Enforced disappearance policy is becoming a stimulus to declare Pakistan as terrorist state: Baloch leader
Jun 21, 2020
Quetta [Balochistan], June 21 : Chairman of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Khalil Baloch highlighted the case of Zakir Majeed, a student leader, who is in Pakistani torture cell since last 11 years, and said the policy of enforced disappearance is becoming a stimulus to declare Pakistan a terrorist state at the international level.
"Zakir Majeed has completed 11 years in Pakistani torture cells. Instead of discouraging the Baloch youth through abductions and torture to end politics, this policy is becoming a stimulus to declare Pakistan a terrorist state at the international level," Baloch tweeted.
Zakir Majeed Baloch was enforcedly disappeared on 8th June 2009 along with two of his friends Waheed Baluch and Basit Baluch. Later Waheed and Basit were released while Zakir Majeed was kept in extrajudicial custody and till this day no one has any trace of him.
Pakistan's establishment has long been criticised over its practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by International bodies and local human rights organisations that dare to speak out on the issue.
According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakistani government, about 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered since 2014. Most of them are still unresolved.
Independent local and international human rights organisations put the numbers much higher. Around 20,000 have reportedly been abducted only from Balochistan, out of which more than 2,500 have turned up dead as bullet-riddled dead bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture.
Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple interviews about the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those involved responsible.
