The Central Spokesperson of Baloch Students Organization Azad (BSO-A) said on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances that the issue of missing persons in Balochistan is being more and more serious; and the incidents of enforced disappearances are continuously being reported; among the victims political activists, students, human rights activists, lawyers and the journalists are included.
While talking about the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the spokesperson said, the enforced disappearance is a crime in accordance to the International Law. Against this crime, the General Assembly of United Nations had approved a law on 20th December 2006, and this law gives the relatives of the victims the right to know the reality about the disappearance of their beloved ones, and the right to search and trace them”.
An arrest, custody or abduction, or, to deprive a person of freedom which is snatched directly by the agencies or the army of the state, and when no one has any information about that person, and if the victim is out of the jurisdiction of law, then such an act is called as enforced disappearance.
“Whether there are circumstances of war or fear of occurrence of war, internal political instability or an enforcement of emergency; none of these circumstances can justify the use of enforced disappearances,” according to the convention.
“In according to this convention, the state of Pakistan and its agencies, since the beginning, in Balochistan, has illegally disappeared and tortured the political activists, students, teachers, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals and the human rights activists including the people from all schools of thought; while several of them have been killed in the state detention centers and their dead bodies have been trashed”, Spokesperson said.
“The state is trying to enforce complete ban over the political consciousness and awareness in Baloch society. Those people who have political consciousness and knowledge are considered the backbone of Baloch nation; and the state has used every possible mean to weaken it”, he added.
In the end, the spokesperson said that the worst situation of human rights in Balochistan has to be worrisome for the world; because the effects of this crisis can cause danger for the future of this region and the nations of the world.
Enforced disappearances that started in the early 2000s have never slowed down in Balochistan, in fact, dramatic surge has been observed in the number of people going missing with each coming year.
International campaign groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accuse Pakistani security forces as the culprits of these illegal abductions.
