Author: Jamal Baloch
Muhammad Tahir Rai, who has previously served as the additional IG as well as the head of the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and was later sacked for carrying out fake encounters, was appointed as the new Insepector General of Police (IG) Balochistan earlier this year. Since his selection, there has been a disturbing wave of fake encounters of previously forcibly disappeared persons in Balochistan.
Tahir Rai, who has been awarded Hilal-e-Shujaat, has a history of involvement in fake encounters for which he was sacked from his post in 2019. Based on investigations by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), it was found that Tahir Rai and several other CTD officials have carried out a fake encounter of four members of a family on a highway in Sahiwal. The killed persons, including a teenage girl, were later found to be innocent civilians. Based on the findings, Tahir Rai was sacked from his post and terrorism and murder charges were pressed against the other officials involved in the fake encounter.
It is worth mentioning that the first police encounter that was led by then Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Tahir Rai in 1996 resulted in the killing of PPP (SB) leader Mir Murtaza Bhutto and a number of his colleagues including Ashiq Hussain Jatoi, Sajjad Haider Ghagro, Wajahat Hussain Jokhio, Abdus Sattar Rajpar, Yar Mohammed Baloch, Abdul Rahim Brohi, and Bachal Ujjan. However, Tahir Rai and other officials involved in their killing were acquitted in 2009.
A man with such a record being appointed as the IG Balochistan, which, over the years, has witnessed an increasingly intensive and disturbing volume of torture practices, is very concerning. Torture has been practiced on a mass-scale in recent years whether in the form of enforced disappearances, the kill and dump policy or collective punishment. Enforced disappearances is perhaps the most common and earliest forms of torture in Balochistan as according to the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), as of 2021, there are at least 45,000 registered cases of enforced disappearances. This was followed by the kill and dump policy when mutilated bodies of forcibly disappeared persons were found on roadsides across Balochistan. Since 2009, at least 1,400 mutilated bodies have been recovered from Balochistan. The actual number of cases are impossible to confirm. Mass graves are also found yearly across Balochistan where the numbers and the identities of the bodies remain unrecognizable.
While with these forms of torture, Pakistan has attracted some condemnation, although insignificant, it has now given its torturing and killing practices in Balochistan a legal image. This is by naming them as “encounters”. Recently, there has been a rise in the number of fake encounters carried out in Balochistan against political opponents as well as social and human rights activists by declaring them as “terrorists”. By doing so, Pakistan has been able to both get rid of these individuals and escape with impunity.
Most of these individuals killed in fake encounters have been confirmed to be forcibly disappeared persons. Saddam Ismail, a human rights activist, who was abducted in April 2018 and has a registered case at the United Nations was declared a terrorist and killed in a fake encounter on 26 August 2021, with 6 other abductees. These included Muhammad Sajid, Shoaib Atta Muhammad, who were both abducted in 2018, and Abdul Ghani Liaqat who went missing in October 2017. Similarly, Jameel Ahmed, who went missing in March 2021, and Khan Muhammad, who was abducted in 2019, were declared terrorists and killed in a fake encounter on 10 August 2021, with three other persons. In the same pattern, Samiullah Pirkani and Jameel Ahmed Pirkani were abducted in January 2021 and later declared terrorists and killed in a fake encounter on 8 March 2021.
This fake encounter strategy was reportedly designed by the Military Intelligence (MI) at the end of 2020 which began to be executed in early 2021 after Tahir Rai was transferred to Balochistan. Many of the Baloch custodian abductees were handed over to the CTD whom CTD officials occasionally kill in fake encounters and declare as terrorists. This way, Pakistan has cunningly managed to continue its genocide against the Baloch people while showing to the Pakistani public that it has been successful in countering the movement in Balochistan. By executing these fake encounters, Pakistan has made its killing of innocent Baloch look lawful and justified.
The Baloch leadership has repeatedly urged international organizations to visit Balochistan and conduct their own investigations to understand the seriousness of the issue and the tactics Pakistani agencies have employed to kill innocent Baloch. It is worth mentioning that Pakistan has signed and ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, and thus it is legally required to take domestic measures to prevent any acts of torture as well as not to inflict any intentional mental or physical suffering on anyone for any reason. However, due to the incompetence of international organizations, Pakistani forces are free-handedly able to kill anyone anywhere and name them “terrorists”. International organizations’ unresponsiveness and Pakistan’s increasing inhumane activities have put the people of Balochistan in a miserable condition. In the upcoming time, it is possible that the Baloch will have to take extreme measures for their survival, perhaps resulting in further bloodshed. It is time for international organizations to put pressure on the Pakistani regime to prevent the conflict from further escalation and loss of lives.