The Baloch Solidarity Committee held a solidarity walk in Karachi on 2nd March, the Baloch Culture Day, to express solidarity with the families of the Baloch missing persons. Hundreds of individuals, mostly women and children clad in the Balochi cultural attire, walked on the streets, carrying placards and banners that bore messages for the recovery of the thousands of Baloch missing persons.
According to the details, the solidarity walk started from the Art Council in Karachi and culminated in front of the Karachi Press Club after following a circuitous path on the streets of the city. The families of the Baloch missing persons, political and social workers, rights activists, prominent poets and individuals from different walks of life participated in the walk to express solidarity with the families of the Baloch missing persons.
Chairman of the Baloch Solidarity Committee Wahab Baloch, Vice-Chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Mama Qadeer Baloch, Kulsoom Baloch from the Baloch Muttahida Mahaz and several other speakers addressed the gathering in front of the Karachi Press Club. They said that they are celebrating Baloch Culture Day as the day of solidarity with the families of the Baloch missing persons.
They said that we designate this day for the Baloch labourers who died at the hands of the Iranian forces a few days prior. Baloch culture is a symbol of resistance, and we vow to resist for the sake of our people and the preservation of this culture.
They said that the sentinels of the Baloch culture are suffering away in the torture cells of the state. “The blood of the Baloch martyrs has kept this culture alive”, they said.
The families of the Baloch missing persons said that on this day, the inhabitants of Karachi – “our brothers and sisters” – have shared our pain and grief by expressing solidarity with us. They said that people behind the enforced disappearances of our loved ones have staged a charade – they are dressed in the traditional Baloch attire, pretending to express their “insincere” solidarity with us. “We saw the conduct of these false sympathizers during the sit-in protest in Islamabad”, they said.
The participants carried placards and banners that bore messages for the safe recovery of the thousands of Baloch missing persons from eastern Balochistan. Others carried banners that demanded justice for the Baloch labourers massacred in western Balochistan by the Iranian border forces a few days ago. The families of the missing persons from the Muhajir community of Karachi also participated in the solidarity walk.