Family members of the missing persons protest before QPC

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA, Dec 2: Several families of missing persons protested in front of the Quetta Press Club on Wednesday over unfulfilled promise of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani that the disappeared people would return to their homes to celebrate Eid.

The protest rally was arranged by an organization called Voice for the Missing Baloch Persons which comprises of the family members of the disappeared people from different parts of Balochistan. Nationalists in Balochistan claim that around four thousand people were whisked away by the state intelligence agencies during the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf and the process purportedly continues to date. Last week, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, while unveiling the Balochistan package, had promised that the missing persons would join their families to mark Eid festivities.

Carrying large size photographs of the missing persons and placards with demands made to the government for the release of the disappeared people, friends, family members and relatives of the missing persons chanted slogans against the government and the superior judiciary for not taking tangible measures for the recovery of their family members.

Addressing a press conference, Nasrullah Baloch, the chairman of the Voice for the Missing Baloch Persons, said the prime minister had not fulfilled his promise with the majority of the missing persons’ families. Host of families clung with the hope throughout the three days of Eid that the missing persons would return home but none of them came back four days after the religious festival. He rejected the government claim that around twenty missing persons have already been released.

“It is incorrect to say that 15 Bugti tribesmen who returned home were in fact “missing”. These people had in fact never gone missing. They were held in a jail in Sui. Likewise, four people belonging to a Baloch tribe were released due to the personal efforts of one tribal elder not on the instructions of the prime minister. Another resident of Noshkai, Mir Ahmed, had also resurfaced around a month ago. Not a single original missing person has resurfaced in Balochistan,” he charged.

The chairman of the Voice for Missing Baloch Persons announced a long march against the government for December 10 which would start at Balochistan University on Sariab Road and end in front of Quetta Press Club.

“Violation of human rights by the intelligence agencies is taking place in Balochistan despite the presence of a democratic government and a self-proclaimed independent judiciary,” he charged, adding that the families of the missing persons would also launch a long march to Islamabad for the release of their relatives.

Mr. Baloch said his organization had compiled complete data of around one hundred missing persons of Balochistan and was in touch with more families. Prominent among the missing persons, he said, were Ali Asghar Baloch, Jalil Reki, Dr. Din Mohammad Baloch, Abdul Hayee Bangulzai, Zakir Majeed, Chakar Marri, Mushtaq Baloch, Saeed Ahmed Mohammad Hasani, Nazir Marri, Majeeb Baloch, Master Yahya, Najeeb Qambarani, Haide Marri, Iqbal Baloch, Faiz Baloch, Hafiz Saeed-ur-Rehman, Ghulam Mustafa Shahwani, Ghulam Mustafa Sasoli, Attaullah Baloch, Kabir Baloch, Saadullah Baloch, Sami Baloch, Mama Naseer Jattak, Hassan Marri, Shabir Sumalani, Saifullah Ababaki, Niaz Mohammad, Abdul Karim Baloch, Faizullah Marri, Jalath Khan Marri, Jumma Khan Marri, Liquat Bugti, Ganju Bugti, Shah Mohammad Zarkon and many others who had still not retuned home.