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Back in 2010, when I first met Mama Qadeer at a local bank on Quetta’s Sariab Road, little did I know it would become a lasting connection.
At the time, I was doing my intermediate and had gone to the bank to pay my college fee. Mama had retired from the bank and was there to meet a former colleague. He was there with his grandson, whose father was a missing person.
A cousin of mine worked there as the bank manager. “This is Jalil Reki’s father,” he said before introducing me to Mama, who was then known as Abdul Qadeer Reki, his official name. When asked about his missing son’s whereabouts. Mama replied in an assured tone: “He [my son] will be released soon, as he has not done anything.”
WHEN GRIEF BECAME RESISTANCE
Mama’s son Jalil, a Baloch political activist, had gone missing on February 13, 2009. His bullet-riddled dead body was found in a desolate area in Mand, a bordering town in Balochistan’s Kech district, in November 2011. Jalil was secretary information of the proscribed Baloch Republican Party (BRP), headed by Brahamdagh Bugti, the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the head of the Bugti tribe who was killed in a military operation in 2006.
Mama’s composure did not falter even after the killing of his son. Instead, he firmly held his grandson’s hand as he went to see his son’s bullet-riddled body. He kept his composure even when he spoke about who had killed Jalil and why.
In most cases, families of missing persons stop protests and continue to remain at home when the dead bodies of their loved ones are found; some due to shock and trauma and others due to fear.
After his son’s enforced disappearance in 2009, nearly 70-year-old Abdul Qadeer Reki — better known as Mama Qadeer — did what few dared: he set up a protest camp and never left. He passed away on December 20, 2025
But Mama did what no one else had done. He continued to sit in his protest camp, outside the Quetta Press Club, that he had set up in 2009 with Nasrullah Baloch, the chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons. Together, they continued to protest against enforced disappearances and for all the Baloch missing persons, in order to become their strong voice amidst fear and hopelessness.
FROM THE BANK TO THE BARRICADES
This is how Mama’s evolution took place, from being Abdul Qadeer Reki, a banker, to Mama Qadeer Baloch, an active voice for the Baloch. It was because of his tireless efforts that people other than family members of Baloch missing persons — including apolitical Baloch who have nothing to do with the missing persons’ issue — also raised their voices.
Eventually, this paved the way for the emergence of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, led by Dr Mahrang Baloch, a decade after Mama first set up his protest camp outside the Quetta Press Club.
Back in the 1970s, Mama was a political activist and a member of the National Awami Party (NAP). He was also close to Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri at the time and, later, joined the bank as a cashier. Due to the nature of his job, Mama couldn’t continue his political activities. But after Akbar Bugti’s killing in 2006, his son Jalil joined the BRP, set up in 2008.
Mama was born in the small town of Surab in the Kalat district of Balochistan in 1940. He received his primary school education in his hometown before heading to Khuzdar for high school. For his intermediate studies, he went to Quetta.
Before joining the bank, Mama worked at the provincial livestock department. He decided to quit politics in 1974 to take up the bank job, which enabled him to support his family financially. He would often tell people around him about the hard work he had put in to ensure his children could achieve their educational goals, including Jalil, who had a double master’s.
THE LONG MARCH TO JUSTICE
Mama Qadeer returned to the political fold following his son Jalil’s disappearance. He did it in the face of tremendous state pressure, at a time when it was extremely difficult to raise the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
On October 27, 2013, Mama started a long march, accompanied by a small band of mostly women, children and other relatives of Baloch missing persons, from Quetta to Islamabad. He led the march to highlight the issue of Baloch missing persons, allegedly at the hands of the state.
Braving the harsh winter months, the protesters travelled more than 2,000km on foot through Sindh and Punjab, and arrived in Islamabad four months later, at the end of February 2014.
Mama’s march has even drawn parallels with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s famous Salt March in 1930, to protest against Britain’s unfair salt monopoly and tax in colonial India, as well as Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s Long March, which covered 6,000 miles.
After arriving in Islamabad in February 2014, Mama had actually wished to lead another long march to Geneva, and to be able to speak at the United Nations headquarters. But, as Nasrullah Baloch revealed, he could not do so as his name was on the government’s exit control list.
Throughout his trials and tribulations, his struggle for the recovery of the Baloch missing persons remained non-violent and peaceful. “If those who are missing have committed any crimes, they must be produced in the court,” he would emphasise during his conversations at his protest camp, where he continued his sit-in from 2009 till 2025, even on the days when he was unwell.
A lot of that time was spent reading, including translations of leftist leaders, such as Russian leader Vladimir Lenin and Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. He would also spend hours pouring over Urdu dailies, his spectacles perched on his nose. “There is no news about us,” would be his regular refrain.
THE PRICE OF BEARING WITNESS
As the local newspapers and TV channels stopped covering Mama’s statements and the issue of missing persons receded from the headlines, most local journalists also started avoiding Mama and his protest camp, to avoid his protestations, complaints and questions.
Sadly, I too did the same. I wanted to avoid his taunts and questions as to why I hadn’t done anything for his cause, even though we both knew that it was not my area of reportage and there was little that I could have done. But some of his words remain seared on my mind to this day. For instance, he would tell me that money is mightier than the pen. Perhaps it is.
Mama died in a Quetta hospital after a prolonged illness on December 20, 2025. He was 85 years old. He is survived by his wife, one remaining son and five daughters.
This courageous, albeit stubborn, man was full of anger and hardened through life’s harshness. Following his son’s killing, Mama had directed everything he had toward the cause of the Baloch missing persons, which is why he did not bow down till his last moment, and lived and breathed for the cause of the missing Baloch.
Rest in peace, Mama!
The writer is a member of staff.
He can be contacted at: akbar.notezai@gmail.com.
Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2026
