Quetta: Highlighting severity of human rights violations in Balochistan, Pakistan Army has killed 9 innocent Baloch people in fake encounters and unsuccessfully tried to portray them as militants.
The cold-blooded murders by the Pakistani military were carried out after a senior official of the Military Intelligence Lt Colonel was captured and ‘sentenced to death’ by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) last week.
The Pakistan Army tried to portray the killed innocent people as those behind the abduction of Lt Colonel Laeeq Mirza Baig.
However, the military establishment was exposed as it has been confirmed from various sources that the slain people were already in the custody of the Pakistani forces when Lt Colonel Laeeq was captured on July 12.
So, questions are being raised as to how the people in military’s custody could carry out an operation to capture Colonel Laeeq while he was on travel in Ziarat in Balochistan.
The victims have been identified, including by their families, as those who had been abducted by the Pakistani military over the last few years.
Colonel Laeeq was abducted when he was travelling in Ziarat and he was subsequently executed after being “awarded death sentence” by ‘Baloch National Court’ for being directly involved in Baloch genocide and human rights violations.
A few days later, the Pakistan Army said it had killed 9 people involved in the incident.
However, the BLA had rubbished the claim, saying the Pakistan Army was deceiving the people, as usual.
BLA spokesman Jeeyand Baloch had said the outfit, unlike the Pakistan Army which hides its casualties, “announces all martyrdoms of its members with great glory and honour.”
“Pakistani military’s claims of killing freedom fighters of Baloch Liberation Army during its so-called search operation around Ziarat and Harnai areas are merely propaganda tactics to hide its catastrophic failures in Balochistan,” Baloch said in a statement a few days back.
Also read: After capturing Pakistani Lt Col, BLA warns of more such operations
HR Council of Balochistan, in a series of tweets, said that “5 bodies out of 9 have been identified & all 5 persons are registered enforced disappeared persons who had remained in the custody of forces for months & years.”
Giving details along with pictures to expose the inhuman act of the Pakistani military, it said one of those killed and portrayed as a ‘militant’ was identified as Shams Satakzai “who was forcibly disappeared by (Pakistani) forces 5 yrs ago & has remained in custody.”
“The second body was identified as Salim Karim, a student and resident of Panjgur. He was whisked away (by the Pakistani military) in April 2022 when he was on his way to Quetta,” the HR Council said.
The third body was identified as Dr Mukhtar, a physiotherapist by profession who was forcibly disappeared on June 11, 2022 from Quetta, it said in another tweet.
The fourth body was identified as Engineer Zaheer Bangulzai who was forcibly disappeared from his office at Airport Road Quetta on October 7, 2021, the HR Council said.
“The fifth body was identified as Shehzad Khuda Bakhsh. Shehzad was abducted by forces on June 4, 2022 and had remained disappeared since then,” the next tweet said.
“Extrajudicial execution of Eds persons (‘people subjected to Enforced Disappearances’) in staged encounter is not a new phenomenon. State has been practicing it since the adoption of EDs, kill and dump policy,” the HR Council added.
Last year, the Pakistani military killed 47 people, out of which 21 who were identified were missing persons, it said.
