ISLAMABAD: The road that carried Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, founder and chairman of the Pakistan Rights Movement (PRM), from a long sit-in in the heart of Islamabad to the deck of a Gaza-bound aid ship reached a turning point on 7 October 2025, when Pakistan's government confirmed his release from Israeli custody.
Khan, a former senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had joined the Global Sumud Flotilla in September 2025, traveling with five others on civilian boats carrying humanitarian aid toward Gaza. According to a Wikipedia account of his life, Israeli forces detained him on 2 October 2025 from a Gaza-bound aid ship in international waters, roughly 70 nautical miles off the Gaza coast, as part of a wider seizure of vessels and activists.
His detention lasted close to six days. Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed the release on 7 October 2025. "I am pleased to confirm that former Senator Mushtaq has been released and is now safely with Pakistan Embassy in Amman," Dar said, according to Arab News.
From the high seas to a return home
After his release, Khan alleged harsh treatment in custody. He said that detainees' hands were cuffed behind their backs, their feet shackled and their eyes blindfolded, and that dogs were set upon them, according to remarks reported by The Nation. In an account reported by Arab News, he also said the group had endured a hunger strike with no access to fresh air, drinking water or medicine. These accounts are Khan's own allegations about his treatment and have not been independently verified.
The chairman framed the episode as a setback rather than an end. "We have been freed, but the fight for Palestine's freedom goes on," he told The Nation on 7 October 2025.
The D-Chowk sit-in
The flotilla was the second chapter of a Palestine campaign that Khan had carried into Pakistan's capital the year before. In 2024 he led pro-Palestine sit-ins at D-Chowk in Islamabad. According to a Wikipedia account, the sit-in ran from 13 May to 22 June 2024, a span of 41 days, in response to the Gaza war.
The protest drew official pushback and tragedy. According to Dawn, Islamabad police booked Gaza protesters, including Khan, over a rally held in violation of Section 144, with a case registered at Kohsar police station. On 21 May 2024, according to the same Wikipedia account, a speeding car ran over participants who were sleeping on a portion of Jinnah Avenue during the sit-in, killing two people and injuring four, including a police inspector. Khan was quoted by Dawn as saying, "The rulers made it a crime to show solidarity with the people of Gaza."
A platform built on the cause
The Palestine campaign sits at the centre of Khan's later political project. He resigned from Jamaat-e-Islami on 19 September 2025, submitting his resignation while aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, according to The News. He said he wanted the freedom to "openly advocate for human rights, democracy, free media, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, Palestine, and the constitutional rights of federating units."
On 10 January 2026 he launched the Pakistan Rights Movement, an Islamabad-based party built on the slogan "Rights, Resistance, Reforms." Among its stated aims, the movement's platform calls for an end to the genocide in Gaza and a free Palestinian state, alongside solidarity with oppressed people worldwide. The cause has continued to drive the movement: in March 2026 Khan, identified as PRM chairman, announced a Gaza solidarity march from Khyber to Karachi, as reported by Pakistan Today and The News.
