Eid or a Misunderstanding?
Author: Zareen Baloch
Eid Mubarak! Ali heard a voice from the road where people flaunting their new garments were wishing each other the muslim festival.
Are you sure it is Eid today? Ali asked his mom inquisitively.
He continued, Mom these people must have some sorts of misunderstanding, how could the Eid be so much painful? Eid is the day of blessings, happiness, love and sacrifice. If it is Eid then why my Dad is not here with us? It has almost been a decade that my father hasn’t come and celebrated Eid with us. Each and Every person around us have been celebrating this day with their families but my dad has never been around. He even didn’t send his best wishes to us. How could it happen that Dad even didn’t ask us if we have bought new clothes for us or not? Or we need any thing for Eid day?
Ali kept talking, Mom, we will observe Eid when our beloved dad will return. Then there would be blessing, celebrations and enjoyment in real terms.
Lets Go mom we have to Go, every one is waiting for us in the camp at the Press club, Ali hurried.
Balochistan, the only region where on festive occasions People do not talk about poverty or their basic needs instead they demand the recovery of their loved ones, because the real happiness is when their loved ones will be with them. The words definitely couldn’t explain the glance of eyes and the endless period of wait, the unbearable pain and unwanted sorrow which they can not share with any one and also the hurdles which they have been facing from many years. Many can not even imagine the festive eves without their family members but it is the bitter truth of our lives that we have been passing through these kinds of anxious and depressed eves for decades.
Sometimes our family members wouldn’t join us on such occasions, but we remain connected with them through social media or phone, But there won’t be such scary thought in our mind.
But those who have been missing, we don’t know whether they are alive or not or do they even know its Eid day? Do they know we are still waiting for them? Do they know that our lives have been impeded over here, when they left us? Do they know about the mental torture that we have been experiencing. We are barely able to pass our normal days but “these eves of celebrations” when people share blessings and happiness, always make us hopeless. we are not jealous of them, even we always pray for them that they never ever experience the pain which we are going through.
I remember when twin daughters of Abdul Ghafoor, from Khuzdar, after shedding their milk teeth came to their mother and asked “mom you once told us that when we became older enough and shed our first tooth then papa will return, so see we did this now where is our papa? Tell him we want to see him”, 7 years have since passed but these two angels have never been able to see their father, they don’t even know if the person that they saw in pictures even exist or not? And their mother, wife of Abdul Ghafoor always find herself in trouble when they ask her these questions.
When I recalled this story I started thinking about Mahrung and Abdain, this is the 2nd Eid without their father Naseer was abducted on 15 November 2017.
They might also ask questions from their mother but definitely those questions would be different because they are also the eye-witnesses of his abduction. They might ask about the persons who brutally whisked away their father and how would they treat their father.
They would ask: Mama we saw our father always being busy with books, Mom is loving books a crime? Where did they take our father? When will he come back? Their mother might answer their questions by hidding the truth about our slavery but she will not be able stop growth of hate inside them. Mahrung had been a treasure princess of her father, but today she misses her dad. Abdain, once a shadow of Naseer, today exists like a non-existent creature.
They had spent beautiful time with missing Noodan, Ezzat and Qamber but now they have lost every support. They have observed that how their Father and his friends discussed books, worked for their nation and for Baloch students but now the time has been teaching them a new Lesson of punishment for loving books, Promoting education in Baloch society. Their hate for the abductors will increase on occasions like Eid.
Thousands of Baloch families have been experiencing this unbearable continuous pain. Every year many families become victims of state atrocities and share the common sorrows with those who have been already suffering. Their are many camps of protesters who have been holding placards and pictures of their beloved ones carrying hundreds of stories, the stories of love, pain, sorrows, happiness, wishes, dreams, friendships and many more and the most painful things are “memories” which never let them to go forth. The memories which always remind them that a part of their lives is missing, which had associated them with entire world but today that part has been dissociated. On these occasions their lives seems to be stopped on one point.
Today the situation is most grieve because today when we think about missing persons then we also remember the women and children who are the victims of this inhuman act. Recently, Noor Malik, Haseena and other females have been abducted by forces from different areas of Balochistan.
What kind of Eid would it be for them? I wish they could escape torture cell for one day at least, and share some blessing with their loved ones. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have new cloths to wear or sweets to eat but you must be spared from torture. I pray for safe recovery of all Baloch missing persons but I know if one gets released others will be detained, this thing will never end. Abduction, detention, and then recovery from a mass grave or in a mentally unstable condition and then again detention of the same person or other family member, is a continuous cycle of pain in Balochistan that will never end.
These all pains will only banish when the restoration of free Baloch homeland happens.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.