Khalid Baloch, brother of former Baloch Students Action Committee (BSAC) chairman Shabbir Baloch, is among 10 people who have been forcibly disappeared from Maripur, Karachi, over the past week, according to sources.
These sources identified the other nine individuals forcibly disappeared by the Pakistani security forces as Sooraj, Shahbaz, Sakhi, Aamir, Sameer, Allah Bakhsh, Aamir Wahid, Aziz Noor Dad, and Sabir Aziz. The 10 individuals were detained during separate operations in Maripur over the course of one week, they added.
Locals further stated that operations have been ongoing for the past month in several Baloch-majority areas of Karachi. They claimed that Rangers and intelligence personnel have been conducting nighttime operations, including cordoning off areas, searches, and detentions. It is in keeping with what has happened in the past on a regular basis. People of Baloch ethnicity, particularly students pursuing higher education in different institutions of Karachi, are being forcibly disappeared.
No public statement from Pakistani authorities has been released regarding these raids and subsequent disappearances of the Baloch people, according to a report of The Balochistan Post. Meanwhile, two men who were allegedly forcibly disappeared from the capital city of Quetta earlier this year have surfaced and been transferred to Huda Jail. A protest camp organised by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) against enforced disappearances continued outside the Quetta Press Club for the 6,330th day.
Shahid Ahmed Kurd and Noor Mohammad Kurd, who were reportedly forcibly disappeared from Killi Khali, Quetta, on April 8 this year, have been brought before the public and transferred to Huda Jail, according to VBMP. These two persons remained missing for several months after being picked up by the security agencies but have now been found lodged in the jail after almost 100 days.
VBMP Chairman Nasrullah Baloch welcomed the two men’s recovery, describing it as a positive development. He said that VBMP had submitted their cases to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances and the government, following which the commission had issued notices to the government and relevant authorities concerning their recovery.
Nasrullah Baloch expressed hope that the institutions responsible for ensuring justice would provide both men with their legal rights and due process under national Pakistani law. He called for the recovery of all other missing persons and demanded that individuals facing allegations be brought before the courts. He also urged authorities to take practical measures to prevent enforced disappearances. Meanwhile, former Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) chairman Muheem Khan Baloch and journalist Amanullah Shadenzai visited the VBMP protest camp. They expressed solidarity with the families of missing persons and recorded their protest against enforced disappearances.
During the visit, Muheem Khan Baloch and Amanullah Shadenzai expressed concern over the continued failure to recover missing persons, enforced disappearances and what they described as unlawful actions. They said families of missing persons have been facing prolonged distress and uncertainty. They called on the government to ensure the recovery of all missing persons, present them before courts in accordance with the law, and take immediate and practical measures to end enforced disappearances.
Enforced disappearances of the Baloch people have been a major reason that has fueled insurgency against Pakistani occupation of Balochistan. Dealing extra constitutionally and illegally against the Baloch has led to large-scale violence by armed nationalist groups fighting for an independent Balochistan free from the clutches of Pakistan.
Incidentally, enforced disappearances are a unique phenomenon practised by the Pakistani security forces to deal with anybody and everybody in the province.
