QUETTA: A demonstration was held on Friday to protest the forcible disappearance of two students from Balochistan Univer­sity on the call of the Baloch Students Action Committee.

A large number of students, political workers, human rights activists and members of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) — along with women, children, and family members of the missing Sohail Baloch and Faseih Baloch — participated in the rally, which began at Balochistan University Chowk.

BYC leaders, including Dr Mahrang Baloch, Seemi Din, Bibo Baloch, Dr Sabiha Baloch and Bebarg Baloch, joined the participants as the rally reached outside Quetta Press Club.

Demonstrators carried placards, posters of the missing persons, and banners inscribed with their demands, and chanted slogans against the government.

Speakers, including family members of the missing students, condemned the forcible disappearances, stating that both were simply studying at the university. They questioned what the students’ ‘sin’ was, asserting that they only sought to voice the rights of the people as custodians of Balochistan.

They said both missing persons were ordinary students aspiring to serve their community through politics, yet their whereabouts have been unknown for the past three years.

They claimed that in the last month alone, 53 students had disappeared in various areas, with only 10 taken into custody from a field in Rawalpindi, and no information on their current locations. They demanded the recovery of all missing persons.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024