Bibi Gul Baloch, Chairperson Baloch Human Rights Organization (BHRO) on Sunday termed the non-recovery of Nawaz Atta Baloch as a tragedy and demanded the government to take initiative for his safe recovery.
Addressing a press conference at Quetta Press Club, Bibi Gul said that enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions of activists by security forces in Balochistan are not a hidden story anymore which is intensified in recent months. The military operations across Balochistan have affected people from all walk of lives. Elders, women and children are also being abducted and transferred to camps during military operations where they are subjected to inhuman torture. Many women were also extrajudicially killed. Fear has overshadowed people’s lives and they are helpless to migrate which is the worst example of human rights violation.
The silence of international human rights organization and biased media has deteriorated the situation of human rights in Balochistan and now along with political activists and their families, human rights activists are also being forcibly disappeared and are being transferred to unknown locations which is the violation of international human rights law, she added.
Bibi Gul said that today press conference aims to demand the government to take effective measures for the safe recovery of human rights activist, Nawaz Atta. Nawaz Atta was forcibly disappeared in the middle of the night along with 9 other students from his home in Gulistan-e-Johar, Karachi on October 28, last year. Majority of the abductees were minors. Some of the students were released but the well-being and whereabouts of Nawaz Atta even after a year remain unknown.
She added that there is no law in any country who allows security forces to forcibly disappeared someone without any evidence and deny the right of fair trial and moreover, extrajudicially killed them but in Balochistan, enforced disappearance of people have become the practice of every day.
Nawaz Atta is Information Secretary of Baloch Human Rights Organization and a student who was active for the restoration of human rights. By enforced disappearance of a human right activist and denying him his constitutional right, the state is committing the violation of the international human right law.
It is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizen but in Balochistan, security forces forcibly disappearing innocent people. The situation of human rights in Balochistan is worrisome and by abducting human rights activists the space for rights activist is shrinking which is not less than a tragedy.
Baloch Human Rights Organization from day one demanding that if Nawaz Atta has violated state’s law, he should be present in the court and if the court finds him guilty of any crime, he should be punished as per Pakistan’s law but abduction of a human rights activist without disclosing his whereabouts for a year is itself violation of state constitution.
Baloch Human Rights Organization appeals to Asian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, international human rights organizations, civil society activists and human rights activists to raise voice against imposed difficulties on rights activists and safe recovery of Nawaz Atta Baloch.
We also appeal to journalists to cover the incidents of enforced disappearances in Pakistan and fulfil their responsibilities in order to stop human rights violations in Pakistan and hold the perpetrators accountable.
