Javed Gwahram — who had been abducted by the Pakistani army early this month, tortured and then released — succumbed to his injuries in Karachi on Tuesday.
On May 7, the Frontier Constabulary (FC), a para-military force, broke into a mosque in Balochabad village of Mand, a Pakistan-Iran border town in district Kech and whisked away four persons, including Javed Gwahram.
Elders of his extended family approached FC officials. The FC demanded Zubair Gwahram, Javed’s youngest brother, in return of Javed. On May 15, Javed’s maternal uncle Latif took Zubair to the FC camp in Mand. On May 17, Latif received a call from an official to receive Javed from the camp.
Javed was released in a very critical condition. He had been severely tortured. Family members took him to Turbat, the district head quarter, for treatment, where the doctors refused to take him as his condition was too unstable. He was not provided food and water while he was in the FC’s illegal custody and his kidneys were not functioning. He was then taken to Karachi where he died on May 26.
“I was deprived of sleep and was hanged for the entire detention period”, Javed had said to one of his cousins. “That day when they brought Zubair, the interrogator asked questions to Zubair and when they didn’t get the desired answer I was the one who was brutally tortured in front of my brother”.
Javed in a very young age became the sole bread winner for his two brothers and five sisters after his father Gwahram was killed in Karachi in 2005. Gwahram was poisoned by the host of the house where he was staying for his wife’s treatment. Soon after Gwahram’s death, his mother passed away.
Javed took the responsibility of his siblings after their parents passed away. He worked as a helper in a shop in Mand after returning from United Arab Emirates where he worked as a labourer for some years.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Zubair are still unknown.
In the same pattern on April 10, 2020, a teenage boy Murad Jan was in the military camp in the Rindak area of Mashkay, district Awaran. For hours, he was tortured for not speaking Urdu and later released and ordered to return the next day to the camp with an Urdu interpreter. He succumbed to the injuries the other day. He was the fourth member of his family tortured to death by the Pakistani army.
