The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Makran Zone said in a press release that the Frontier Corps and other security forces have failed to carry out the duties they were stationed for in Balochistan. Instead of protecting the people, the security forces and the deputy commissioner of Kech are violating their basic rights, and they should be ousted from the Makran division, the press release said.
The HRCP condemned the mortar attack, allegedly carrie out by the FC, that killed two children and critically wounded another in Hoshap, Kech, on October 10th. What was the crime that the innocent children were targeted for? the HRCP asked.
The rights group said that when the family members of the slain children went to the deputy commissioner to register a First Information Report against the security forces, he refused to comply. He claimed that the blast had occurred when children had “found” a grenade in the playground and started playing with it. He did not elaborate on how the grenade ended up in there.
When the family members were shunned away, they decided to stage a sit-in protest on the Shaheed Fida Chowk in Turbat alongside the dead bodies of their children, vowing that they will not budge from their location or bury their dead until justice is served. The deputy commissioner visited them, intending to persuade them to call the protest off, but to no avail. Instead of empathizing with the family members, the DC hurled a misogynist slur at the mother of the children, calling her to “stop and let a man talk.”
The video of the exchange between the protestors and the deputy commissioner went viral on social media. People from all walks of life came forward to express solidarity with the family members of the victims and called for the suspension of the deputy commissioner.
The HRCP said that despite the protests, the district authorities turned a deaf ear to the pleas of the family members of the slain children. Fed up with the apathy, they decided to take the dead bodies of their loved ones to the provincial capital Quetta and protest in front of the chief minister house and the governor house. The FC once again intervened and pressured the family members to bury their dead. They refused to comply and continued with their journey towards Quetta.
They reached their destination on October 13th and restarted the protest in front of the Civil Secretariat. The HRCP said that the family members of the victims have demanded not only justice for their children but also called for the ousting of the security forces from the Makran region and the suspension of the deputy commissioner. The rights groups supported these demands and appealed to the authorities to deliver justice to the victims and accept their pleas so that such a gruesome incident might never surface in Makran again.