By Riaz Baloch Balochistan [Pakistan], 30 August (ANI): There is a long history of forced disappearances in occupied Balochistan, Pakistan. While thousands of Balochs have been abducted and disappeared since its illegal occupation, hundreds more have been eliminated in line with Pakistan’s “kill and dump” policy. Thousands are still unknown.
Due to the silence and numbness of the civilized world and human rights organizations and the lack of media or other resources in Balochistan, this issue has been suppressed to this day.
Forced disappearance has been used as a tool by the Pakistani state to silence the oppressed people of Balochistan since the very first day of its occupation. Although countless abductions have been killed, many of them still face inhuman torture in the secret cells of the arm. Humanity is bleeding into the hands of the Pakistani state. Baloch people have taken to the streets. Families of the missing people suffer significant damage, they live with continuous uncertainty about their loved ones’ fate or where they are often completely disturbed by the disappearances.
Some of the relatives of these missing persons have passed away with pain and suffering in their breasts, but their loved ones have never returned to them and they died and are waiting.
The United Nations, the International Court of Justice, human rights organizations may not be able to lead to the difficulties of the families of the missing persons. Baloch mothers, sisters, widows and their children suffer from severe spiritual mental anxiety.
Pakistan’s inhuman atrocities in Balochistan are never exposed because of a total media blackout. Voting for missing Baloch people or the VBMP’s peaceful protest camp has been going on for more than 4,050 days in Quetta, demanding justice for Baloch missing people. Thousands of people visit this camp daily. But the military state never understands and respects a democratic way of fighting for rights.
Forced disappearances have been a long spot in Pakistan’s human rights record. Despite promises by successive governments to criminalize practices, there has been a very slow movement in legislation equal to nothing, while people continue to be forced to disappear with impunity.
At the same time, Pakistan is now also practicing the method of enforcing disappearances abroad at Baloch Diaspora as well. Recently, a prominent Baloch journalist and activist Sajid Hussain disappeared from a European country Sweden on March 2, 2020. His body was later found in a river in Uppsala on May 1, 2020. Sajid Hussain was a significant voice from Baloch in the diaspora. He previously worked on human rights issues in Balochistan, dedicated to documenting the forced disappearances of the Pakistani authorities.
According to a report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in Sweden, they suspect that Sajid Hussain may have been abducted by Pakistani ISI.
Earlier, another Baloch social activist Rashid Hussain was arrested and disappeared from Sharjah by the UAE’s secret agencies on December 26, 2018, Rashid had lived and worked in the UAE for several years.
News later came out via Pakistani electronic media that Hussain was a suspect in the Chinese consulate attack in Karachi. After six months, Rashid Hussain was illegally deported and handed over to the Pakistani authorities by the UAE.
This news was also published by Pakistani media houses, but since then Rashid has not had access to any court. On the contrary, Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court has declared Rashid a fugitive. Now his family is more worried about his life. Pakistani agencies are trying to harm him in their custody.
According to a report published by the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, there has been an increase in the number of Baloch women targeting security forces. Human rights observers have noted that the absence of explicit legislation criminalizing executive disappearance in national law only exacerbates the situation.
Baloch women and even children are detained by forces in their local army camps, some of whom are released after a few days, but before that they are harassed and tortured. A 23-year-old schoolteacher, Zarina Marri, was raided by security forces from the Kohlu area of Balochistan in December 2005, and her whereabouts are still unknown.
Hundreds of political leaders, activists, engineers, doctors, lawyers have been missing in Balochistan for several years. Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch, an official physician and dispenser at Ornach Khuzdar, was abducted on June 28, 2009 and is still missing.
Zakir Majeed, a student leader, was abducted on June 8, 2009 and is still missing. While Zahid Baloch, Shabir Baloch and many such cases of disappearance exist to be practiced and solved.
The Baloch nation is facing the worst human rights violations by Pakistani forces and agencies in this modern age, where there are a multitude of human rights organizations.
World human rights organizations and international courts must implement legislation criminalizing Pakistan for enforceable disappearances without delay so that prosecutors have the appropriate tools to prosecute them responsibly.
We call on the civilized world, the international community, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations and other human rights organizations to take this as a matter of urgency, in order to end illegal abductions and imprisonment. Forced disappearances are a tool for threats that grossly violate human rights. (ANI)
Source: sn.dk
