By Malik Siraj Akbar
QUETTA: Balochistan continues to remain the hub of illegal detentions and mysterious disappearances of political activists and family members of political leaders.
According to unofficial estimates, around 3,000 political activists, relatives of political leaders and ordinary citizens of Balochistan are being detained by intelligence agencies. Relatives of those detained usually have no information on the whereabouts of their loved ones. The government has also not registered any cases against the detained suspects.
Government sources clames that scores of suspeted militants, mainly Baloch supporters of the Balochistan Liberation Army, are in government custody due to their alleged involvement in militant activity in the province.
Some of these suspects have been missing for years.
“My uncle, Ali Asghar Bungulzai, 38, went missing on October 18, 2001,” Nasruallah Baloch, the nephew of the missing tailor, told Daily Times. “Soon after his abduction, intelligence officials came to our house and admitted that Ali was in their custody,” he said, adding that the family was told that Ali was being interrogated regarding some ‘sensitive issues’ and would soon be released.
“But now the same agency denies abducting Ali. They say he is no longer in their custody. We don’t know where he is,” he added.
Hafeez Baloch’s brother Hafiz Saeed Bungulzai went missing on July 4, 2003. Baloch said that an intelligence agency submitted before the Balochistan High Court (BHC) that his brother was being interrogated but they still did not know where he is. “They did not even allow my mother to meet Saeed despite BHC directives,” Baloch said.
“We were told that Saeed was in the custody of government agencies but he has not been sentenced by a court of law,” he said. Human rights activists have expressed agreement with an Amnesty International report saying “the clandestine nature of the detentions means it is impossible to know how many are still being held in secret locations”.
Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani, president of the Balochistan chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), said, “The government does have the right to round up suspects, but is required to do so through the proper channels. Cases should be registered and suspects produced in a court of law. None of these procedures are being followed”.
The extra-judicial arrests also include journalists and relatives of political leaders. “Such tactics are applied by the government to emotionally blackmail politicians and divert attention from their political struggle,” Kachkol Baloch, leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, told Daily Times.
Munir Mengal, the managing director of an under production Balochi television channel, Baloch Voice, has also been reported missing. Zakia Karim, Mengal’s sister, said that no human rights or journalists’ group has protested her brother’s ‘abduction by the intelligence agencies’, which took place on April 4 at the Karachi airport.
“He was returning from Bahrain when he was whisked away by agency officials at the Karachi Airport. We don’t have the slightest idea where he is right now,” Zakia said.
Samiullah Baloch, 24, the younger brother of Baloch Senator Sanaullah Baloch, of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), went missing on July 16. His whereabouts are still unknown.
Bilal Bugti, the younger brother of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Secretary General Agha Shahid Bugti, and Murtaza Bugti, the son of Balochistan’s first finance minister, Ahmed Nawaz Bugti, were also reported missing in July.
Baloch nationalists claim that around 4,000 Baloch youths are presently in the custody of intelligence agencies.
Government sources said these figures were exaggerated. “The government has a number of people in custody for interrogation purposes given but they don’t include innocent people. Anyone who is proved innocent will be allowed to go home,” a government official told Daily Times.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk
