In Balochistan, every household has faced enforced disappearances, and countless Balochs have been mutilated, says Abdul Wahab Baloch

Karachi: “I am urging you to give us our father’s body if you [the state] killed him,” says Mehlab Deen Baloch, breaking down in tears. “For fifteen years, my family has been knocking on every door of state, but our efforts have been disregarded.”

Mehlab is the youngest daughter of Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch, and she was a little girl when she first held a placard to protest for her father’s release.

On June 28, 2024, Sammi Deen Baloch, a Human Rights activist, held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on the day of her father Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch’s abduction. Dr. Deen Mohammad was abducted on June 28, 2009, from Khuzdar, Balochistan, while performing his duties at the hospital. Since then, Sammi Baloch, along with her sister and mother, has been protesting for his release. Sammi said that she and her sister’s childhood disappeared due to the ongoing protests and demands for their father’s release.

Sammi, the second youngest daughter of Dr. Deen Mohammad, was very young when she first faced the media to tell her story of how her father’s abduction. Although her struggle did not amount to much in Pakistan, it was recently recognized with the Asia Pacific Human Rights Award, 2024.

Instead, the state should have released her father. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed the case, stating that their father was abroad or in the mountains. She angrily asked how such an institute of justice could fail to provide proof to support its statement. Not only this humiliation, but also commissions for enforced disappearances have continued to harass, insult, and mock their sorrows and struggle for her father’s release.  

Sammi and her sister Mehlab led a press conference, along with Abdul Wahab Baloch, a Deputy Organizer for Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), and Asad Iqbal Butt and Qazi Khizer from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

The mood of the conference grew somber as Mehlab began to speak. Her eyes filled with tears, she recounted how her family would zoom in on any circulated pictures of mutilated bodies from Balochistan, hoping to identify if it was her father. “We are exhausted from pleading for his release. At the very least, give us his dead body so we can bury him in the graveyard,” she said.

“Whether our mother is a widow or not and whether we have a father or are orphans you must at least answer our question,” Sammi said.

Asad Iqbal Butt, Chairperson for the HRCP stated that commissions in Pakistan for enforced disappearances do not have the power to summon any person for inquiries about missing person cases. The actual authority lies with the courts, which can hold those who abduct citizens accountable. Regrettably, when people are released, no inquiry is made to uncover what happened to them.

“Every household in Balochistan has gone through enforced disappearances and countless Balochs have been mutilated,” says Wahab Baloch, Deputy Organizer for BYC. “The Dump and Kill policy has been perpetrated against Balochs since Dr. Deen Mohammad was picked up.” He added that this year’s BYC long March uncovered numerous previously unreported cases of enforced disappearances in remote areas of the province.

Sammi added that the state had chosen to impose a collective punishment on Balochs. She said that the state had assumed by abducting their men, they could break Balochs, but instead, Baloch women were demanding to know the whereabouts of loved ones.

Qazi Khizer from the HRCP Sindh Chapter said that it is well-known who is behind the abductions of citizens; the perpetrators [referring to security agencies] are no longer unknown. Enforced disappearances have become a widespread issue across Pakistan. State agencies have developed a pattern of lying and refusing to acknowledge their role in these abductions. Despite this, people eventually reappear from their custody, which reveals the falseness of their denial.

The country’s commission has recognized that over a thousand cases of enforced remain unresolved. “Why, then, does the state continue to avoid accountability?” Qazi wondered.

Sammi was emotional as she recounted how she and her family had been harassed and pressured to prove their loyalty to the country. “I am done with your accusations,” she said. If you think, we are not loyal – if you believe we are rebels – then I am tired of proving my honesty. If asking for my father’s whereabouts is disloyalty, then yes, I am disloyal. If seeking the truth about my father’s whereabouts is rebellious, then yes, I am a rebel. I have taken this stance because it is you [the state] who have driven us to the streets to protest for our father.

“I will continue to use every platform available to speak out for my father and the families of other missing persons until my last breath,” she vowed.

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