The Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF) has written to the University of Cambridge following concerns raised with us by Roshaan Khattak, an exiled British-Pakistani documentary filmmaker and former postgraduate student. He approached us in January 2026 seeking advice after receiving death threats in connection with his academic work.
Khattak’s research concerns enforced disappearances and related alleged abuses in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, a highly securitised context in which intimidation, surveillance and violence against journalists, researchers and human-rights defenders have been widely documented. His work has focused on cases involving alleged state misconduct and has attracted attention beyond the University.
The risks associated with such work in exile are well documented. In 2020, Sajid Hussain, a journalist who reported on alleged abuses affecting the Baloch community, was found dead in the Fyris river outside Uppsala, Sweden, after seeking refuge abroad. The same year, Karima Baloch, a prominent Baloch human-rights activist who had fled to Canada, disappeared in Toronto and was found dead the following day. Her husband, also a Pakistani activist, had received repeated anonymous warnings that she could be targeted.
In December 2024, Khattak began receiving anonymous threats, including one message warning: “Don’t forget even Cambridge and [the] UK is not safe. They can get anywhere, Sweden, Germany, Canada… Don’t be stupid”. The threat came days after he had arranged an online solidarity meeting related to the unlawful detention of his cousin, Idris Khattak. Idris, a well-known researcher and human-rights advocate, was forcibly disappeared and later convicted in a secret military trial. UN experts have publicly called for Idris’s release after years in detention.
In November 2025, Khattak reports that he received explicit death threats linked to his research. The messages referred to specific dates and events, including the theft of his filming equipment in Sweden while he was investigating the death of Sajid Hussain. They also included his passport number and other confidential details.
As multiple advocacy organisations have said, these threats are consistent with a wider pattern of intimidation of critics in exile linked to Pakistani state actors, including the Pakistan military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, although the identity of the sender(s) has not been independently established.
Khattak notified the University of the threats on 17 November 2025, raising concerns about his safety and the impact on his ability to continue his academic work. Having received no substantive response, he contacted the University again on 15 December 2025. On 18 December 2025, the final day of his enrolment, he forwarded the correspondence to a College Tutor at Wolfson College, seeking assistance and clarification.
On the information currently available to CAF, it is unclear what response, if any, was made by the University or the College. In particular, CAF has not been provided with evidence of acknowledgement, triage or escalation under relevant procedures, or any assessment of steps that might be taken during the period of enrolment.
While some of the underlying concerns predate the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, the further threats were reported in November 2025, after the Act came into force on 1 August 2025, and while Khattak remained enrolled. Our letter focuses on that post-1 August period.
In this context, we have put a series of questions to the University, including whether it treated Khattak’s November and December 2025 notifications as engaging its post-1 August 2025 duties; what assessment (if any) was made of the risk that the reported threats would chill lawful academic work; what steps (if any) were considered to enable him to continue lawful academic activity while enrolled; who held responsibility for triage and escalation; what contemporaneous records exist; and whether the University’s free-speech code framework is adequate for situations involving threats that may amount to transnational repression.
This article forms part of the Committee for Academic Freedom’s monitoring of developments in UK higher education. To receive monthly updates and analysis on cases affecting academic freedom, click the link and subscribe to our newsletter.