Another Baloch student has gone missing amid rising cases of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
According to details Sayyed Baloch, a student from Turbat, has gone missing while on his way to Karachi. Mr Baloch was travelling on Thursday from Quetta to Karachi, where he had taken admission in a computer course. However, he was arrested and “forcibly disappeared” allegedly by personnel of intelligence agencies.
It was not clear why Sayyed Baloch was taken away by security forces but enforced disappearances, a practice where people are allegedly held by secretive agencies incommunicado without trial for years, are rampant in Balochistan.
Earlier in the week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had urged Pakistan to put an end to the abuse of enforced disappearances. HRW had noted that Pakistani authorities, including law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system, have long failed to demonstrate the political will to end enforced disappearances in the country.
According to VBMP, a campaign group, the issue of missing persons in Balochistan is becoming more and more serious, families of missing persons, political activists and humanitarian organisations have accused ‘Pakistani forces and intelligence agencies’ for enforced disappearances in the region.
Peaceful protests have been going on for over a decade under the leadership of Mama Qadeer Baloch and Nasrullah Baloch of VBMP, for the recovery of missing persons.