The Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives in Pakistan (CPDI-Pakistan) has demanded Kian’s immediate release of Dr. Tajbakhsh, who has supervised the academic work of many International Policy Fellows in Pakistan, and is well known to colleagues in CPDI-Pakistan and other research and civil society organizations.

Kian was scheduled to visit Pakistan to participate in the regional IPF workshop on June 1-4 at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan.  The workshop, which has now been cancelled due to his arrest, was entitled Devolution As Freedom? Devolving Power and Building Nations in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The News-International of Islamabad has published a lengthy article about the response to Kian’s arrest among his colleagues in Pakistan and elsewhere.  It is not yet available in online form, but a JPEG image can be viewed here.