Social worker still missing after three days

Abdul Wahid Baloch worked as telephone operator at Civil hospital

KARACHI: Social worker Abdul Wahid Baloch, who is well-known among the city's literary circles for his work towards the promotion of Baloch language, has been missing for three days.

On Tuesday, Baloch and his friend, Sabir, were returning to Karachi from Umerkot in a passenger bus when the vehicle was stopped for snap-checking near Karachi Toll Plaza. "A law enforcement personnel in plainclothes and a uniformed policeman entered the van and started checking the CNICs of all passengers," said Sabir, who is a fisherman by profession. "After checking Wahid's identity card, they asked him to come with them."

Baloch told the men that he was a government employee and refused to go along with them, said Sabir, adding that Baloch was employed at Civil Hospital, Karachi, as telephone operator. "He even showed them his hospital card but they snatched it from him," he said.

Baloch's family approached the police to register the case but had little success. "The family visited the police station late on Thursday saying that Wahid has not returned home but I asked them to come the next day to meet a high-ranking officer," said Gadap City SHO Khan Nawaz, adding the family has yet to approach them. Nawaz said he can only say for his police station that they did not take Baloch into custody.

Meanwhile, the family is planning to file a petition in Sindh High Court against his 'forced' disappearance on Monday, said Baloch's close friend, Rashid Baloch.

Baloch, a resident of Lyari’s Gharib Shah Road and a father of three daughters and a son, is the chief editor of the monthly Balochi magazine 'Labzank'. Apart from publishing several Balochi books and poetries, he is also in charge of Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi Library in Malir.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2016.