A religious leader is among the five men allegedly picked up by the Pakistani security forces from different areas of Balochistan and Karachi.
According to the details, the Pakistani forces raided a house in Jhao Shikari Goth in district Awaran on Monday and detained three individuals. They were identified as Islam s/o Hazoor Baksh, Azam s/o Jamil and Yaseen s/o Raheem Baksh. The forces reportedly moved the detainees to an unknown location and they have not been heard from since.
In Tump, district Kech, the Pakistani forces reportedly picked up a youth named Mohsin s/o Abdul Samad.
The Balochistan Post learned from local sources that the Pakistani security forces are carrying out large-scale military operations and raids in the area with an alarming frequency. The sources said that the forces are gathering information on the locals and summoning people to their camps for interrogation. The officials have not responded to these allegations.
It should be noted that despite being the hometown of the incumbent Chief Minister of Balochistan, Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, Jhaao is a comparitively underdeveloped area of Balochistan. The area lacks basic facilities of modern life, like quality education, satisfactory healthcare apparatus and reliable electricity and cellular services. Furthermore, local activists claim that Jhao has practically become a military cantonment due to a large number of security forces stationed there, not to mention the cadres deployed frequently for operations, raids and patrolling the area. Locals say that their activities are meticulously monitored and even restricted – no one can enter or leave the area if the forces don’t allow it.
In a separate development, the Pakistani forces have reportedly detained a Jamiat Ahle Hadith leader from Karachi. The party officials confirmed the religious leader as Sheikh Ayaz Tigrani, a resident of the Tigran area of Kech, who frequently travelled to Karachi for his Leukemia treatment. He was in Karachi for his medical trip when he was picked up by the Pakistani forces from his hotel room in Liyari, the party officials said.
Tigrani is counted among the most influential religious leaders of Kech. He served in the Jamia Islamia for many years as a teacher and led prayers in a mosque for 15 years. Jamiat Ahle Hadith leader Abdul Ghani Zamurani said that the incident is “alarming.” He said that such “abductions” would disrupt the peaceful academic environment of the religious seminaries. He appealed Balochistan and Sindh governments for the safe release of Sheikh Ayaz Tigrani, warning that the group would carry out protests if Tigrani did not return home safely.