Missing loved ones: Baloch caravan stages protest outside the National Press Club

Plans to present memorandum to UN.

ISLAMABAD:

For Ali Haider Baloch, 10, the fear of losing his life, while struggling to seek justice for his father’s abduction is the least of his concerns.

Ali is accompanying the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons’ (VBMP) caravan that reached the capital on Saturday evening. The protesters plan to present a memorandum to United Nations officials on Monday.

Holding a picture of his father, he recounted how his father was abducted in front of his eyes. While accompanying him to Gawadar, a pit stop in Lasbela district changed his life on July 14 in 2010. “Two cars and a few men, snatched him from my arms, I was weak and vulnerable.”

Ali managed to reach his uncle, who went to the police station to register an FIR but he was refused. He then decided to join forces to fight the battle for justice. He is accompanied by his 14-year-old sister, Samina Baloch, a seventh grader, who said the emptiness in their homes is haunting. With damp eyes, she says the sandals and bangles brought as a gift from her father on Eid from Gawadar were amongst her most precious possessions.  “I safeguard those things more than my own life,” she said with a broken smile.

The caravan, comprising 22 individuals including 12 women and three children, is led by septuagenarian Abdul Qadeer Baloch also known as Mama Qadeer. “Numerous protests and 1,400 days of hunger strikes in Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi were not good enough to get the attention they deserve.

VBMP Chairman Nasrullah Baloch said there are 2,825 are registered missing persons.  Moreover, around 1,500 persons were killed while 18,000 were missing. Nasrullah said the UN must send a fact-finding mission to investigate the mass graves, army operations and take notice of the target killing and enforced disappearances.

While speaking about the hurdles on their way to the capital, he said that those who have been supporting us along the way have been blatantly threatened.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2014.