Forces killed 11 people in a fake encounter, seven of them identified as disappeared persons, four yet to be identified.
The systemic practice of extrajudicial killing amounts crimes against humanity and a serious violation of the International Human Rights Law. But the paramilitary forces in Pakistan have continuously undermined the International Human Rights Law and have committed atrocities throughout Balochistan, killing thousands of unarmed civilians in Balochistan in the pretext of national security.
Systematic killings of civilians can be traced back to the day when people rose against the injustices and started demanding their basic rights. To suppress these masses, the state forces took extremely harsh and violent steps which caused the emergence of pro-independence political and armed groups, and the start of a new bloody war between the state and the separatists. During these two decades of war, the paramilitary forces of Pakistan and its intelligence agencies adopted “enforced disappearances” and “extrajudicial killings” as a crucial tool to suppress the separatist movement and other dissident voices including human rights defenders, lawyer and journalists which resulted in the involuntary disappearance and systematic execution of thousands of innocent civilians.
The unannounced media blackout in the province helped the forces to easily get away with the above-mentioned crimes against humanity. The impunity which forces enjoy has encouraged them to commit more crimes without fear of ever being held accountable. In recent years, the crimes—committed by the state authorities have been intensified.
Whenever a clash between the two parties has inflicted casualties on the forces, they have either killed civilians during military operations in the nearby residential areas, or have eliminated the missing persons in staged encounters.
From 2012 onwards, these killings are most often carried out by the Pakistan army and police’s counter-terrorism department (CTD). In most of the cases, the CTD additionally frames the previously disappeared persons in fake charges, displaying them with arms and explosives. Last year, Police CTD claimed to killed 47 terrorists in encounters. Human Rights Council of Balochistan investigated the cases and identified 21 out of 47 victims. We concluded that all of 21 persons who were identified were registered victims of enforced disappearances and had been in the custody of army for months and in some cases years. Despite several request made from HRCB and families of victims of enforced disappearances for the identification of the rest of the bodies, no steps were taken from the government. The bodies were later buried without identification.
In a recent incident, on 12 July, a lieutenant colonel of the Pakistan Army, Laiq Mirza Baig was kidnapped by Baloch Liberation Army, a militant group from Ziarat area of Balochistan. Two days later, on 14 July, the group claimed responsibility for killing him. In retaliation, the Pakistan army swiftly initiated a large-scale military operation in the area, involving SSG commandos, gunship helicopters, and surveillance drones. The forces claimed to have killed eleven terrorists, involved in Colonel Baig’s murder. The responsible group quickly denied Army’s claim, stating “no fighters of the BLA have been killed”.
No steps were taken by the authorities to provide further details about the identification of the killed persons. On the contrary, Balochistan government repeated the forces misleading narrative that the killed people were terrorist and had been killed during a search operation. With the help of families and Voice For Baloch Missing Persons- VBMP, the representative organization of families of victims of enforced disappearances, seven out of the eleven bodies were identified and turned out that all seven were enforced disappeared persons and were already in the custody of forces for months and years.
Some of the victims’ families had been protesting and campaigning for their safe release. The victims of fake encounter were identified as Shams Satakzai, Salim Karim Bakhsh, Dr. Mukhtiar, Engineer Zaheer Bangulzai, Shahzad Khuda Bakhsh, Shah Bakhsh Marri, and Jumma Khan son of Qaisar Marri.
The families took the street and protested in front of Chief Minister and Governor house in Quetta against the killing of enforced disappeared persons in fake encounters. The police on the other hand charged baton and fired tear gas on the protestors, injuring several women and children. For the last 5 days, the families are sitting in front of CM and Governor house day and night and demanding to form a judiciary commission and investigate into the extrajudicial killings of detainees in fake encounter.
