Minorities seek answers from Pakistan as many continue to disappear

By Reena Bhardwaj
Washington [US], August 15 : Just four days ago Sarang Joyo went missing from his home in Karachi. Joyo, a research associate by profession, was actively campaigning for the release of the many missing persons of Sindh.
Struggling for Joyo's release, his cousin and friend along with a dozen of Pakistani minorities stood outside Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Asad Majeed Khan's residence demanding to share information about people responsible who took away Joyo and other missing men.
A US-based Sindhi organisation along with Balochis, Gilgiti's and Pashtuns held a protest named 'Stop enforced disappearances in Pakistan'. On Pakistan's Independence Day, the protestors raised flags, held placards with pictures of the missing men and chanted anti-Pakistan slogans, asking 'Where are the missing men?'
Raja Joyo, Sarangs cousin suspects, like many other missing ethnic minorities, his loved one too was snatched by Pakistani security forces hunting separatists, who for decades have waged a campaign for greater autonomy or independence. "Where is our democracy in Pakistan, why the judiciary is unable to say against anything about ISI, about the military agencies, why?' Joyo told ANI.
During the protest outside Pakistani ambassador's house, Munawar Laghari, Executive Director of Sindhi Foundation told ANI, "Enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity and we are continuing our struggle, until the world, especially the United States and the United Nation, they declare Pakistan as a terrorist state."
While interacting with ANI, Laghari narrated how his community members were brutally thrashed before their respective members were forcibly being taken away by the ISI. "In the past seven weeks, 92 people have disappeared in Pakistan. And what nobody knows is where they are!" said the Sindhi leader.
Protestors say China's stakes are rising in Pakistan. Together the two nations are building a false narrative against India. And one such classic sample is raking up Kashmir issue at the United Nations. Not just that, Pakistan has repeatedly blamed India for fanning militancy in Pakistan, a charge New Delhi has consistently denied.
A political activist from Gilgit Baltistan has condemned Chinese saying Beijing must be stopped by the international community."China is taking the lead in formulating Pakistan's foreign policy, as well as economic policies. This is a huge alarm for the rest of the world," Senge H Sering, the director of Institute of Gilgit Baltistan told ANI.
Frequent protests are being held in different cities and towns of Sindh province to highlight the atrocities committed by the security agencies in the knowledge of the federal government.