Editorial:Missing persons, a serious issue

Federal Government had announced that missing persons from Balochistan would start reaching their homes from Eid-ul-Azha.

This announcement was made few days earlier before Eid-ul-Azha.

A large number of people are missing from Balochistan since 2001 and the relatives of missing persons were the people who were very much happy over this announcement.

Government officials had announced reaching of over 20 missing persons at their homes on the First day of Eid. This was really a matter of courage for the relatives of all missing persons and they were optimistic that all missing persons will reach their home but after few days the hopes for release of missing persons started fading.

Voice for Missing Baloch Persons (VMBP) the torch bearer of struggle for recovery of Baloch missing persons has strongly criticized the government and said that no progress has been made regarding recovery of missing people.

After fading of hope VMBP has launched a movement to press the government and draw the attention of humanitarian organizations for early recovery of missing persons.

Baloch nationalist parties and VMBP claims that number of missing Baloch persons from Balochistan is in thousands but government don’t agree with this claim and they say this number is in hundreds.

Balochistan Government had established a special cell in the home department for gathering of information about missing persons.

No doubt the issue of missing persons is one of the biggest issues of Balochistan and this issue has created a lot of anger amongst people.

Chairman of VMBP Nasrullah Baloch has termed the issue of missing persons from Balochistan the biggest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century and he has appealed the humanitarian organizations for taking this issue very much serious.

This is a matter of satisfaction that government has made this issue part of Aghaz-e-Haqooq Balochistan and the people who are at the helm of affairs are saying that they are making efforts for recovery of missing persons.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue we request the government that practical steps should be taken for recovery of missing persons from Balochistan.

If there is any case against missing persons they should be produced before the court of law and they should be provided an opportunity so that they could prove their innocence and if there is no case against them they should be released.