A protest rally was held on Monday against the enforced disappearance of Azeem Dost Baloch, who was forcibly disappeared allegedly by Pakistani forces nine years back from the coastal city of Gwadar in Balochistan.
Protestors marched from Sadaf Hotel to Gwadar Press Club in the city, chanting slogans against enforced disappearances and demanding safe recovery of their missing beloved ones.
The protest was organized by the family of Azeem Dost Baloch and joined by several other victim families as well as political and social activists.
The participants of the rally called for the recovery of all Baloch ‘missing persons’, including Azeem Dost, and appealed to end the enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
Rukhsana Dost, sister of Azeem Dost, while addressing the participants said that “it has been nine years since we have been waiting for the return of my brother, but he still has not been released from the torture cells.”
“These nine years are the painful moments of my life that have changed my life as well as my family’s life,” she added.
Rukhsana said that in these nine years, her family has not seen any happiness, and her old mother remembers her son every day. “In these 9 years, no one in our house celebrated Eid — but spent those days protesting on the streets”, she said.
Rukhsana said that today, almost every house in Balochistan is burning in this fire, as there is no house left where no sister’s brother, a wife’s husband, a mother’s son, or an innocent child’s father has not been snatched from them.
Rukhsana Dost asked what crime her brother had committed whose investigation has not been completed even after nine years. “Not presenting my brother before a court proves his innocence and if anyone thinks that we will give up our demand for the recovery of our loved ones, they are wrong,” she concluded.