Speak to relatives of Baloch missing persons: Maryam Nawaz asks Pak PM
Feb 18, 2021
Islamabad [Pakistan], February 18 : Amid the growing atrocities against the minority communities of Pakistan, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz has asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to speak to the relatives of the Baloch missing persons who are protesting in Islamabad against the various human rights violations, including the issue of enforced disappearances.
"You are placed in the corridors of power," Maryam said on Wednesday in a message to the Pakistan Minister as she visited the protest site in the D-Chowk area, Geo News reported. "It is your duty to listen to these people," Maryam added.
This comes as protests are being held in Islamabad against forced abduction, torture, and harassment by the Pakistani agencies. The protest is being held in a bid to highlight the plight of minority communities in the illegally occupied regions of Pakistan.
There is a long history of enforced disappearances in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan. While thousands of Balochs have been abducted and disappeared since its illegal occupation, hundreds of others have been eliminated in the line of Pakistan's "kill and dump" policy. Thousands still remain unaccounted for.
Enforced Disappearance has been used as a tool by the Pakistani state to silence the oppressed people of Balochistan since the very first day of its occupation. While countless Abductees have been killed, many of them are still facing inhuman torture in army secrets cells.
Enforced disappearances have been a long stain on Pakistan's human rights record. Despite the pledges of successive governments to criminalize the practice, there has been a very slow movement on legislation which is equal to nothing, while people continue to be forcibly disappeared with impunity.