A protest was held in Karachi on Sunday against forced relocations and enforced disappearances, allegedly at the hands of the Pakistani security forces. Family members of the Baloch missing persons, student leaders, social and political activists and the general public participated in the protest and called on the authorities to restrain security forces in Balochistan.
The protest was called by the Karachi branch of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, a human rights group advocating for social reforms in Balochistan. Amna Baloch, the organizer of the protest, said that the Pakistani security forces are forcing people into relocating from their ancestral hometown in Awaran and its environs. She said that in Washuk, the forces “abducted” an elderly man Durray Khan and his grandchildren and threatened others to leave the area. Similar scenes were also witnessed in the Peerandar area of Awaran where the forces are forcibly relocating civilians out of their hometowns.
Amna Baloch said that the forced relocations are being carried out on the pretext of “security concerns”; we can’t understand what kind of “security concerns” can incentivize the security forces to detain an elderly man and his grandchildren. She said that Balochistan is going through an unparalleled human rights crisis: Baloch students are not safe in their homes nor in the academic institutions.
It is pertinent to mention that despite the continuous, almost non-stop protests, demonstrations and social media campaigns, enforced disappearances have not stopped. If anything, they have spiked in the recent few years. Baloch nationalists claim that Pakistani security forces are behind the disappearances.
In the industrial city of Hub Chowki, the security forces reportedly “abducted” two Baloch students on Saturday. The detainees were identified as Zubair Zehri s/o Siraj Ahmed and Adnan Mengal s/o Khuda Baksh who were picked up from a shop on the Dak Khana Road in Hub Chowki. They were moved to an unknown location and their conditions remain unknown.
In district Harnai, the security forces reportedly raided a house and detained two individuals. They were identified as Ali Nawaz and Gazzain Baloch, both residents of the Shahrag area of Harnai. It is not yet known what incentivized the abduction.
In Turbat, however, more gruesome scenes were witnessed when the bullet-riddled dead bodies of two individuals were found dumped in the wilderness. The dead bodies were reportedly found in the mountainous regions of the Tump area of Turbat and moved to the city hospital. The slain individuals were identified as Kamalan s/o Fida and Chakar s/o Muhammad Aslam. According to local sources, the two were on their way to a picnic in the mountains when they went missing. They were subsequently killed and their dead bodies dumped. The authorities are reportedly investigating the incident.