Balochistan’s unclaimed corpses stir concern

Provincial police chief says 52 such bodies were found in two years


Riazul Haq September 01, 2016
PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary body expressed on Wednesday serious concern over the recovery of unclaimed bodies from Balochistan and maintained that it was a stinging indictment of the state, which showed that people did not trust the state and its institutions.

The Senate’s functional committee on human rights held its meeting during which members also called for a comprehensive briefing from the director-general of Rangers on Balochistan and the dumping of unclaimed bodies in its next meeting.

Quetta weeps again

Corpses in Balochistan

The committee, chaired by Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Nasreen Jalil, started deliberations on its agenda, and discussed the discovery of over 1,200 corpses during the past two years.

Balochistan’s DIG Police Ayub Qureshi stated that as many as 545 people had been killed in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Of the total, there were 52 unclaimed bodies.

The senators were surprised when the DIG told them that all of the 52 unclaimed bodies had been found in ‘A’ areas (zones where police are stationed) of the province, while the police had no data about ‘B’ areas (zones without police coverage).



Senator Farhatullah Babar said that it was a grim confession that nobody came to claim even from the families of missing persons.

“This is a stinging indictment of the state and its institutions and (eroding) people’s trust as nobody bothers to claim anyone of their family (to be) missing,” he said.

Expressing serious concern about the phenomenon, Senator Mohsin Leghari said: “Nobody knows about the figures of B areas of the province controlled by paramilitary forces.”

The committee chairperson and other members sought a detailed year-wise report on such deaths in the province by the next meeting of the committee.

Targeted killings drop in Balochistan

The DIG also said that even the Supreme Court had told them to conduct DNA tests of unclaimed bodies to assist the missing persons’ families for identification and they had not conducted tests because nobody showed up to claim any dead body.

“Regardless of the DNA matching or if any complainant turned up or not, is there any facility available in the province?” asked Babar. The DIG replied that they had no such facility, adding that the samples were sent to Punjab forensic science laboratory.

Babar said he believed that police was “not that incompetent” but there “must be some powers who consider themselves to be superior to Supreme Court and Parliament” who were stopping them from conducting those tests.

Secretary to the Ministry of Human Rights Nadeem Ashraf also stated that the deaths could be indicative of a nexus between missing persons and the dumped bodies.

Rangers’ excuse

The committee took strong exception to Rangers’ letter to the interior ministry which was shared with members of the committee, which claimed that the absence of the DG Rangers was because of the law and order situation in Karachi.

Senator Babar also stated that the Human Rights Commission South Asia seemed to be a bogus organization, created primarily for propaganda purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2016.

COMMENTS (2)

Shaukat | 7 years ago | Reply Why is the government silent on this?. Please show the Baloch people that you care about them. You can't avoid missing even a single chance.
IBN E ASHFAQUE | 7 years ago | Reply THEY did the same thing in former East Pakistan as THEY are doing in Baluchistan. May Allah guide us all.
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