Baloch student leader Karima Baloch delivering speech during at a seminar on International Human Rights Day
Yesterday (December, 10th 2014) International Human Rights Day, Baloch protesters took to the streets to protest a plague inflicted on civilians, “enforced disappearances” torture in custody, extra-judicial killings and dumping of bodies. Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) held a demonstration outside Balochistan High Court, Quetta to demand the recovery of missing persons.
Finding bodies is a regular occurence. In one such recent incident on the 6th December, three persons were found dumped near a river in Pishin district about 75 kilometres north of Quetta. The victims bore multiple marks of torture and were discovered with hands and feet bound with rope. They had been strangled.
Asma Jehangir former chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in an recent interview that the worst human rights violation occur in Balochistan. Protesters want justice and vented their anger and frustration at law enforcement agencies and the provincial government. Often no-one is prosecuted, there is no accountability, so the killings keep on coming.
Nasrullah Baloch told Dawn media that dead bodies of Baloch workers had allegedly been found in different parts of the province. He stated that, “if any worker has committed a crime then they have to be produced before a court of law, but if they are innocent then the authorities must free them.”
Baloch protesters appealed to the United Nations, International Community, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international humanitarian organisations to take notice of enforced-disappearances in Balochistan and play their role for the safe release of thousands of Baloch missing persons.
Earlier this month the World Sindhi Congress & Baloch Human Rights Council attended an Amnesty International Canada event entitled, “Write for rights on 6th Dec 2014,” where WSC’s recently published Report on “Extra Judicial Killing in Sindh,” was also presented to those attending.
Links
“Abducted in Pakistan: The broken bodies of Sind and Baloch provinces and fears for those still missing”
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad . She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.
Carol Anne Grayson (Radical Sister) blog 