ISLAMABAD, May 5: While Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry is hearing cases of abducted Baloch in Quetta, the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) staged a protest here on Saturday, sending a clear message to the Supreme Court.
“Our loved ones have been missing for years. Hundreds have turned up on street corners close to our homes, their bodies riddled with bullets, their faces charred beyond recognition, their hands and feet bearing signs of torture and pain. The chief justice has been hearing our cases since February 2011. But next to nothing has happened. We have had enough with the talk, and the discussions and the investigations. We want action, and we want results. We want our loved ones home with us again,”said Abdul Qadeer Rekhi Baloch, a spokesperson for the VBMP, whose own son Jalil Rekhi was killed last year.
Though the protest was led by Mr Qadeer and Farzana Majid - the sister of abducted Baloch Student Organisation-Azad chairman Zakir Majid - it was the 10-year-old Barmish who dominated the scene. Holding a microphone in one hand and the VBMP list of missing persons in another, Barmish read out the names of almost 14,400 people who the VBMP believes have been abducted by security agencies. Her father, Ali Asghar Bangulzai, is among one of the missing. Barmish was not even born when her father, a political worker, was abducted from Quetta more than 10 years ago.
As the protest was drawing to a close, Waleed Baloch, a local Baloch studying in Islamabad, took the microphone. “We would like to thank our Hazara brothers for joining us today.”
Waleed was among a handful of Baloch students who showed up on April 14 in front of the National Press Club to protest killings of Hazaras in Quetta. The protest was organised by the Hazara Student Federation (HSF), who have been calling for a broad coalition between Balochistan’s Baloch, Pakhtun and Hazara communities against the growing violence in the province.
In a sign of solidarity with the Baloch, members of the HSF, the Hazara Democratic Party, the Workers Party Pakistan and the National Students Federation showed up to stand side by side with the VBMP on Saturday.
“We came here to express our sympathy and solidarity with the Baloch. We want to tell them that we are standing by their side as they resist the violence of the security agencies,” said Ahmad Ali Kohzad, the General Secretary of the HDP.
“There have been attempts to blame the killings of Hazaras on the Baloch. We do not believe that Baloch are in any way responsible for the killings of Hazaras. We know who our killers are: Lashkar-i-Jhangvi,” Mr Kohzad said.
“It is embarrassing, and shameful, that young daughters and sisters of abducted Baloch are having to come all the way to Islamabad to ask for justice, only to meet a state that does nothing,” Mr Kohzad said.
“We are standing side by side with our Baloch brothers,” said Sajjad Changezi, a member of the HSF.
“There is an attempt to create divisions between the Baloch and Hazara communities, and to turn us against each other. Both of our communities know who the killers are: the security agencies and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi,” said Mr Qadir.