63 missing, 37 killed In Balochistan in December 2021

Baloch political and human rights activists hold placards protesting human rights violations in Balochistan, in Toronto, Canada, 2020. File Photo-ANI

According to figures released by the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, only during the month of December 2021, more than 63 people were abducted and are missing while 37 were killed in different parts of the disturbed and turbulent province.

LAHORE, 22 January 2022: As enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings carried on unabated during 2021, in Balochistan the number is, as usual, dismal. In this regard, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (Hakkpaan) has collected statistics of people who have gone missing. According to their figures, only during the month of December 2021, more than 63 people were abducted and are missing while 37 were killed in different parts of the disturbed and turbulent province.

According to a spokesperson of the HRCB, several such cases have been taken note of. On December 1, 2021, the organization says, that personnel of intelligence agencies appeared in plainclothes and raided the hostel of the Gwadar campus of Turbat University. They took away two students Jamil Sadiq and Ramez Akhtar, residents of Pisshokan, Gwadar. Eyewitnesses said that dozens of gunmen had taken control by surrounding the hostel during the raid, blindfolded and tied the students, and then dragged them out of there. To date, the two students are missing.

The very next day one other abduction was recorded. Personnel of the Frontier Corps on December 2, took away Abul Raheem from Gawak village of Mand, district Kech.

On 10 December, the security forces raided the house of Ameer Khan Mir Khan in Sibbi and whisked him away. He has been missing since then. The same day, personnel of the security forces took away Jalal Khan Mashkiani in the Shahrag area of district Harnai and no one has heard of him since then.

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Five days later on December 15, security forces abducted Zafar Abdul Wahid in the Malar area of Awaran, while Shah Ur Rehman, a medical student, was abducted and went missing in Quetta the same day.

On December 16, while the nation was remembering the mournful events of the Partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and the horrific attack on APS students, FC soldiers whisked away five persons namely Ayaz Neksal, Awaz Hussain, Nabil Hashim, Safar Jumma, and Latif Saleh, from Hoshab area of district Kech.

On December 17, FC personnel also abducted Rashid Mohammad Yousuf in the Kardgap area of Mastung. His brother, Zakir had been abducted earlier and was missing since August 31.
On December 19, FC personnel abducted and disappeared Mohammad Jan Taj Mohammad, Maqbool Rafiq, and Ganj Bakhsh Asa in Segek village of Kolwah, district Kech.

On 20 December, the security forces abducted and disappeared eight persons from different parts of Balochistan, namely Rahm Ali and Ramzan Darshan Bugti in Dera Bugti, Omar Nabi Bakhsh and Tanvir Nazir in Tump village of district Kech, Mohammad Ayoub Sarparrah in Kardgap, Mastung, and three persons from Washbod area of Panjgur.

On 21 December, the FC picked up Waju Abdul Wahid during a raid on his house in Gawak village of Mand, district Kech, and Ghulam Rasool Hassan, 60, in the Kudasak area of Khuzdar.

On 23 December, the FC raided Srenken village in Kech and disappeared four persons, Basham Ghulam Muhammad, Sari Ibrahim, Shiraz Ismail, and Hakim Ghulam Muhammad.

On 24 December, FC personnel abducted Ikhlaq Pir Bakhsh, an orphan and a student from Dashti Bazar, Turbat, for the second time. He is a student at Bolan Grammar School in Turbat city and was previously disappeared for 17 days and then reappeared in August last year.

On 26 December, the FC raided a house in Srenken area Turbat and disappeared Latif Muhammad, while Tariq Baloch of Rodkan Kolwah, district Kech, was called and commanded to appear in FC camp at his village. He went to the camp and never returned. On the same day, FC soldiers abducted and disappeared Naseer Ibrahim during a raid in Zahidabad village of Mashkay, district Awaran.

On 27 December, FC soldiers abducted and disappeared Arif Safar, an IDP from Balgetar Cheri Gaddagi, in Absar, Turbat, and two brothers, Arif Rahim and Musaddiq Rahim in Srenken, Turbat. Moreover, FC soldiers abducted and disappeared Taj Muhammad Gamshad in Shapuk, Kech Rustam Khan Domki in Lehri area of district Sibi.

On 28 December, the FC raided a house in Tijaban village in Kech and forcibly disappeared Iqbal Miran an2d Dosta Haji Badal.

On 29 December 29, the FC raided a house in Hirronk village of Kech and disappeared Daulat Hassan.

On 30 December, the FC raided a house in Gramkan village of Panjgur and disappeared Shakir Abdul Samad.
Killed

On December 18, Umed Shah, a torture victim, succumbed to injuries in a hospital in Karachi. He had been abducted and had been missing for two years only to reappear in a critical condition. His family took him to Karachi for treatment but he could not recover.

On December 7, the bodies of three persons, two dead and one half-dead, were found in the Pakistan-Iran border town of Sarbaz of the Irani Sistan-o-Balochistan province. The injured, Khan Muhamed Jumma Khan Shahwani, later revealed that they were shot by personnel of the Frontier Corps. All three were among the disappeared persons. One of the dead, Asad Nasir, had been forcibly disappeared from his house on July 1, 2019, and had remained missing since then. Asad’s younger brother, Yasir Nasir, was also abducted in October 2010 and his body was found in March 2011.

The second slain person, Ghulam Qadir Abdullah, was a resident of Kili Qambrani, district Kalat, and was in the military’s custody. Khan Mohammad Shahwani, who luckily and unexpectedly survived the bullet, had been abducted and disappeared by the FC in the Zehri area of Khuzdar on 17 June 2019 and had been missing since then.

HRCB also adds that on 26 December, an army officer broke into a house in Buleda, district Kech, and killed a youth, Siraj Saleh Mohammad. The killer then claimed, in a post on his social media account, that the slain person had committed blasphemy and spoke against Pakistan, which was why he killed him.

A total of 11 people were shot and killed in different parts of Balochistan by unknown gunmen during December alone, while seven dead bodies were found dumped in desolate places, and five persons were killed by the United Baloch Army, an armed nationalist group.

Four persons were killed in two bomb blasts in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, two persons were killed by landmines in Kohlu, and two persons, a man, and a woman were killed for ‘honor’.
Nothing new

If statistics are seen, every month roughly the same number of people go missing across Balochistan for long periods of time. In November, HRCB claims to have received a total of 68 cases of enforced disappearance, including students, women and children, and 23 cases of killings in different areas of Balochistan, while large-scale protests erupted in Quetta and the port city of Gwadar against the involuntary disappearances and for the basic rights of the people.

Likewise in October 2021, around 27 persons joined the list of missing persons, while 39 were killed. Civilians have been holding protests, in Balochistan and even in the capital city, pleading with the authorities to let them know of their missing family members. One such long-term case is that of Zakir Majeed, who has been missing for 12 years.

Majeed, a student leader was abducted by personnel of intelligence agencies on 8 June 2009, from the Mastung area. He was accompanied by two friends, Waheed and Basit, who were released later. However, the authorities have revealed nothing of the charges and whereabouts of Zakir Majeed, even after 12 years have passed. They have also refused to reveal anything about his health and whether he is dead or alive.

Balochistan residents have also protested against the FC’s violence especially when last year, a young boy was killed by the FC’s firing in Kech. The Prime Minister has announced that the government will try to see that missing persons can find their way back home, but among the Baloch, there is more disappointment than hope for the future.

Human Rights Council of Balochistan (Hakkpaan) is a non-profit and non-partisan human rights group that collects reports from Balochistan. HRCB collects the data from Balochistan itself, through its network of volunteers and supporters, organizes and reports them to the human rights mechanisms of the world.

Source- voicepk.net

By voicepk.net

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