Balochistan unrest: Tortured body of child found in Turbat

Ten-year-old Chakar Baloch went missing on Jan 7.

QUETTA: The tortured and bullet-riddled body of a 10-year-old has been found in Turbat district of Balochistan on Sunday. Chakar Baloch, a student in the third grade, went missing on January 7 from main Turbat bazaar, according to local police.

“He was tortured before he was shot in the head and chest,” said an official at the Kech District Headquarters Hospital, adding that the boy was not sexually assaulted. “He was shot four times at point blank range.” A levies official said a shepherd spotted the body near the Kech Kor River and informed the police.

“The victim’s elder brother is said to be a campaigner for the Baloch separatist movement,” sources said.

Khuda Dost, Chakkar’s father, had survived an attack in Panjgur while Chakar’s relative Sanaullah, 16, abducted from his hometown Panjgur remains missing. Khuda Dost left Panjgur due to the increasing number of cases of enforced disappearances in the area.

A Baloch Student Organisation Azad spokesperson condemned the incident and accused security agencies of the incident. Security agencies have denied charges of involvement in any illegal detention or dumping of bodies.

According to an Asian Human Rights Commission report hundreds of Baloch men were abducted, extra-judicially killed and dumped in 2013. “The people of Pakistan have a constitutional right to protection from the state, a right which has so far been denied to them.”

The report added that Pakistan must immediately ratify the UN Convention against Enforced Disappearances.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2014.