Missing persons: Families claim receiving threats

Relatives of Baloch missing persons accuse security forces and secret agencies of threatening them.

QUETTA: Relatives of Baloch missing persons have accused security forces and secret agencies of threatening them with dire consequences if they lodge cases against the forces over alleged extra-judicial arrests of the missing persons.

Chairperson Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMP), Nasrullah Baloch levelled these allegations against government functionaries during a news conference at the Quetta Press Club on Monday.

“We are on strike for years. We have organised hunger strikes in Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad but to no avail,” he said, adding “as many as 100 Baloch missing persons have so far been killed at the hands of paramilitary troops and secret forces. All of them were tortured and their bodies were thrown in different parts of Balochistan.”

He said that around 70 out of 100 of the dead had been whisked away by security forces and the personnel were in uniforms during the abduction. “We strongly condemn this inhuman act and appeal that all those involved must be tried in the court of law rather than violating the law and human rights,” he added. He said those missing persons who have been released are now suffering from different diseases as they were brutally tortured during their illegal detention.

Nasrullah Baloch said that his organisation, which is striving for the recovery of missing persons, has complete data of 1,300 of a total of 11,000 Baloch missing persons. “Relatives of missing persons are receiving threatening calls and officials have threatened them with dire consequences if they don’t step back,” he told reporters.

Baloch said that a few days earlier security personnel whisked away a lawyer Nadir Shah who was assisting the Balochistan High Court regarding the cases of Baloch missing persons. “He was kept in illegal custody for a few days and was threatened not to appear before court.”

He said that soon VFBMP will launch a long march towards Islamabad and protest until the safe recovery of all missing persons.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2011.