Human right Commission for Pakistan-HRCP and friends of Baloch literary and social activist Wahid Baloch are to stage a protest on Monday 3rd October, at 4pm, Regal Chowk to Karachi Press Club to protest his enforced disappearance at the alleged hands of the state in Pakistan. On July 26th, 2016 Wahid was travelling with a friend Sabir Ali Sabir when the bus he was on was stopped at Karachi Superhighway toll plaza. Wahid was asked to leave the vehicle after an identity card check and taken to a “blue-coloured Vigo” as stated to Dawn media by his daughter. See following link for more details,
“Missing Baloch social worker was “picked up” on Karachi Superhighway”
http://www.dawn.com/news/1274105/missing-baloch-social-worker-was-picked-up-on-karachi-superhighway
Frontline Defenders state,
“Abdul Wahid Baloch is a human rights defender who has called for justice for the Baloch community through the organisation of campaigns, protests and public condemnation of a number of high profile cases. The Baloch community have faced various forms of oppression in Pakistan and human rights defenders that have demanded justice for state violations against them have been regarded as being anti-state by the Pakistani authorities. This disappearance is the latest in a string of enforced disappearances, torture and extra judicial executions of individuals from the Baloch community from the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.”
Accompanied by the daughters of the missing Baloch activist, an HRCP official speaks at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, August 2016
(Image Dawn, PPI)
Hani Wahid, eldest daughter of Wahid Baloch found it extremely difficult initially to get police to register her father missing and complete a First Investigation Report (FIR). Her struggles are documented in the following article,
“Abdul Wahid Baloch: My Father is not less Important than Son of CJ Sindh”
Dawn media highlighted recently that an FIR has now been registered by Gadap police following a complaint by Hani against intelligence agencies under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Raza Ahmad Rumi, journalist, tweeted a photo of Wahid stating,
Social worker&human rights defender Wahid Baloch is missing. FIR registered.Fed/Sindh govts:find him. It’s your duty
Wahid is employed as a telephone operator at Civil Hospital. According to Global Voices, he is also “in-charge of Sayyad Hashumi reference library in Karachi which reserves all the published and unpublished materials on Baloch (the people), Balochi (the language) and Balochistan (the province). The Founder of Sayyad Hashumim, library professor Sabah Dashtyar, was shot and killed in 2011.”
Aamir Hussaini, journalist and fiction writer, posted the following image on Twitter raising concerns for the his safety and calling for his release,
Sign Petition from the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, “Save Wahid Baloch”
https://www.change.org/o/human_rights_council_of_balochistan
Links
“Pakistan: Investigate Disappearance of Wahid Baloch (UA 181/16)”
“Pak judiciary disregards missing Baloch people”
http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/investigation/6331-pak-judiciary-disregards-missing-baloch-people
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 