The Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB), a human rights group mainly based in Sweden, UK and France but focusing on issues in Balochistan, briefed the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the rampant and ubiquitous enforced disappearances in Balochistan. HRCB said that its spokesperson had a virtual meeting with the UN representatives and informed them about all the aspects of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, and the failure of the government rein in the practice.
HRCB’s Information Secretary and Spokesperson Abdullah Abbas briefed the UN Human Rights Council’s officials via a Facetime meeting. Abbas briefed the UN representatives about the dire situation of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, and the abortive remedies that the government has employed to resolve the issue.
The spokesperson also conveyed the group’s concerns regarding the Dasht Teramil graveyard, a cemetery in Quetta, where more than 150 unidentified bodies are buried. The cemetery has earned a reputation for being the resting place for hundreds of unidentifiable bodies that are frequently found in random places. Every few months or so, a dozen bodies are buried there just because they have been decomposed or mutilated to such an extent that they can’t be identified. These bodies are never claimed, and volunteers bury them in the Dasth Teramil graveyard.
HRCB said that it informed the UN officials about some of the most mainstream cases of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, including the cases of Dr. Deen Muhammad Baloch, Zakir Majeed, Shabir Baloch, Zahid Baloch, Muhammad Naseem, Rashid Hussain and Saeed Ahmed. All of these individuals are missing for several years, and some for more than a decade. Their family members have repeatedly organized protests and demonstrations and met with high-ranking government officials in search of their loved ones, but so far their efforts have no borne fruit.
The rights group also briefed the UN representatives about the ineffectiveness of the Pakistani government’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED), a three-member commission constituted by the federal government in 2011 to trace the victims of enforced disappearances and fix responsibility on culprits. Experts and rights activists argue that despite the all the highfalutin promises, the commission has failed to deliver any tangible results. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group, chided Pakistan’s COIED back in 2020 for failing to provide justice the victims of enforced disappearances.
Furthermore, the UN was also briefed on the Counter Terrorism Department of Pakistan and how it frames innocent victims of enforced disappearances and then murders them in fake encounters. The CTD has earned a reputation for employing gangster tactics to liquidate innocent detainees. In March this year, the CTD shot dead five Baloch nationals in a fake encounter, labeling them as members and facilitators of Baloch “pro-independence” groups.
The CTD also threatened the family of missing Rashid Hussain to sign a concocted, misleading statement claiming that Hussain had gone “missing” in Balochistan and not in UAE, as all the available evidence shows.
HRCB said that UN representatives assured them that they will reach out to the Pakistani government and convey their concerns. They also promised that they will seek a more effective strategy in resolving the humanitarian crisis that has plagued Balochistan for decades.