Her eyes were full of tears. Holding her abducted son’s picture, she was shivering and cyring, demanding to see her son. Her daughter was seen in the same places many years ago on the same street with the same picture of her brother, she walked, protested and led a march from Quetta to Karachi and then to Islamabad. But her struggle for her brother’s enforced disappearance resulted in nothing and her brother remained missing for over a decade.
This time her mother has come forward to look for her son. A son who has been missing for twelve long years. A son who was a bright, educated, talented student leader who fearlessly spoke about the rights of the Baloch people. A son who believed he was born free, and no one has the right to keep him slave. A son who vowed to resist against the oppressor and tell his people that they are kept slave and the chains of slavery must break. A son who stood in front of the barrel of guns with his pen and words. A son whose speeches shattered the foundations of a tyrannical state. A son who believed that freedom cannot be achieved without a due price.
That son has undoubtedly become leader of the thousands of the Baloch youths, his visionary leadership qualities are still guiding the Baloch freedom seeking activists towards the goal of the freedom. However, for a mother he still is her beloved son, who once fought with his sister just because her sister teased him, he still is that youngster who always came to sleep on her lap to hear the classical folk stories. He still is the son who left crying to school on his first day. She must have seen him developing as a political activist and someone who is talking about the rights of his people and talking against injustices. She may have felt worried about it, but she never stopped him because she knew that his son was not doing anything wrong. He was campaigning against injustices and brutalities. He was asking for his basic human rights and freedom. He was not campaigning to wage a war against someone or to occupy other people’s freedom, but he was trying to defend his people’s rights and freedom.
He was threatened, arrested, beaten up and warned to leave this path otherwise he will meet the same fate as his colleagues. Leaving the path was never an option even her mother knew that, but she was not seeing what tragedy was waiting for her son.
On 8th of June 2009 the Baloch student leader Zakir Majeed Baloch was forcibly disappeared along with two of his friends Waheed Baluch and Basit Baluch. Later Waheed and Basit were released while Zakir Majeed was kept in extrajudicial custody and till this day no one has any trace of him.
No one knows about his whereabouts other than the Pakistani military and paramilitary forces and secret services because Zakir Majeed was picked up by them and both the eyewitnesses who were abducted alongside Zakir Majeed have already spoken about the incident. No action has been taken in the last twelve years. Twelve years of pain. Twelve years of agonies. Twelve years of miseries. Twelve years of never-ending wait. It was twelve years ago when she heard his voice the last. It has been twelve years ago since he saw any of his siblings. It has been a continuous search for twelve years. His mother and family have still not given up and they are still protesting and demanding his release from the military torture cells.
Today Zakir’s mother and families of other Baloch missing persons are protesting again to mark twelfth year of Zakir Majeed’s abduction. But would we also be part of this struggle? Can we at least fill a small part of the vacuum that Zakir has left behind with his absence?
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.