A Baloch missing person has returned home in Mastung after a five-year-long “enforced disappearance.”
According to the details, Sher Atish Baloch, a resident of Mastung, went missing in October of 2016, allegedly at the hands of Pakistani security forces. After a five-year-long separation, he safely returned home on Thursday. His family members have confirmed his release.
Another missing person, identified as Jawad Baloch, was also released a day ago in Mastung.
As missing persons are released intermittently in different regions of Balochistan, “enforced disappearances” are only accelerating. If a missing person is released, several others are picked up in their place.
In district Kharan, the Pakistani security forces reportedly “abducted” a young man identified as Ali Jan s/o Noor Muhammad, a greengrocer and a footballer. According to sources, Ali Jan was picked up twice in the past – once from Noshki in 2018 and then from Kharan in 2020. He has been picked up for the third time, and no one knows if he will ever return safely.
In Balochistan, a very small number of missing persons safely return to their homes, who bear indelible psychological scars: most of them suffer from PTSD, depression and even memory loss. Baloch activists argue that most of the missing persons are kept in confinement for several years even decades, while others are killed and their dead bodies dumped in the wilderness. For the past several months, the Counter-Terrorism Department has also done away with countless Baloch missing persons by systemically rounding them up and shooting them at point-blank range in “fake encounters.”
The Human Rights Council of Balochistan has revealed that the Counter-Terrorism Department has handed over three Baloch missing persons to the police forces in district Barkhan. Abdullah Abbass, the secretary of the group, identified the three detainees as Nasir s/o Muhammad Aslam, Raheem s/o Abdul Wahid and Shah Baig. The former two were “abducted” during a raid on their house in September of 2020 and the latter was picked up a year ago.
A similar case was also observed in Qila Saifullah where the CTD handed over another three missing persons to the police. These were identified as Basit Baloch, Sufyan Baloch and Sohail Baloch – all three of them were “forcibly disappeared” by the Pakistani forces from different areas of Balochistan.