KARACHI: Scores of people, including women and children, staged a rally against enforced disappearances of people of Balochistan and demanded their release.

The rally started from Arts Council Chowrangi and culminated at the Karachi Press Club. The protesters carried banners demanding release of the missing persons of the province.

Speaking on the occasion, Seema Baloch said that her brother, Shabbir Baloch, was taken away along with 20 other persons from Turbat on Oct 4, 2016. Others were released but the whereabouts of her brother were not known till today, she added.

Recalling the protest in Islamabad and other parts of the country, including one where the former premier had called them for a meeting, Ms Baloch said they had exercised all democratic options for the release of her brother and other missing persons but it appeared that no one was listening to them.

The activists belonging to Baloch Yakjehti Committee and Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, Sami Din Baloch, Amna Baloch, Wahab Baloch, Saeeda Hameed Zehri, Saeed Baloch and others urged the rulers for the release of Shabbir Baloch and other missing persons.

They said if there were any charges against the missing persons, they should be presented before the court of law and if found guilty, should be punished accordingly. But, they added, taking away persons and subjecting them to enforced disappearances, that too for years, was agonising for the families and relatives.

“We as citizens of this country demand safe recovery of our near and dear ones under the state’s constitution and law,” they said.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2023