A Baloch activist whose father was allegedly forcibly disappeared in Hub Chowki on Wednesday said her family had faced “fifteen years of state violence”, as she appealed for his immediate release.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Mahzaib Baloch, daughter of Professor Shafiq Zehri, said she was once again before the media “to recount the story of oppression and state abuse” her family had endured.
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Recalling her family’s long struggle, she said her uncle, Rashid Hussain, was detained in the United Arab Emirates on 26 December 2018 and later transferred to Pakistan through what she described as “backchannel diplomacy”. Hussain has remained missing since.
Mahzaib said her family had approached courts and government commissions “for seven years”, travelling repeatedly between Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad in search of answers, but “were neither granted justice nor heard”.
She said that despite years of peaceful protests and sit-ins demanding her uncle’s recovery, he had not been released, and now her father had also gone missing after being taken into custody on Wednesday.
According to Mahzaib, her father is a political science professor at Degree College Hub and had also been involved in welfare work at Parwarish Recovery Centres in Hub, Khuzdar and Karachi.
She alleged that armed personnel “vandalised CCTV cameras, subjected him to violence and took him away”, adding that the family submitted an application at Hub police station but he had not been produced before any authority.
She said her father had previously been subjected to enforced disappearance in 2013 from Hub Chowki and was released after fifteen days “in a semi-conscious state”. She said he withdrew from political activity after that episode and confined himself to teaching and welfare work.
Mahzaib said her family had faced pressure and intimidation over the years for demanding the recovery of their missing relative, adding that FIRs had been registered against her, and that security personnel had attempted to detain her during a peaceful protest near a school in Hub.
She said the state was “suppressing constitutional demands and peaceful voices through force”, arguing that even authoritarian governments targeted individuals, whereas in her family’s case “collective violence” was being inflicted on multiple relatives.
Concluding her remarks, Mahzaib urged authorities to disclose her father’s whereabouts. “Where is my father?” she asked, calling on the state to “provide justice and immediately bring him before the public”.