Ayaz Ahmad Mahar went missing along with his driver on his way back from Karachi to his village, Chak, in Shikarpur district.

Naveed Ahmed Mahar, brother of Ayaz Ahmed Mahar, told BBC Urdu that his brother was on his way to native Chak in Shikarpur district from Karachi when unidentified men abducted him and his driver in the afternoon last week.

According to the police, no progress has been made so far in the case of alleged enforced disappearance of the PPP leader.

Ayaz Ahmed Mahar is the owner of the oil and gas extraction company ‘Unique Group’. Ayaz Mehr, 48, was nominated by the Pakistan People’s Party as a candidate for the general seat of the Senate in 2018.

He is also among the top taxpayers of the country.

Last week, a protest demonstration was also staged on Babarloi Bypass against the alleged enforced disappearance.

On April 1, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) social media activist had gone missing in Karachi after attending the party’s protest against enforced disappearances outside the Karachi Press Club.

Earlier, PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s focal person on social media, Azhar Mashwani, had returned home eight days after he reportedly went missing from Lahore.

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The international human rights watchdog released its annual report documenting the instances of human rights abuses in Pakistan, saying “grave human rights violations continued in Pakistan.

The report deplored the human rights abuses in Pakistan, including enforced disappearances, torture, crackdowns on peaceful protests, attacks against journalists, and violence against religious minorities and other marginalized groups, including an increase in violence against transgender people. The report also noted the disastrous impact of climate change in the country, including severe heatwaves and devastating floods.

Regarding enforced disappearances, the human rights body said that it documented the frequent use of enforced disappearances in Balochistan following the Karachi University bombing that killed four people. Amnesty International’s report stated several instances of enforced disappearances. Two Baloch women activists were abducted within a week of the attack. On 7 June, students Doda Ellahi and Gamshad Baloch were forcibly disappeared from their homes in Karachi. Following four days of peaceful protests they were released on 14 June, it said.

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She was produced before a court after much delay and the CTD asked for a 14-day remand. The court agreed.

Following fourteen days of remand during which she was allegedly tortured, the CTD sought another 10-day remand after presenting her before the court, which the court approved.

She was once again tortured during this period, and there was yet another request from CTD for a 10-day remand, which was also approved by the court.
Following this, CTD released a video of Mahal Baloch confessing to her crimes as a facilitator in an expected suicide attack in the provincial capital. Human rights activists protested this development, saying the video was made in law enforcement officials’ custody, while Mahal Baloch’s family claimed the video was forcibly obtained and accused the Baloch government and CTD authorities of orchestrating a media trial.

She was presented in court on March 24 and CTD asked for a 10-day remand again and the court agreed.

For more than 30 days, we have been observing a false charge of crime on a widow, who is a mother of two young daughters, Nugrah and Nazink who are under 10 years of age. It’s like a vicious cycle.

Every time she is presented before an anti-terrorism court, she is again remanded into CTD’s custody where she is being allegedly tortured to confess to a crime that she has not committed. Her family has reiterated that she is being tortured in custody.

A provincial organisation working to recover Baloch missing persons, Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), has accused the security agencies of abducting Baloch people and linking them to banned militant groups with little evidence.

There are also instances of CTD officials killing Baloch missing persons in fake encounters. Last year, Tabish and three other missing persons were killed in Kharan over the charges of being linked to Baloch insurgents. However, Tabish was ‘abducted’ in front of his family in Hub and his case, too, was registered with VBMP.

Therefore, this injustice is nothing new for the Baloch people as they have been treated differently from the rest of the country and dubious criminal charges by the CTD have become a norm in the most impoverished province of Pakistan. Along with that, the department has also become notorious among locals for arresting innocent Baloch people and making them confess under duress for crimes they have not committed.

Mahal Baloch’s prolonged remand into CTD’s custody only goes to prove that the Counter Terrorism Department has failed to establish a case against her. Her family, Turbat Civil Society, Voice For Baloch Missing Persons, and Baloch activists fear that she was forced into giving a false confession.

Despite calls from human rights defenders, including human rights watchdog Amnesty International South Asia, to end the arbitrary detention of Mahal Baloch, the state has turned a blind eye to the issue. One can only wonder to what extent the state would continue to silence the Baloch people, considering the extent of atrocities committed against them.

With many men missing, Baloch women have taken a center stage in the Baloch people’s fight against what can only be termed as state oppression which includes enforced disappearances and other human rights violations, making women a soft target for security agencies.

Ali Jan

The post ‘Tortured Into False Confession’: Baloch Woman Mahal Remains In CTD’s Custody For Over 30 Days  appeared first on Dissent Today.

Malaysian authorities deported the journalist at the request of the Pakistan High Commission in Kuala Lumpur in August last year. The Pakistani authorities initially denied that he was in the country. However, his whereabouts became known in February this year when he was moved to Adiala Jail after being subjected to enforced disappearance for over five months. He was shifted to a jail in Peshawar 10 days later.

The RSF further stated that Shah is being held on the charges of posting “false, frivolous, and fake information” online in violation of sections 20 and 24 of the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). The charges of defaming state officials were also allegedly brought against him. The RSF said there was no evidence to support the charges and urged the authorities to release the journalist immediately.

The journalist left the country after he was allegedly abducted by unidentified men in 2011.

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According to his family members, Qambarani was apprehended from his house Qilli Qambarani, Quetta. 

Qambarani is a Brahvi language poet.

Earlier, authorities allegedly abducted a woman named Mahal Baloch along with her two children from Quetta, Balochistan. The children were later released, however, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) detained the woman, declaring her a ‘terrorist’.

The alleged abduction of the woman has led to country-wide protests by rights organisations, calling for her release.

Earlier this month, unidentified men also allegedly abducted a Baloch citizen identified as Muhammad Rahim Zehri along with his family members, including his mother, wife, and children, from Quetta. Rahim Zehri still remains missing, while the rest of the family was released.

According to a report released by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED) in July 2022, a total of 8,696 cases of missing persons have been reported. While 6,513 of these cases have been solved, 2,219 are still pending. Among the missing persons, the majority of people are from Baloch and Pashtun ethnicities.

However, human rights activists claim the number is much higher than this.

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عورت مارچ لاہور نے ماہل بلوچ کے غیر قانونی اغوا اور گراناز مری کو انصاف دلانے کے لیے ہونے والے احتجاج میں شرکت کی۔ #JusticeForMarriFamily #ReleaseMahalBaloch pic.twitter.com/3FjdLbhQqh

— ⁧عورت مارچ لاہور⁩ – Aurat March Lahore (@AuratMarch) February 24, 2023

Earlier this week, authorities allegedly abducted a woman named Mahal Baloch along with her two children from Quetta, Balochistan. The children were later released, however, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) detained the woman, declaring her a ‘terrorist’.

The women rights activists also demanded justice for gender-based crime in Balochistan and chanted slogans against enforced disappearances.

عورت مارچ گراناز اور ظلم کا نشانہ بنانے والی ہر بلوچ عورت کیلئے انصاف کا مطالبہ کرنے کے ساتھ ساتھ بلوچ خواتین پر تشدد کرنے والے افراد کو انصاف کے کٹہرے میں لانے کے اپنے مطالبے کو ایک نئے سرے سے دہراتا ہے۔ ہم اس ظلم سے صرفِ نظر نہیں کر سکتے۔#JusticeForMarriFamily pic.twitter.com/KKrPh1lmmb

— ⁧عورت مارچ لاہور⁩ – Aurat March Lahore (@AuratMarch) February 24, 2023

On Wednesday, the police arrested Provincial Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran in connection with the three bodies recovered from a well in Barkhan, Balochistan.

The provincial minister was accused by a citizen named Khan Muhammad Marri of detaining his wife, Granaz, and seven children in his private jail. Granaz Marri had also appeared in a video where she claimed she and her children had been abducted by the minister and were being kept in his private prison.

Initially, the recovered bodies from the well were assumed to be of Granaz and her sons. But it was revealed that the body of the woman found in Barkhan — whose face was rendered unrecognisable —was not of the 40- year-old Granaz Marri, but rather of a young woman, around the age of 18.

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