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Published 28 Feb, 2012 06:35am

UN urged to probe ‘reign of terror’ in Balochistan

KARACHI: The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons has urged international organisations, including the United Nations, to conduct an inquiry into the issue of enforced disappearances as the people no longer trust the government agencies operating in Balochistan.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Monday, VBMP representatives said the organisation would hold a rally and a seminar on March 11 to highlight the issue.

Those who spoke at the press conference included Qadeer Baloch, Nasir Karim Baloch, Comrade Wahid and Zahid Bugti.

They alleged that various government agencies picked up people in the presence of witnesses, and after some time their tortured and mutilated bodies were found at different places.

They said the involvement of state agencies in the disappearances was clear from the fact that many missing people, about whom the government had earlier been claiming ignorance, had been brought to court.

They said they had no confidence in any commission set up by the government and would not accept their findings.

They criticised federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik alleging that he was behind the state agencies carrying out a deadly operation against rights-seeking Baloch people.

They said the reign of terror had increased so much so that it was being reported globally and various international agencies and countries, including the United States, had expressed concern over it and called for a just and an immediate solution to it.

They said relatives of people who had been picked up, and even those who had witnessed it, were willing to tell their stories to international agencies when they initiated inquiries into the matter.

They claimed that the government was exerting pressure on them to call off their protest and remove their protest camps in Quetta and Karachi, but they would not bow to pressure and would continue their protest to highlight the issue till it wasresolved and people/agencies involved in the illegal activity were tried and punished.

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