The case of missing persons in Balochistan

Masood Hameed

Salma Bibi, a mother of four, sits in her cramped house on Qambrani Road in Sariab area of Quetta. Her family shares the premises, which has no sanitation facilities or drinking water, with three of her brothers-in-law and their children. Her husband is an auto mechanic who was recently diagnosed with cancer but, she says, they have no money to take him for his treatment. This, however, is not what keeps her up at night.

On October 30, 2017, Salma’s 16-year-old son Bebarg and 17-year-old nephew Shameer were on their way to Government Degree College, Quetta, when armed men in plain clothes arrived in three vehicles and whisked them away. Both teenagers were first-year students.

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PAKISTAN: Sagheer Ahmed Baloch, a disappeared person must be returned to his family without delay

International Human Rights Council
Urgent Action Case -001-2018
Date: 11 May 2018

Dear Friends,

The International Human Rights Council (IHRC-HK) has received information regarding the disappearance of a young student, Sagheer Ahmed Baloch, who was allegedly picked up by the intelligence agencies five months ago and remains disappeared to this day. Sagheer was picked up from Karachi University in broad daylight by plain clothed persons and no one was able to assist him.

Case details:

21-year-old Sagheer Ahmed Baloch was picked up by men in plainclothes from a canteen of the Karachi University on November 20, 2017. Sagheer was a second-year student of political science at the university. His family maintains that he had no political or militant affiliation and that he was a law-abiding citizen of the country with no previous history of crime.

Balochistan: 22 Baloch abducted from different areas near CPEC route

File Photo

BALOCHISTAN: Pakistani forces have carried out attacks in different areas of Balochistan close to CPEC on Thursday and abducted at least 22 innocent Baloch.

According to details Pakistani Frontier Corps (FC) and intelligence agencies abducted six people from Panjgur and Turbat Balochistan.

Who was Comrade Wahid

By : Imtiaz Baloch

On the sunny afternoon of July 26, 2016, a group of armed masked men stopped a passenger bus at a Pakistan army check post, near Gadap Town, in the northwestern part of Karachi, forming the provincial border of Sindh and Balochistan.

The masked men ordered all the passengers to show their identity cards. After enquiring all the passengers one by one, they forcibly offloaded Wahid Baloch and forced him into a blue-color Vigo, according to an eyewitness.

A brief report on human rights violations in Balochistan by VBMP

Composed by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP)

 1: This year in 2015 many parts of Balochistan operations were conducted, and in some areas it is still going on. Many deputations came from the operation hit areas to report abductions and enforced disappearances by paramilitary troops. Security forces have already thrown the mutilated bodies of numerous missing Baloch.

In district Noshki during an operation four mutilated bodies were found. According to the claim of security forces they were the insurgents killed in the combat among these bodies one was recognized as a previously abducted Baloch who was arrested with his brother six months earlier and his whereabouts remained unknown until the Noshki operation. In a change of policy the Pakistani security forces have started to dump the bodies of previously abducted Baloch during operation claiming that they were militants killed during battle. Whereas VBMP have them listed as missing from past several years.

The Journey of Love Continues: Notes on VBMP Long March – Mir Mohammad Ali Taplur

The grueling historic long march by the relatives of Baloch missing persons and extra-judicially killed persons having started on October 27th finally reached Karachi on the 22nd of November. They spent 27 days on the road walking thirty kilometers or more daily without a break. They were no extreme sports practitioners who would easily survive the rigors of this walk but were ordinary folk women, children and men, Mama Qadeer is 70 year old and Ali Haider the wheelbarrow boy 10 years old, who survived this bitter test of their love and respect for their loved ones disappeared or killed by the Pakistani state under a systematic vicious ‘dirty war’ of which Baloch are victims. The blisters, the aches, the inconvenience, the cold, the blazing autumn sun did not deter these brave souls from surpassing Gandhi’s 390 kilometer Salt March of 1930. This march not only proved their love for their relatives but also their dedication to the cause those relatives died and disappeared for. Their march may be over but they and their supporters understand that the journey is far from over.

A sister’s long march for her lost sibling

There are no lights and indications about the one who had been taken away from the way to my house in 2009, that, if he will return one day or has already been perished. The face of a sister was declaring all such words. Where he is and how he would be? Her body language was asking these questions. Her two eyes, with full of tears and in each drop of that tear there was a message that “I am looking for my brother”.