New Delhi (NVI): Since three days, families of Baloch missing persons have taken their protest camp to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad in order to attract attention towards their plight.
The family members, including young children, are sitting in the protest camp set up in front of Islamabad press club.
They demand recovery of their loved ones, some of whom have gone missing for almost a decade.
The victim families have alleged that the government’s commission formed to trace enforced disappearances is only wasting everyone’s time, according to the Balochistan Post.
A large number of Baloch students and other activists from Islamabad took part in the camp to express solidarity as soon as the news of protest camp was made public.
In a video statement on Twitter, missing Deen Mohammad Baloch’s daughter, Sammi Baloch, said the protest was against the behaviour of government’s commission formed to trace missing persons.
She said that if the government is not capable of tracing the missing persons then why the ministers make tall claims before the international community that they have created commissions for this purpose. She requested the people to attend the protest camp and raise voice for the oppressed people of Balochistan.
Din Muhammad disappeared 12 years back on suspicion of supporting separatism.
لاپتہ افراد کے لواحقین کے ساتھ لاپتہ افراد کی بازیابی کے لئے بنائی گئی کمیشن کے رویے کے خلاف اور وزیر اعظم عمران خان کا بیان “ گورنمنٹ اس ملک میں کوئی لاپتہ افراد نہیں چاہتا ہے” پر لاپتہ افراد کے لواحقین نے اسلام آباد پریس کلب کے سامنے احتجاجی کیمپ لگایا ہے۔ pic.twitter.com/1WMPnJUQc0
— Sammi Deen Baloch (@SammiBaluch) February 11, 2021
Meanwhile, mother of missing student leader Zakir Majeed has also joined the camp. She has been searching for her son for 11 years, 8 months and 5 days after he was taken away, as per witnesses, by personnel of secretive agencies on 8th June 2009.
‘Enforced disappearances’ are a major human rights issue in Balochistan. Various independent sources have placed the figure of the missing persons in Balochistan in thousands, according to media reports.
Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), a rights group advocating for the safe recovery of Baloch missing persons, has been campaigning against enforced disappearances for more than a decade.
In 2008, the VBMP activists made history by carrying out a 3000 km long march from Quetta to Islamabad.
-CHK
