Enforced disappearances in Balochistan, Sindh discussed

Author of ‘The Baloch who is not missing and others who are’ Mohammed Hanif speaking at the event organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan at the Arts Council on Wednesday evening.—White Star

by Peerzada Salman

KARACHI: Speakers highlighted the issues related to the missing Baloch persons with reference to writer Mohammed Hanif’s book ‘The Baloch who is not missing and others who are’ at an event organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at the Arts Council on Wednesday evening.

The programme began with the screening of a BBC documentary on the subject.

بہت بڑے مسئلے پر چھوٹی سی کتاب

Karachi Literature Festival: Voices of the missing

Mohammed Hanif, Mohammad Ali Talpur, Farzana Majeed and I.A. Rehman — Photo by Alisia Pek/Dawn.com

Karachi: Farzana Majeed’s voice resonated through the garden as she explained what happened to her brother at the session on the launch of the book The Baloch Who is Not Missing and Others Who Are. “It has been four years since Zakir Majeed Baloch was taken into the custody of Pakistan’s secret agencies,” said the MPhil student. “He had raised his voice against the ongoing atrocities in Balochistan.”

Since then, Majeed has been campaigning for her brother’s release. Her protest has largely gone unnoticed, as have those of hundreds like her. Since 2010, protestors from the Voice for Baloch Missing People have been sitting outside the Karachi Press Club with framed photos of sons, daughters, brothers and fathers who have been missing for years. They are victims of the campaign of enforced disappearances credited to the country’s military and intelligence organisations. The stories of how they were one day taken away, and not heard from since, are not those which one hears often because like them, their accounts are largely missing from the agendas of news organisations.