack would occur.

In 2015, Iranian Mahammad Samadi was murdered in Almere. He was accused in his home country of carrying out an attack in Pakistan.

In 2017, Iranian Ahmad Mola Nissi was shot on a street in The Hague. He had been a member of a liberation movement that had been labeled as a terrorist organization in Iran.