Massive protest rallies were taken out in Pakistan’s Quetta and Karachi on Thursday demanding recovery of missing Baloch people, victims of forced disappearances in the Balochistan province.
The rallies came as Pakistan was celebrating the festival of Eid-al-Adha.
The protest was organized by Voice of Baloch Missing People (VBMP), and was supported by Baloch organizations like Baloch Student Organization (BSO), Baloch Women Organization (BWO), Baloch Solidarity Committee (BSC), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Human Rights Council of Baluchistan (HRCB), Aurat March Lahore, Islamabad HC Bar Association and Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) among others.
In Quetta, the protest rallies were led by Mama Qadeer, Horan Baloch and Atlat Balach Qadir Baloch, in front of the Quetta Press Club where several people irrespective of political affiliation, student organizations and other schools of thought joined the families of the missing Balochs.
During the rallies, the speakers talked about the families of missing Balochs who are undergoing severe mental trauma due to prolonged forced disappearance of their loved ones. The speakers criticized the government and the judiciary for their apathy towards the agony of the missing peoples’ families.
The speakers also appealed to the protesters staging rallies in other cities to help find missing peoples by creating more pressure on the insensitive government of Pakistan. The protesters termed the disappearances as extra judicial kidnappings by security agencies like CTD, Frontier Corps and state police in order to plunder and loot the mineral and petroleum rich province.
They said they have lost the confidence in provincial and Pakistan government and their only hope is the judiciary which should take cognizance of their plight and instruct the Pakistan government to ensure protection of rights given to people by the constitution and recover the missing people.
In Karachi the protests were led by Sammi Baloch GS VBMP. The protests started from Karachi Arts Council and culminated at the Karachi Press Club.
The protestors demanded immediate recovery of missing Baloch people They said that those responsible should be made accountable and resolving the issue according to the laws of the country. VBMP Chairman Nasrullah Baloch, in Karachi, thanked the gathering of leaders and workers of different political, social and student organizations who participated in the protest for expressing their solidarity with the families of missing individuals.