QUETTA: The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) and the sister of a Baloch missing student have appealed to the authorities concerned to immediately recover him.

“My brother Khuda Dad Siraj has gone missing from Sargodha in Punjab a few days ago and his disappearance has caused severe anxiety and distress among family members,” Banari Baloch, a sister of the missing student, told a presser, along with VBMP Vice Chairman Mama Qadeer Baloch, on Monday.

They said that Siraj is a resident of Tijaban in Turbat, and a 2nd year student at Pathology Lab Sciences Department of Sargodha Medical College.

They said that Siraj was busy in preparations for his final paper, but on the night of March 8, he went for a dinner with his friends and was forcibly taken away by some unknown armed men in a Cultus car, and he has been missing since then.

They said that previously, enforced disappearances of Baloch students used to take place in Balochistan, but now this trend has started in other provinces also.

“We send our youth to other provinces for higher education, but they have to face enforced disappearances there, too, creating an atmosphere of fear and distress,” they said, adding that efforts are being made to keep Baloch people away from education.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024