Occupied Balochistan: Relatives of missing persons, including women and children, staged a noisy demonstration in front of Quetta Press Club on Saturday asking Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary to take suo motto notice of the increasing “humanitarian issue”.Baloch nationalists say around six thousands political workers and people from other walks of live have been subjected to enforced disappearance by state functionaries.The demonstration was organized by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP). Protesters, including women and children, chanted full throat slogans against government and its functionaries accusing them of illegal detention of Baloch political opponents. They were carrying placards and displaying photographs of their loved ones who, according to the protestors, have been missing for years.Addressing the protestors, sisters of Safeer Baloch, Din Mohammad Baloch, Dr Akbar Marri and Wadood Raisani, who were reported to be missing for a year, accused security forces of taking hostage. They said that security forces had picked up their brothers from public places and evidence were also produced before judicial commission formed to relieve the Supreme Court of its constitutional obligations to defend individual freedom of the people.“We have been on hunger strike for the past three months to attract the attention of humanitarian organizations but in vain,” they alleged that some people threatened them to end the strike and remove the hunger strike camps pitched before the Quetta Press Club.Chairman of VBMP, Nasurrallah Baloch said that judicial commission was formed to suppress the issue of missing persons. “Eyewitness had recorded their statements against security agencies and security forces before the commission but no measure was taken to recover a single missing person or include the officials into the inquiry,” he said adding that his organization thus boycotted the hearing of the Commission for being useless. He claimed that more than eight thousands people are reported to be missing in Balochistan alone and the organization has complete data of eleven hundreds missing persons which had been provided to commission.They demanded of Chief Justice to take personal interest in this humanitarian issue as he took interest before his removal as Chief Justice. “The Commission seems not to be serious on this issue thus Chief Justice should take suo-motto notice,” they demanded.
