Two Baloch students abducted by Pakistan Army, both untraceable

In yet another case of human rights abuse, the Pakistan Army has been accused of abducting two university students from Balochistan. As per the local Baloochi media, two students were abducted from Kech district of Balochistan.

Another local media reports said that one of the students, identified as Jahanzeb, is a student of the Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences (LUAWMS) while the other, Nasir Pollan, is a student of Bahauddin Zakaria University in Multan is missing. As per the local media, both students were abducted on May 10 (Sunday) and since then they are untraceable.

Thousands of students and professionals have gone missing and made subject to enforced disappearance by Pakistan Army in response to the Baloch people's legitimate demand to exercise their right to self-determination.

A Pakistan based journalist of Baloch origin, Sajid Hussain, living in Sweden in exile was found dead in Uppsala about 60 kilometres from Stockholm in Sweden recently. His body was found on April 23 in the Fyris river outside Uppsala city. A Balochi by origin, Hussain was working as a part-time professor in Uppsala when he went missing since the first week of March.

His sudden disappearance has raised many questions as many believed that at a time when the world needs attention to deal with the coronavirus COVID-19, the Pakistani Army and Pakistan's Intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is busy in silencing critics of Pakistan.

Hussain fled to Sweden in 2012 when Pakistan agencies started to search his residence and questioned his family members after his report highlighting human right abuses in the Balochistan by Pakistan Army. Hussain first moved to Gulf countries then after some time he finally settled in Sweden.

‘‘When a new wave of the “kill and dump policy” came about, and the issue of enforced disappearances once again engulfed Pakistan’s restive province of Balochistan, Hussain had to flee the country in 2012. For many years after that, he lived like a nomad, a refugee, spending some time in one country and then moving to another. It was not an easy decision, leaving behind his friends and family back home – his wife, 9-year-old daughter, and 5-year-old son, whom he loved dearly," says Shah Meer Balooch in an article written in The Diplomat.

Sajid Hussain is not alone. There has been a spate of attacks of Pakistani journalists and activists known for criticizing Pakistan. A Pakistani blogger Ahmad Waqas was assaulted by two men outside his home in Rotterdam in Europe in February.

Criticism of the Pakistan Army and ISI is not allowed in Pakistan and unprecedented crackdown at press has forced many to seek refugee abroad.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) latest report observed that Pakistan’s human rights record in 2019 is ‘greatly worrisome and ongoing global pandemic was likely to cast a long shadow on prospects for human rights. HRCP in his report also noted of police extortion, refusal to register first information reports (FIR), and custodial torture emerged in all provinces.

A report of USA Freedom Network on Press freedom reveals that since 2000 a total of 133 Pakistani journalists have been killed. The legal proceedings in all the 33 incidents of journalists’ killings that took place from 2013 to 2019 have been documented and the finding is 100 per cent impunity for the killers, zero per cent justice for the 33 murdered journalists.

A Pakistani-British journalist Gul Bukhari known for a critic of Pakistani Army was abducted in June 2018 from Lahore and held for several hours by Pakistani Army. Later they denied their involvement in the abduction of Bukhari. She was asked to appear before authorities for questioning. She left Pakistan and now has settled in the United Kingdom.

Pakistan has become one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. In the past few years, dozens of prominent journalists have been forced to left their organization or they are not allowed to write articles against the Pakistani Army.

In a bid to create greater international awareness about near-extermination of the people of Balochistan, a campaign was launched by activists under the banner of the Baloch Human Rights Council in Geneva. A pavilion was set up outside the UN Office in Geneva, adjacent to iconic broken chair named “Save the Baloch”. 

The council activists demanded that the UN must launch an immediate and thorough investigation into the Pakistani government’s actions in Balochistan, and must hold Pakistan accountable for its egregious human rights abuses against the people of Balochistan. 

Currently, the Baloch faces an unending saga of humiliation, destruction, and grief. Mass graves have been discovered across Balochistan; death squads kidnap social and political activists and human rights defenders, who are then murdered and thrown into these mass graves. Military oppression is the key tactic Pakistan has employed in order to sustain its unjust rule over the Baloch. 

The people of Balochistan were never asked whether they wanted to be part of Pakistan. Also, they never gave their consent to have their territory annexed into the fundamentalist hotbed that is Pakistan. The Pakistani government has denied their right to self-determination. 

Pakistan pushes the narrative that the people of Balochistan are happy-that they want to be part of Pakistan. This narrative is baseless and demeaning to the actual lived experiences of the Baloch

Defending the rights of the people of Balochistan is not an option-it is an obligation. In the words of one of the protestors, “Freedom for Balochistan has been long-delayed, but it cannot and will not be denied.” 

Because of these transgressions and the lack of UN counteraction, the UN has failed its own mandate to protect and fight for human rights across the globe. Silence from the UN on this matter is essentially an endorsement of this cultural extermination of genocidal proportions.