Islamabad, Pakistan – It’s summertime, and mango season in Pakistan. However 25-year-old Amber* can’t stand the sight of the fruit, one of many nation’s most well-known exports.

Mangoes remind her of her jailed husband, Mohammad Zameer*. “My husband loves mangoes,” says the mom of three youngsters from her residence in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-largest metropolis within the province of Punjab.

On Might 9, 2023, Zameer was on his method residence after lunch along with his brother late within the afternoon when he turned one amongst 1000’s of people that had been caught up in a maelstrom of protests that exploded on Pakistan’s streets after former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrest. Khan’s supporters attacked authorities buildings and even navy installations, after the previous prime minister accused the nation’s military of orchestrating his elimination from energy a 12 months earlier.

The navy cracked down on protesters, who had been accused of what Pakistan’s authorities later described as an “tried coup.” However rights teams say that most of the greater than 9,000 individuals arrested throughout the nation within the wake of the Might 9 riots weren’t political activists, and a few had been bystanders picked up as a result of they had been within the fallacious place on the fallacious time.

Zameer, 33, was amongst these arrested in Faisalabad. His household was assured he can be launched quickly. So Amber purchased her husband’s favorite fruit to greet him with a mango shake when he returned residence.

A 12 months later, Amber — who was pregnant on the time — is successfully a single mum or dad to their five-year-old son, three-year-old daughter and their youngest daughter, who was born after her husband’s arrest. And she or he’s nonetheless ready to make a mango shake for Zameer.

“That summer season ended, then the winters got here and went, and now a brand new mango season is right here, however my husband is but to return residence,” she says.

‘Darkish chapter’

On Might 9, nationwide protests erupted after Khan, the cricketer-turned-founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) celebration, was arrested throughout a courtroom look in capital Islamabad over corruption expenses.

His supporters stormed the home of a navy commander in Lahore, partially burning it. That night time, a mob tried to enter the closely secured navy headquarters in Rawalpindi city.

Confronted with a state of affairs that Pakistan’s safety institution had by no means confronted its historical past, regulation enforcement officers fired on attackers. A minimum of 10 individuals had been killed within the protests. And a rustic already reeling beneath a extreme financial disaster discovered itself grappling with deepening political instability.

The PTI supporters’ anger stemmed from Khan’s allegation that the “institution” – a euphemism for the military – was behind his sacking in April 2022 when he misplaced a no-confidence vote in parliament and needed to cede energy to a coalition headed by present Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Pakistan’s highly effective navy, which has immediately dominated over the nation for 3 a long time and has loved vital affect even beneath civilian governments, has constantly denied Khan’s allegations.

The navy known as the Might 9 protests a “darkish chapter” in Pakistan’s historical past and pledged to take strict motion towards the protesters.

In the meantime, Khan — who was launched on bail on Might 11 — was ultimately arrested in August, and has since been convicted in a spate of instances linked to corruption, state secrets and techniques and even the non secular validity of his marriage. These convictions in flip led to his disqualification from electoral politics. Khan couldn’t contest within the nationwide elections held in February this 12 months, and stays in custody. The previous prime minister has denied the fees towards him, and has stated they’re politically motivated.

Within the aftermath of the Might 9 riots, 105 out of those that had been arrested had been charged beneath a bit of the Official Secrets and techniques Act (OSA), which the federal government amended to broaden its scope. The amended regulation punishes anybody who “approaches, inspects, passes over or is within the neighborhood of, or enters, assaults, destroys or in any other case undermines any prohibited place”.

These instances had been heard in navy courts, the place the accused should not have the fitting to enchantment verdicts in civilian courts. Entry to attorneys in such instances is commonly on the discretion of the navy, which in any other case gives a “pal of the accused” — a navy official from the military’s authorized division tasked to help an accused particular person.

All 105 of them had been convicted. In April, beneath directions by Supreme Courtroom of Pakistan, 20 of them had been pardoned since their convictions had been of lower than a 12 months.

The remaining 85 convictions — together with Zameer’s — are at present on maintain, as a consequence of a restraining order from the Supreme Courtroom, which is at present listening to a case concerning the constitutionality of the navy courts. However these 85 are nonetheless behind bars.

‘It’s my birthday subsequent month’

All of it started on the afternoon of Might 9, Amber says. Zameer was nearly residence when he noticed a big gathering of individuals outdoors a constructing close to their home, which he realised was the native workplace of the Inter-Companies Intelligence (Pakistan’s navy intelligence company). They had been Khan’s supporters, protesting his arrest.

Amber says Zameer took a video of the protest on his cellphone, then got here again residence. Later that day, Zameer, an actual property vendor who additionally owns a cell phone store, shared the video he had shot with a few of his buddies on WhatsApp.

Every week later, Zameer was at his store when 4 officers, two of them in police uniform, arrested him. His household was nonetheless grieving the lack of Zameer’s father in March 2023. Now that they had a brand new shock to cope with.

“Zameer used to do a number of social work and folks within the space knew him,” Amber says. “He had by no means thought he might be arrested.” She stated the officers had been courteous through the arrest and the household believed Zameer would probably be launched quickly.

Zameer was stored in a Faisalabad jail the place his brothers would go to him, whereas Amber stayed at residence. “He [Zameer] would ship messages for me, asking me to remain robust and take care of myself since I used to be pregnant on the time,” she stated.

Quickly, nevertheless, Zameer was moved out of Faisalabad and for greater than a month, the household had no concept the place he had been taken. “These days had been the worst and essentially the most tough time of my life. We had no clue about his whereabouts or security,” says Amber. Finally, authorities instructed the household in July, Amber says, that Zameer had been taken to Sialkot, a serious industrial hub in Punjab, about 250km (155 miles) from Faisalabad.

Amber, who gave delivery to their daughter in July, says her life has been “a dwelling hell” since her husband was taken away.

“Subsequent month is my birthday,” she says. “However it will likely be the second consecutive 12 months when he received’t be right here with us.”

‘Don’t count on me to return prevent’

Some 180 kilometers (111 miles) east of Faisalabad in Lahore, 26-year-old Asif Ali* remembers the agency warning he gave his brother Faran*, who is 2 years youthful, on Might 9.

Initially from Shangla district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a PTI stronghold, Ali had moved to Lahore in 2019 whereas Faran joined him two years later for an undergraduate diploma in zoology from Punjab College.

Although avowed Khan supporters, Ali stated the brothers weren’t politically energetic. Nonetheless, as quickly as Khan was arrested, Faran instructed his brother he needed to hitch a PTI protest in Lahore.

“I repeatedly instructed him not to try this, however my brother could be very cussed. I warned him of the implications, instructed him for those who ever get arrested, don’t count on me to return prevent,” Ali recalled.

When Faran didn’t return residence by midnight, Ali began calling him on his cell phone however was unable to attach. Faran, Ali discovered later, had been among the many protesters who had entered the Lahore residence of a navy commander, identified regionally as Jinnah Home, a constructing named after Muhammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder, who used to lived there. Protesters set hearth to the constructing.

Faran was arrested with tons of of others on the night time of Might 9.

They had been taken to an area jail. Faran requested Ali to convey his textbooks — he had his annual faculty exams in lower than per week. However the subsequent day, Ali discovered that Faran had been taken into the navy’s direct custody. Ali didn’t hear from Faran for weeks.

“For the primary few days, I stored mendacity to my mother and father about his disappearance. Then, I finished taking their calls to keep away from speaking to them about Faran,” says Ali, who works as a advertising agent for a small enterprise.

Faran by no means managed to seem for his exams and stays in navy custody.

‘The place are the judgements?’

From mid-December by January, lawyer Khadija Siddiqui would go to, every day, the Lahore navy courtroom the place the trials had been being held for these accused of Might 9 violence. She was representing three of these on trial.

However, she says, the method within the courtroom left her with extra questions than solutions. In every case, she was given entry to particulars of the accusations towards her purchasers solely half-hour earlier than the listening to, giving her little time to arrange.

All of her purchasers had been convicted beneath the colonial-era OSA. “The trial beneath navy courtroom principally focused individuals for merely approaching the premises of what they known as a prohibited space,” she says. And in none of instances was she given copies of the ultimate conviction judgments, she says. Meaning attorneys like her have no idea the period of the jail sentences handed out to their purchasers.

Siddiqui says Pakistan’s prison process permits for the punishment of crimes, comparable to vandalism and rioting. “So why this segregation of making an attempt them beneath a navy courtroom, and never a civilian one?”

Al Jazeera despatched an in depth questionnaire to the Inter-Companies Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani navy’s media wing, on Monday, Might 6, searching for responses to the questions and allegations raised by relations of individuals nonetheless beneath arrest, and by attorneys like Siddiqui who’re representing them. The questionnaire was additionally shared with Pakistan’s Ministry of Data. Al Jazeera additionally adopted up on its request on Tuesday. Neither the ISPR nor the Ministry of Data has responded but.

Nonetheless, a military official pointed Al Jazeera to a information convention on Might 7 by Main Normal Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the chief of the ISPR, the place he spoke — amongst different issues — on the navy’s response to Might 9.

Chaudhry stated that these concerned within the acts of violence on Might 9 wanted to be punished — and their convictions had been crucial for the credibility of Pakistan’s authorized system. “We imagine that to maintain belief within the judicial system of the nation, each perpetrators and people bodily concerned in all such acts must be taken to process,” he stated.

“Through which nation it occurs that home of founding father of the nation [Jinnah] is attacked and delicate installations of armed forces are attacked?” Chaudhry requested “If one believes in Pakistan’s justice system and its framework of accountability, then in keeping with the Structure, these answerable for the occasions of Might 9, together with each perpetrators and masterminds, should face authorized repercussions.”

‘There may be nothing we will do’

However these “repercussions” additionally have an effect on the households of these behind bars. Ali in Lahore says his mom turned “mentally unstable” and has solely seen Faran, in jail, twice within the final 12 months.

“It’s so tough for them [his parents] to see him like that,” he says.

Ali visits his brother in Lahore’s cantonment as soon as each week, the place he’s allowed to spend 30 to 60 minutes with him.

“I attempt to convey no matter I believe he likes, however there are such a lot of restrictions. We’re instructed by the navy to solely convey boneless curries. We aren’t allowed to convey something liquid both,” he says.

In Faisalabad, Amber says she has not met her husband since March. They spoke on the cellphone in April.

“My son misses his father a lot,” she says. When the household visited Zameer in March, the daddy performed along with his youngsters for a couple of minutes. However as they had been leaving, “my son couldn’t cease crying”.

“I by no means thought one thing like this could occur to us. To spend your life with out your husband, and your youngsters preserve asking you questions you don’t have solutions [to].”

*Some names have been modified to guard the id of people.