SAHIWAL: Up to 18,500 people of Balochistan have been missing since 2000, and of them data on 14,000 has been documented by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP).
Mama Abdul Qadeer Baloch, VBMP chairman, said this while talking to reporters in Sahiwal on Thursday. Mr Baloch, the VBMP chairman, is leading a long march from Karachi to Islamabad to highlight the issue of missing Baloch people.
The long march caravan consists of nine women, two children and five men. Mr Baloch said he was called ‘Mama’ or uncle by the families of the missing people because of his ceaseless struggle for the cause for the last 13 years.
He said the long march aimed at making the people of four provinces aware of the events unfolding in Balochistan since the launch of a military operation in Balochistan.
He claimed that during the Musharraf era (1999-2007), 4,000 Baloch went missing. The number increased to 18,500 during the PPP government (2008-13), and the present PML-N government.
He said the secret agencies had shared the information about only 192 people with the superior courts.
He said that among the missing people included political activists, educated youth, poets, singers, engineers, doctors and human rights activists.
The VBMP has shared data on 14,000 missing people with courts and UN agencies without any positive outcome, he said. To reinforce their struggle for the recovery of missing people, the VBMP first held a long march from Quetta to Karachi last year. In the second leg, he along with other family members of the missing people is marching on Islamabad from Karachi.
Mr Baloch said that under a conspiracy the mutilated bodies of Baloch political workers were being dumped in Sarjani Town of Karachi. His own son, Jalil Rukni, was picked up by the intelligence agencies on Feb 13, 2009 from Quetta, he said. His body was discovered on Nov 24, 2011 in Balochistan.
Among the march participants is Farzana Majeed who seeks the recovery of her brother, Zakir Majeed. She says her brother, senior vice-chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation-Azad, was picked up along with two other friends by agencies on June 8, 2009 from Mastung.
“Since then, I’ve no knowledge of my brother,” she added. She approached the Balochistan High Court, Supreme Court of Pakistan, the United Nations and local and international human rights organisations but all in vain as still his whereabouts were not known to her.
Mr Baloch said the authorities were not implementing Superior Court’s orders regarding the production of missing people to court.
The march participants continued their journey in drizzle in the morning. They were received at Sahiwal bypass by the activists of Insan Dost Association, Lok Rahs, Lok Sujag and Majeed Amjad Academy staff. Political leaders and elected public representatives were conspicuous by their absence.
The march passed through the city in four hours under the security cover of the Ghala Mandi and City police stations and intelligence agencies personnel.
At Azadi Chowk, Sahiwal Press Club President Shafqat Gilani received the participants. They marched on Railway Road, Jogo Chowk, Mazdoor Puli, Bhutto Nagar and Jhall Road to reach Multan Road.
Shopkeepers, passersby and those traveling in vehicles cheered to show their solidarity with the marchers.
Baluch Sarmachar 