Balochistan: Senate’s Human Rights Commission is distorting the truth. The number of enforced disappeared person in Balochistan are in thousands. BHRO

Baloch Human Rights Organization’s spokesperson, in a statement issued in media, criticises the briefing of Additional Secretary Balochistan in the session of human rights committee in Senate. He said that the Additional Secretary denied the serious issue of enforced difference and in his briefing, he said that the number of enforced disappeared people in Balochistan are 136 which itself shows the seriousness of the government towards the serious issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.

The number of enforced disappeared people in Balochistan are in thousands which the government officials admitted. In August 2016, the current Interior Minister of Balochistan, Sarfaraz Bugti during a press conference admits that under National Action Plan, we have arrested 13575 people from Balochistan. In December 2015, Akbar Hussain Durrani, Interior Secretary admits that they have arrested 9000 people in 2015 on the basis of suspicion. In 2004, the then Interior Minister of Pakistan Aftab Sher Pao said that 4000 Baloch were taken into custody.

The Spokesperson further said that these statistics are published on the government level but the current Additional Secretary is distorting the truth and trying to keep the Senate’s committee of human rights and human rights organisations of Balochistan in dark. He said that we support the statement of Senator Farhatullah Babar that the Government and Supreme Court have completely failed on the enforced disappeared person issue. The security forces are more powerful than any state’s institutions. The spokesperson, in support of Farhatullah Babar suggestion to change the commission on missing persons, said that the current missing persons’ commission has become the spokesperson of security forces and intelligence agencies and is deliberately complicating the issue of enforced disappeared persons.

Apart from these, condemning the forcefully disappearing and extrajudicially executing of dozens of people during military operations in District Kech, Awaran, Washuk, Panjgur, Kharan and Khuzdar, the spokesperson said that from last one week, a massive military operation is going on in district Awaran and Washuk. According to sources, 10 people including women and children died in the military operation in Gajali, Mashkay and due to military siege and blockage, we are facing difficulties in the identification of the killed people. According to our local sources, the aerial bombardment still continues in different areas of district Awaran, Washuk and Panjgur. 60 people including women, children and elders are abducted by forces during the military operation and are transferred to military camps. They are not released so far.

In district Kech, during a search operation in Kohad, forces abducts Hameed s/o Bahram, Sadiq s/o Mayar, Waji s/o Shah Murad and Azeem s/o Hayatan whereas, in district Khuzar, Secret agents of intelligence agencies allegedly abducted Arshad Notani, a student of BSC. In this months, 15 students were abducted by intelligence agencies from District Khuzdar. Many of them were tortured and are released after few day while 5 students are still missing. On December 7, 2017, forces abduct Abdul Ghani s/o Haji Muhammad Ameen and Zaid s/o Shahbaz Khan during a raid on a house in Kharan.

The spokesperson of Baloch Human Rights Organization said that the law enforcement agencies in Balochistan are involved in the abduction, wilful killing and military operations and due to which a situation of insecurity has developed among the people of Balochistan. Criticising the Federal and Provincial Government, he said, the civilian institutions in Balochistan are collaborating with the military institutions in committing human rights violations. The military institutions are directly involved in human rights violations while the civilian institutions are covering them up and distorting the truth. The behaviour of state’s institutions will only worsen the situation rather than resolving it.

 

 

 

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.