TNR Watch: Pakistan’s Intensifying Campaign of Transnational Repression

At home and abroad: In January, a Pakistani court sentenced seven exiled journalists and commentators in absentia to life in prison on charges of promoting violence against state institutions during 2023 protests connected to the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. This ruling came a month after Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned online critics of the government and military, “we will soon bring you back, and you will be answerable.”

Pakistani authorities have escalated their campaign of transnational repression (TNR) in recent months. Two of the seven convicted individuals, Sabir Shakir and Shaheen Sehbai, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Pakistani officials had canceled their national identity documents. (They are based in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively.) Also, physical attacks were reported against Pakistani dissidents in the United Kingdom, with indications that the affected individuals were targeted. UK counterterror police, which address TNR as part of their mandate, recently charged several British citizens with plotting attacks on December 24 against another member of the group, ex-military major and journalist Adil Raja, as well as human rights lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar. Prosecutors alleged that the men ransacked Raja’s London home, and found Akbar at his Cambridgeshire residence and assaulted him.

Exiled journalism under assault: In a report from 2023, Freedom House found that Pakistan is one of at least 26 countries to have carried out physical acts of transnational repression against exiled journalists. Other governments have also intensified threats against the media across borders. In the summer of 2025, the BBC and UN experts expressed concern about rising intimidation of exiled journalists by the Iranian government. Over the last few months, Azerbaijani authorities have also convicted in absentia Europe- and US-based journalists and bloggers critical of President Ilham Aliyev. Costa Rica has become increasingly unsafe for Nicaraguan independent media figures, who have noted an upsurge in surveillance, coercion by proxy, and credible threats linked to Nicaraguan security services.

Support Mechanisms: Host governments and local institutions should do more to shield targeted Pakistani journalists and dissidents from the growing threats they face. For example, British law enforcement and University of Cambridge officials have been slow to support Pakistani human rights activist and researcher Roshaan Khattak, who has been targeted due to his research on enforced disappearances in Balochistan. Likewise, the December attack on Akbar is particularly disturbing, as the lawyer had previously been assaulted in the United Kingdom in 2023. To avoid similar incidents in the future, authorities should provide adequate protection to targeted individuals and publicly defend their right to free expression.