ARTICLE 19 is profoundly concerned by the direct threats to Roshaan Khattak, Pakistani filmmaker, human rights activist, and post-graduate researcher at the University of Cambridge, living in exile in the United Kingdom. The threats, allegedly linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, are a clear case of transnational repression (TNR). ARTICLE 19 calls on the United Kingdom government to take urgent measures to guarantee the safety of Roshaan Khattak, and other victims of TNR in the United Kingdom.
Roshaan Khattak, a Pakistani filmmaker and human rights defender, is enrolled as a postgraduate researcher at the University of Cambridge. His proposed PhD research focuses on enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations committed by the Pakistani military in Balochistan.
In December 2024, Mr Khattak began receiving anonymous threats, with one message warning ‘Don’t forget even Cambridge and the UK is not safe. They can get anywhere….’. The threat came days after he had arranged an online solidarity meeting related to the enforced disappearance and unlawful detention of his cousin, Idris Khattak, sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in December 2021, following a secret trial by a military court in Pakistan.
At the time, the police told Mr Khattak that ‘the perceived threat is not enough to raise a crime of malicious communications’. Despite awareness of the threat, Cambridge University has failed to act, instead revoking Mr Khattak’s accommodation, obstructing his ability to conduct his PhD research. The university has been widely criticised by international organisations, UN Special Rapporteurs and multiple MPs.
The threats have since escalated. In November 2025, Mr Khattak received explicit death threats and further messages making references to specific dates and events, including when Mr Khattak had his filming equipment stolen in Sweden while investigating a suspicious death of a Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain, found dead in the river in Uppsala in 2020. The messages also included the number of his passport and other confidential details.
In December 2025, another Pakistani dissident, Shahzad Akbar, a former adviser to Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, was attacked and beaten up outside of his home in Cambridge. Around the same time, a house of Adil Raja, a former Pakistani army major and a journalist, was broken into. Only a week later, Akbar’s home was attacked again, with two men breaking a window and trying to set the house on fire. This was a day after Cambridge Police told him that it’s safe for him to return. It is not the first time Akbar has been targeted, having survived an acid attack in 2023. Even at that time, his concerns were not acted upon by the police.
The events represent a serious escalation of attacks targeting Pakistani activists in the United Kingdom, and bear clear signs of transnational repression.
The responsibility for the safety of exile dissidents sits primarily with the United Kingdom authorities, who must protect victims of TNR.
ARTICLE 19 calls on the police force to provide immediate protection to dissidents, including Roshaan Khattak, targeted by foreign States, while urgently conducting thorough investigations into the threats and other incidents. Police should consider their freedom of expression and academic work as a link to the attacks, the converging risk posed by their work and the threats, and the capabilities of foreign States to carry out crimes in the UK. Perpetrators must be brought to justice.
All individuals experiencing TNR should have access to a clear, accessible and trusted point of contact in the UK police and law enforcement authorities, so they can access immediate protection measures, advice and support. More must also be done to provide training for local and national law enforcement and first responders, so they know how to spot signs of transnational repression, act accordingly and provide immediate support.
Finally, ARTICLE 19 calls on the UK government to use diplomatic channels to raise the issue with the government of Pakistan and send a clear message that TNR is not tolerated and that perpetrators of it will be penalised.