The family members of the victims of the Hoshap incident have vowed that they will march towards the federal capital Islamabad if their demands are not met. They brought the dead bodies of their slain children to Quetta on October 13th to protest, but the authorities have so far ignored their demands. After four days of unending protest in the biting cold, the family members have said that they have no other option but to march for the capital in the pursuit of justice.
Addressing a gathering of the media and public at the protest site, student leader Dr. Mahrang Baloch said that seven members of this family have been killed “extralegally”, and now their children have been targeted. She said that despite all the pressure, the family members brought the dead bodies of their children to Quetta in search of justice.
She said that they came to Quetta in order to make their voices heard. But unfortunately, the journalists sitting a few blocks away have completely ignored them. She said that enforced disappearances, kill-and-dumps and fake encounters have become the new norm in Balochistan: the security forces killed Hayat Baloch in broad daylight; they killed Taj Bibi, an elderly woman, a few weeks ago; then they killed a ten-year-old child during a raid and now they have targeted two more children.
She said that the authorities have given a free hand to the security forces in Balochistan, and they can carry out all sorts of crimes with little or no accountability. She said that such gruesome crimes always escape the eyes of the media. “We have gotten tired of burying our dead”, she said.
Dr. Mahrang Baloch said that the family members have been protesting in Quetta for the past four days, but the government has not taken their demands seriously. The government has failed to deliver justice to its subjects.
She gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the government and said that if our demands are not met, we will march to Islamabad.