Baloch Students Organization Azad said in a media statement on Saturday that it will organize an “awareness campaign” on June 8, the “Baloch missing persons day.” The group said that a humanitarian crisis has emerged in Balochistan in the past two decades: thousands of students, academics, activists, political and social workers, poets and lawyers have gone missing at the behest of the Pakistani military and intelligence organizations.
BSO-Azad said that the international human rights organizations and other world institutions have shown a deafening silence over the rampant “enforced disappearances” in Balochistan. This silence has only encouraged the practice, and it will only get worse in the future. The organization said that the “enforced disappearances” are a violation of human rights as well as the constitution of Pakistan, but the state has been flagrantly involved in this inhumane practice for decades. The political parties of the country, the media and the judiciary have maintained silence over the issue, it said.
The statement further said that “enforced disappearances” have become the norm in Balochistan over the decades – there might not be a single house that has not lost a loved one to this practice. The families have been highlighting the issue for several years now but to no avail. The statement claimed that hundreds of BSO-Azad student workers, leaders and activists have been forcibly disappeared by the Pakistani forces. Many of them have been killed and their dead bodies thrown in the wilderness.
The statement said that to highlight the issue and raise a voice against it, BSO-Azad decided to commemorate June 8th as the “Baloch Missing Persons Day” in 2017. On this date, the BSO-Azad student leader Zakir Majeed was abducted from Mastung in 2009 and remains missing to this day. To mark the day, hundreds of activists in and out of Balochistan will come together to raise a voice against “enforced disappearances”, especially for the victims whose cases have been neglected for too long. The campaign will also work for the families of Baloch missing persons who cannot raise their voices due to various restraints.
The BSO-Azad spokesperson appealed to the general public to participate in the campaign so that they can collectively highlight the issue plaguing thousands of families in Balochistan. The group said that will also organize protests and demonstration through various means.