Balochistan: Enforced disappearances are serious violation of basic human rights. International Organisations should take immediate notice. BHRO

Baloch Human Rights Organization held a protest demonstration in front of Quetta Press Club against enforced disappearances of BHRO’s Information Secretary, Nawaz Atta including the students abducted from Karachi and Quetta. Along with Baloch Human Rights Activists, students and civilians took part in the demonstration. The participants were carrying play cards and banners with the demand to release human rights defenders and student Nawaz Atta, Aftab Baloch, Ulfat, Ilyas, Arif,

Sajjad and other students. The demonstrators chanted slogans against military operations and enforced disappearances in Balochistan and declared such steps from the state, serious human rights violations.

Talking to media Mama Qadeer Baloch, Vice Chairman of Voce for Baloch Missing Persons said that the aim of BHRO’s protest demonstration is the safe recovery of organization’s Information Secretary Nawaz Atta Baloch and other students, abducted from Karachi and Quetta. Nawaz Atta was abducted along with other students from his home in Karachi on October 28, 2017, and are still missing. Mama Qadeer further added that the chain of enforced disappearance of Baloch people is not new. It is continued for last many years and due to which thousands of civilians disappeared, which includes doctors, lawyers, students and people from all walks of life. He said that due to military operations on daily basis in different parts of Balochistan, dozens of people are getting abducted and many of them were killed in custody and claimed to be killed in encounters. That is why our protest will be continued until the safe recovery of all the abductees.

The participants of the demonstration showed their concerns that Nawaz Atta and other students’ lives are in grave danger in the torture cells of forces. They said that enforced disappearances and illegal detention of people are serious violations of basic human rights but on such a critical issue, Pakistan’s judiciary and civil society is criminally silent. Enforced disappearance of human rights activist is an attack on the law. The demonstrators appealed to the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and all international human rights organisation and said that it is the responsibility of above-mentioned institutions to take notice of these serious human rights violations and play their roles in the safe recovery of forcefully disappeared people.

 

 

Human Rights Council of Balochistan (Hakkpaan) is a non-profit and non-partisan human rights group based in Balochistan and Sweden. It collects reports from Balochistan, a region Pakistan government does not allow any media and HR group to visit and report. Human rights violations in Balochistan is not a new phenomenon, but it got its worst levels after the Military coup de tat of Pakistan in 1999. Thousands of Baloch have been reported missing, hundreds killed in fake encounters and so-called kill and dump policy of the military. HRCB collects the data from Balochistan itself, through its network of volunteers and supporters, organizes and reports them to the human rights mechanisms of the world.