The protest camp of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) will remain active on Eid, with rallies and demonstrations planned to demand the recovery of enforced disappeared persons.
VBMP Vice Chairman Mama Qadeer Baloch, in a statement to the media on Sunday, condemned the ongoing wave of enforced disappearances, stating that the practice continues unabated, with individuals being forcibly disappeared on a daily basis. He highlighted the case of Doda Smalani, cousin of Horan Baloch, who was extrajudicially arrested from his home and forcibly disappeared in a recent incident.
Marking 5,775 days since the establishment of the VBMP protest camp, a delegation of students from Mastung, along with Bilal Baloch, Ghulam Rasool Baloch, Noor Muhammad Baloch, and others, visited the camp to express solidarity with the families of the missing persons. The delegation voiced grave concern over the rising cases of enforced disappearances and the recent mass arrests of human rights activists, urging an immediate end to these violations.
Mama Qadeer Baloch emphasized that Baloch Youth Council (BYC) leaders, including Mahrang Baloch, Sammi Deen Baloch, Bebu, Bebagar, and Sibghatullah Shah Ji, along with dozens of activists, are currently imprisoned and being denied their basic rights as detainees. They are not allowed to meet their families nor provided adequate medical care.
He particularly condemned the enforced disappearance of BYC leader Sibghatullah Shah Ji, describing it as one of the worst instances of the ongoing crackdown on human rights activists. He revealed that Shah Ji was abducted along with three other family members—his younger brother Dr. Sanaullah, close relative Dr. Aftab, and Shams Baloch. Since their arrest, no information has been provided about their whereabouts.
Mama Qadeer Baloch warned that state institutions and authorities are further escalating the crisis. He recalled how peaceful political activists have historically been targeted, with enforced disappearances institutionalized as a long-term and agonizing punishment in Balochistan, where detainees are held in secret torture cells for years or even decades. He dismissed the notion that such tactics would silence the people or instill fear, declaring that the struggle for the recovery of the disappeared and the fight for justice will never be abandoned.
He urged the international community to break its silence, stressing that Pakistan has a long history of forcibly disappearing or assassinating prominent figures from oppressed nations. “We can no longer bear to carry the burden of more dead bodies,” he asserted.
