The protest of families of abducted Baloch entered 1062 days as a whole and 82 Day in Karachi on Tuesday.Delegations of Civil Society Lawyers and people from all spheres of life have continuously been visiting the VBMP’s protest camp to express their solidarity with families of abducted Baloch at Karachi Press Club.Talking to a delegation the Vice-Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Mama Qadeer Baloch said a UN convention which is unknown as ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’. The UN General Assembly adopted this convention on 10 December 1984, and it was entered into force on 26 June 1987. The convention obliges States to make torture a crime and to prosecute and punish those guilty of it. It notes explicitly that neither higher orders nor exceptional circumstances can justify torture.Qadeer Baloch said this document was totally ineffective in Balochistan despite the fact Pakistan signed this convention on 17 April 2008. He added, “Two years later on 3 June Pakistan has fist violated this document when it killed Boland Khan Baloch under torture and dumped in body on 3, June 2010 in Dasht area of Mastung, Balochistan. Boland Khan was abducted five days before his murder from Quetta by secret agencies of Pakistan.”He said, “VBMP believes Pakistan is strongly violating the international instrument and laws in Balochistan. Such a document holds no importance until it forcefully implemented. Pakistan intelligence agencies have been committing atrocities in Balochistan with impunity.”Another similar international instrument ‘the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPED) which is intended to prevent forced disappearance defined in international law, crimes against humanity. The text of this document was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 2006 and opened for signature on 6 February 2007. It entered into force on 23 December 2010.Around 32 countries from all over the worlds signed and support this convention but Pakistan has refused to sign this instrument. “Had Pakistan signed this document, today she would have been in violation of this international resolution in Balochistan as well,” said Qadeer Baloch.Mama Qadeer further said that Pakistan celebrates the ‘the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30, each year, by abducting more Baloch and dumping bullet-ridden dead bodies of abducted Baloch activists.
