Mama Qadeer Baloch. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Participants of the long march from Balochistan have demanded recovery of missing persons. They vowed to continue their journey till the recovery of their relatives, expressing disappointment over the response of the government and the courts.
The long march participants made this demand at a discussion jointly organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Insani Huqooq Ittehad (IHI) here on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Mama Qadeer Baloch, who started the long march under the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) banner from Quetta four months ago and reached Islamabad on Saturday last, revealed that they were being threatened to end their campaign. However, they have decided to continue their journey.
The march also included people from Karachi and Hyderabad in search of their missing relatives.
Farzana Baloch, one of the women marchers, talked about her brother Zakir Majeed, who has gone missing since June 2009. She said there were many remote areas where people were unable to report about their missing relatives.
She urged the civil society and media to conduct a survey about missing persons and expose all such cases.
Salma Jafar, a social activist, asked the human rights organizations and civil society activists to join their struggle for justice and to raise their voices. She claimed that 19,500 people are missing and the government has taken no action in this regard.
Harris Khalique, writer and columnist demanded a political solution to Balochistan problem.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2014.
COMMENTS (10)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@qasim Feud or Feudalism??
who has been promoting Feudalism in Balochistan ?? the answer is ESTABLISHMENT. Musharaf being soul leader of People and forces used to say, i quote " there are 104 Sardars, 101 are with me and only 03 against me". doesnt such statement by COAS in uniform actually clearifies who is father of Feudalism in Balochistan. if you talk about feuds stoping development in Balochistan,so bare in mind that MAKRAN DIVISION some 22% of Land mass of Balochistan has never been under any Feudalist influance but still lacks development. Accusing Feuds for underdevelopment in Balochistan is just a Face saving statement for leaders of Pakistan who use it every now and then, which is nothing new. Now every body should move on. they best way to move forward is to implement a new SOCIAL, DEMOCRATIC AND FINANCIAL contract with people of Balochistan(not the feuds) as a Trust Building Measure. it should be like a CHARTER which should give them a new status as they were promised by M.A JINNAH. Balochs are a minority en pakistan. even Population of Karachi is greater than their population. their first and last fear is Becoming a minority on their own land Balochistan, which is completely rightful Fear. i am a pakistani. its embarising that some people talk about Issues in Balochistan without ground realities. its feels like completely disowning the miseries of Baloch people. TNX
@usman Aziz: When you will walk thousands of kilometers to search for your loved ones, you will learn to use careful language.
This is the inability of the whole system in our country. We have got incompetent people working at important positions. We never had a long term policies towards our social structure, education or towards our own people. We never invested in our people, when you don't invest in your own people, then somebody else will, sooner or later. The feuds don't allow people to get education, and one after another governments never done anything to get engage with the people of balochistan. Feuds have always been the root of the problem there, they were in the governments but they never let balochistan to develop. This is common practice through out the pakistan that politician do not do anything for the welfare of people, but there are areas where politicans dont do any thing positive but atleast they dont stop others to do any development, and then there are some areas where politicians or those who are in power stop any development in their areas let alone to do something themselves and unfortunately most of the areas in balochistan are one of those places. There is still time the government irrespective of any party should engage with the people of balochistan ratehr than the feuds. Feuds have been supressing people for long time and now they are using our vulnerable baloch brothers in the name of baloch. They themselves sitting in newyork, london and dubai and make them to kill and being killed by their own pakistani brothers in uniform, whose social status nothing better than them.
Please ET , Also show the wordings said by the son of Mama Qadeer Baloch , he openly declared the war against Punjabi , recently 2 sweepers of FC were killed in Baluchistan as the rebels herd them talking in punjabi.
The government has become totally indifferent to the miseries and sufferings of the people. People are being killed, kidnapped, disappeared, put into bondage, and its response is only finger pointing on the political opponents. When you complain about its inaction, PMLN politicians ask us to lick the security policy. 1/5th of its tenure is over drum beating the announcement of the internal security policy. Remaining 4/5th will be over now doing its pooja.
@usman Aziz: and how do you know this?
Govt must make the issue of missing persons transparent. The relatives want to know the truth and want them to prosecuted 'PROPERLY' as a democratic state should if those detainees have been involved in invoking or applying terrorism against the state.
The truth is somewhere in between the state narrative and the narrative of the relatives of these individuals. Many of the Balochi militants are under the protection of Afghanistan, they too are regarded as Missing persons so are those killed by the terrorist organizations.
The govt needs to adopt transparency and trust its institutions to try these individuals if the state agencies have evidences of their involvement in terrorist activities. They are our citizens and therefore have equal rights.
They are asking for those who are not even missing but either serving anti Pakistani forces or living somewhere without knowing that they are missing, Like free judiciary it is another big drama against Armed forces of Pakistan