LAHORE: “We have been taught to shoulder a dead body being carried to graveyard. Our Baloch brethren are in need of our shoulders,” a local student said before bursting into tears near Chuhng where a class IV girl along with a group of civil society members received the caravan of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) on Wednesday.

More than 20 relatives of ‘missing’ Baloch people reached here on Wednesday on foot en route to Islamabad, the culmination point of their protest march that had started from Quetta.

After a night’s stay at Thokar Niaz Beg, the caravan will resume their march on Thursday morning to reach the Lahore Press Club to interact with the media people.

Battered by the long walk they had begun from Quetta on Oct 27 last year after waiting for long for justice or even some news about their loved ones — brothers, sons and husbands — the marchers were determined to conclude it under the leadership of 70-year-old Mama Abdul Qadeer Baloch.

A group of class X students on their way home from school, spotted the caravan at Sundar Adda and decided to join the Baloch men and women pushing a cart carrying the pictures of their loved ones, who had gone missing for months and years, in some cases.

In her school uniform, Zartasha kept sipping from the water bottle till she reached Thokar Niaz Beg where the march culminated for the 109th day.

“If they can walk then I can too,” was her answer to the offer by her father to take a ride for some time in the ambulance accompanying the caravan.

Mama Qadeer and female relatives of two missing people — Zakir Majeed and Dr Deen Muhammad Baloch —briefly spoke to the media at Thokar Niaz Beg where they were garlanded by activists of Bonded Labour Liberation Front, National Party, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and other left-wing parties, besides office bearers of Ittehad Qingqi Rickshaw Union.

“Unfortunately, the situation with regard to enforced disappearances in Balochistan had worsened ever since the new provincial government headed by Dr Abdul Malik Baloch came into power. We have not received any help from the government so far,” said Mama Qadeer while counting rosary beads in his hands.

“Islamabad will be our next destination. We will be presenting our memorandum to the UN representative there and hold a seminar before finalising the next phase of our struggle,” said Qadeer, who had in November 2011 got mutilated body of his son Jalil Reiki, the information secretary of Baloch Republican Party.