Pakistan military guilty of abuses, says Amnesty

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - The Pakistan military is guilty of rights abuses on the Afghan border, using new security laws and a colonial-era penal system to act with impunity, a report by Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The watchdog said the lack of justice was fuelling a rights crisis in the northwestern, semi-autonomous region where Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence is concentrated.

Pakistan's armed forces have arbitrarily detained thousands for long periods with little or no access to due process, said the report, based on interviews with victims, witnesses, relatives, lawyers, officials and militants.

Cases of death and torture have been documented, detainees are not brought before court and relatives have no idea of their fate, sometimes for extended periods of time, said the London-based human rights group.