Mahrang Baloch, the activist leading the ongoing sit-in in Islamabad against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, has stated that the whereabouts of over 100 protestors picked up by the authorities are still unknown. This contradicts the Islamabad police’s claim that all protestors have been released.
Mahrang says she fears for the lives of those who are currently in custody, because the police’s treatment of the protestors has been violent and cruel.
The individuals arrested during the march include family members of missing persons and Zaheer Baloch, a PhD candidate at Quaid-e-Azam University. In a video circulating on social media, Zaheer Baloch can be seen politely requesting the police to allow the march participants to continue their protest. Shortly after, he was arrested.
“Zaheer Baloch and more than 100 participants of our long march are missing. We have not been informed of their location,” Mahrang Baloch told Dissent Today.
On Thursday, Islamabad police faced heavy criticism for their unprovoked use of force against Baloch activists and family members of missing persons who had traveled from Balochistan to Islamabad for the long march against extrajudicial killings and for the recovery of missing persons. To forcefully disperse the sit-in, the police arrested organizers and participants on the night of their arrival in the capital. After their subsequent release on court orders, videos of women and children being forced onto buses arranged by the Islamabad police to be returned to Balochistan against their will went viral on social media, sparking public outrage. Witnessing the mistreatment, the bus drivers refused to transport the protesters back to Quetta and offered their support instead.
Mahrang Baloch told Dissent Today that female and child protesters were physically assaulted by police officers who hurled profanities and labeled them as “terrorists.”
“After witnessing the police assaulting our people to make them leave Islamabad, I asked the women if they wanted to end the protest. However, everyone stated that they would not be pressured into returning to Balochistan and would continue the protest because that is why they had journeyed to Islamabad,” she said.
The organizers have issued a three-day ultimatum to the government to meet their demands, which include the release of all detained protestors from four days ago, as well as locating all missing persons. “It is ironic that those who were demanding the release of missing persons have themselves now gone missing,” Mahrang added.
The protest ultimatum will expire today (Monday), after which the protestors will announce their future plans. “We have and will continue to be peaceful, but the government’s policy of indifference persists,” laments Mahrang.
Caretaker federal ministers Fawad Hasan Fawad and Murtaza Solangi visited the sit-in and assured the organizers of their cooperation. However, according to Mahrang, no progress has been made on the demands and no government representatives have contacted them since the ministers’ visit.
In addition to the recovery of missing persons, the protestors are demanding that the government acknowledge the “fake encounters” conducted by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD). “We possess all the necessary evidence to prove the number of missing persons and those who were killed in these staged encounters,” stated Mahrang.
Who is Mahrang Baloch?
Dr. Mahrang Baloch, 31, is the daughter of Abdul Ghaffar Langov, whose mutilated body was discovered in the coastal town of Gadanni in 2011. He had gone missing in 2006, and Mahrang has been actively protesting against enforced disappearances ever since.
According to Mahrang, when her father was finally presented before a judge seven months after his initial disappearance, he had been severely tortured and his teeth were broken. Langov was released in 2009, only to be kidnapped once again seven months later from a hospital where he was caring for his sick wife. Two years after that, he was found dead in Gaddani.
“My father was extrajudicially killed. No court in Pakistan had declared him a terrorist or criminal. He died as a missing person,” she asserted.
In 2017, Mahrang’s 21-year-old brother was abducted. Although he was released after three months, the hostility she encountered from authorities throughout her search for him strengthened her determination to begin a movement against enforced disappearances.
The writer is a Pakistani journalist based in New York. She covers politics, human rights, and religious extremism. She tweets at @AiliaZehra.
