London, United Kingdom — Human rights campaigners from the World Baloch Organisation
have put up billboards in the city to highlight the dire human rights
situation in Balochistan, the signs have been seen on major routes in the city displaying
slogans such as “Did you know?, More than 8000 people have been forcibly disappeared in
Balochistan” bringing to the attention of passers by the cases of enforced disappearances in the region.
According to the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, only during the month of December 2021,
more than 63 people were abducted and are missing while 37 were killed.
According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the
Pakistani government, 8122 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered officially. Most
of them are still unresolved. Independent local and international human rights organizations put the
numbers much higher. 20,000 have reportedly been abducted only from Balochistan, out of which
more than 3000 have turned up dead as bullet riddled dead bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture.
Human rights group Amnesty International has called for Pakistani authorities to end the use
of enforced disappearances as a tool of state policy, as it releases a new briefing
documenting the effect of such illegal abductions on the families of those who go missing.
Earlier, in January 2014 a mass grave was discovered in Tootak area of Khuzdar. 167 bodies were
recovered from the site. Human rights organisations believed the bodies belonged to previously
abducted individuals who were killed and dumped however the recovered bodies were later buried by
authorities without any DNA testing.
Pakistan’s establishment has been long criticized over its practice of enforced disappearances and
extrajudicial killings by International bodies and local human rights organisations that dare to speak
out on the issue. Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple TV
interviews the involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and extra
judicial killings and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those
involved responsible. Families of the abducted victims have long been protesting for the safe recovery
of their loved ones in the provincial capital Quetta, and their protest camp has now completed more
than 4608 days.
The organizers of the campaign have long been engaged in efforts to highlight the worsening human
rights situation in Balochistan at international platforms, organising events around Europe and in the
United States, focusing on advocacy activities in the European Parliament, the US parliamentary houses,
and the United Nations.
