Conflicting claims: A permanent feature in Balochistan

QUETTA:

Enforced disappearances have become a permanent feature of Balochistan’s social landscape.

Reports suggest that over the years, dozens of people have gone missing in the province which has been reeling from sporadic tribal insurgencies. Many of these were allegedly later found in the custody of security forces.

Baloch nationalists claim that a number of intellectuals, journalists, political activists, doctors, engineers, public servants and students have allegedly been victims of enforced disappearances.

While at times, relatives of missing persons have managed to reach their loved ones, in some cases their bodies are found dump at roadsides.

The government disputes the figures and says that most of the people listed as missing have, in fact, joined the insurgents and are being trained in training camps in parts of Balochistan and in Afghanistan.

A UN human rights delegation is due to visit Pakistan on September 10 to address the issue of enforced disappearances in the province. The team is expected to give a full review of the missing person cases and the role of security forces, if any, in the disappearances sometime later this year.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has placed many security officials, especially Frontier Corps officials, under notice to produce missing persons during proceedings at its Quetta registry.

The Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, a nongovernmental organization, has been aiding the Supreme Court in this regard by providing details of people who have gone missing over the past six years.

At the same time, opposition and nationalist leaders hold the ruling coalition equally responsible for the enforced disappearances.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2012.