QUETTA: Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zia Langove visited a protest camp set up by relatives of missing persons on Sunday and assured them that the issue of missing persons would be resolved soon.

“The issue of missing persons will be resolved in the next three months,” Mr Langove said.

Chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Nasarullah Baloch informed the minister that a list of 110 missing persons had been handed over to the previous government, but nothing was done to find them.

“We do not want to do politics on the issue, but seek recovery of our people. It is responsibility of the provincial government to listen to grievances of missing people’s relatives sitting in the camp for several days despite severe cold in Quetta,” Mr Langove said.

Later talking to newsmen, the home minister said that the government was taking the issue of missing persons seriously and wanted to address it as soon as possible.

Reassures protesters that kidnapped doctor will be recovered soon

He said six to seven hostile agencies were disturbing peace in the province. “Those who have joined hands with the insurgents against the state and living in mountains or neighbouring countries have been added to the list of missing persons, but the provincial government will move forward by following all legalities.”

Mr Langove said that the whole country, particularly Balochistan, had been in the grip of violence for two decades and people were being killed or kidnapped, adding that innocent people were brutally murdered in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan.

He said unfortunately families of missing persons had been distracted and lured to pick up arms against the state, but “we seek to bring them back to the negotiation table”.

Nasarullah Baloch and Voice for Baloch Missing Persons vice chairman Mama Qadeer Baloch said: “Our cases had been in courts since 2005, but we don’t want to create hurdles for the provincial government.” They said a list of 110 missing persons with complete details had been provided to the provincial government and “we have categorically denied our affiliation with any group because we have been demanding that if any missing person has committed a crime he should be produced in courts”.

Striking doctors

The home minister also visited a camp of striking doctors in civil hospital and assured them that law enforcement agencies were making all-out efforts for the recovery of Dr Ibrahim Khalil.

He said the government itself was concerned over the kidnapping of senior doctors and asked protesters to call off their strike.

However, members of the doctors’ action committee said that they would discuss the issue in a meeting of the committee’s general body and then take a decision in this regard.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2018