QUETTA: The chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), Nasa­rul­lah Baloch, underlined the need on Sunday for a political solution to the issue of Balochistan and said the use of force would only aggravate the problems in the province.

Speaking at a press conference here, he said the Balochistan issue was purely a political issue and it should be resolved through dialogue.

He said the use of force had resulted in human rights violations and compelled the people to leave their homes for safe places. This state of affairs, he said, had badly affected these people’s livelihood, education of their children and health of their family members besides creating a host of other problems.

Referring to the issue of the missing people, Mr Baloch said that 667 people had gone missing last year and bodies of 116 people had been found later in different areas.

He said the people of Sumalani tribes had complained to him that some women and children of their tribe had gone missing in Bolan.

Mr Baloch said that pending cases of the missing people had been heard only twice by the Supreme Court last year and that 70 people had been recovered.

The vice chairman of the VBMP said that he was disappointed with the performance of a commission set up by the government in 2010 for the recovery of the missing people as it had heard and disposed of only 40 cases.

He expressed concern over the performance of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and claimed that it only worked to issue statements in newspapers and did nothing more.

“The NCHR and its members are doing nothing in cases of the missing people,” Mr Baloch said.

He said that the role of media and human rights organisations was also below the mark and appealed to the Supreme Court and human rights organisations to take notice of violation of human rights in the province.

He said that if there was any case against any person, he should be produced before courts and tried there.

He termed allegations levelled by a spokesman for the Balochistan government against the VBMP baseless and said his organisation was not working for any political ends but for the release of all Baloch missing people as 37 cases of missing people were still registered with it.

Published in Dawn January 2nd, 2017