ISLAMABAD: The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has expressed concerns over the recent wave of killings, enforced disappearances and human rights abuses in Balochistan.

AWP leaders, including President Akhtar Hussain Advocate, General Secretary Dr Bakhshal Thalho, Prof Salahuddin, Dr Farzana Bari, Ismat Shahjehan Yousuf Kakar, Haider Zaman Khan, Farhat Abbas, Baba Jan and Nisar Shah in a joint statement expressed sympathies with the family of Abdur Rauf, who was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Turbat city on August 5. The student and poet from the minority Zikri community taught in a private school part-time to support his education.

The AWP leadership also condemned killing of Imdad Joyo, a prominent peasant activist, and injuring one of his daughters by influential sardars (chiefs) from Magsi tribe in Jhal Magsi the other day.

They expressed solidarity with the family of Joyo who had been actively campaigning against forced evictions of small farmers by powerful tribal chieftains from Magsi tribe and the issue of private jails run by a provincial minister and torturing peasants. He had been protesting land grabbing by influential tribal chiefs since 2015.

The AWP leadership said poor people like Joyo from peripheries in Balochistan, KP and Sindh face aristocrats, elite capture of land and resources by influential tribal chiefs, foreign and local capitalist class or adverse weather conditions.

“The wretched of the earth are deprived of their land, resources and livelihood, forcing them to migrate to urban centres where civic agencies personnel demolish their houses and huts in slums.”

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2023