Will ensure recovery of missing persons while following state laws: Balochistan home minister

Published December 31, 2018
Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove addresses the media after visiting a Baloch missing persons camp in Quetta. — Photo provided by author
Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove addresses the media after visiting a Baloch missing persons camp in Quetta. — Photo provided by author

Balochistan Minister for Home and Tribal Affairs Ziaullah Langove on Sunday vowed to make "every effort possible" for the safe recovery of missing persons of the province.

Talking to reporters after meeting family members of missing persons at a protest camp in Quetta, Langove said the people of Balochistan had become victims of "politics" and that the same would no longer happen in the future.

"We will try to remedy the grievances of our people," he promised, but added in the same breath that the figures of missing persons circulating in the country are "contradictory".

Editorial: Little progress on missing persons

"It can take us some time to reach the facts," said Langove, who was appointed as the home minister on Tuesday. He earlier served as the minister for forests and wildlife.

He vowed to ensure the recovery of missing persons while acting "according to the state laws and Constitution" and urged the relatives of such people to "leave politics" and support him in his efforts.

The minister said that Balochistan was currently in a "state of war" and the province and Baloch people had suffered immensely due to the unrest.

"Political personalities have played with the emotions of missing persons' relatives," he said, adding that the government would try to resolve the issue by addressing concerns on "both sides".

He also cautioned that the state had the right to investigate people who "do not accept the country's law and Constitution".

Nasrullah Baloch, chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, said they had provided a list of 110 missing persons to the provincial government.

"[We] are not doing any politics in the name of missing persons," he said, in an apparent response to Langove.

"Our objective is the recovery of our loved ones."

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