Baloch rights group holds march in Islamabad against abduction, torture by Pak agencies

Hundreds of protestors from Baloch Voice of Missing Persons (BVMP) gathered in Pakistan’s Islamabad to highlight the plight of minority communities in Pakistan and the issue of forced abduction, torture, and harassment of the people of Balochistan by the Pakistani agencies.

Some of the protesters were seen shouting slogans against the Pakistani establishment and demanding the recovery of their loved ones who have been illegally abducted by the army.

“I am a Baloch daughter. I don’t have any affiliation with political or social organisation. I have not come here from Balochistan to deliver a speech. I can’t afford to come to the capital of the country for no reason. Unfortunately, I belong to a generation which has witnessed not but atrocities but also troubled times. You must have heard about Bosnia and Palestine but I have seen Balochistan. I have not come here to serve any agenda, I have come here as a victim. My brother and cousin have been missing for one year. Since 2001 ethnic cleansing is taking place in Balochistan. They have not even spared Sindhis and Pashtuns,” said one of the Baloch victims at the protest.

Amid the ongoing demonstrations, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday urged Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to speak to the relatives of the Baloch missing persons who had staged a protest at D-Chowk.

“You are placed in the corridors of power,” Maryam said. “It is your duty to listen to these people.”

There is a long history of enforced disappearances in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan.

While thousands of Balochs have been abducted and disappeared since its illegal occupation, hundreds of others have been eliminated in the line of Pakistan’s “kill and dump” policy. Thousands still remain unaccounted for.

Enforced Disappearance has been used as a tool by the Pakistani state to silence the oppressed people of Balochistan since the very first day of its occupation. While countless abductees have been killed, many of them are still facing inhuman torture in army secrets cells.