Instead of discouraging the Baloch youth through abductions and torture to end politics, the policy of enforced disappearance is becoming a stimulus to declare Pakistan a terrorist state at the international level, Chairman of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Khalil Baloch said.
In just a single Twitter post, Baloch highlighted the case of Zakir Majeed, a student leader, who is in Pakistani torture cell since last 11 years.
“Zakir Majeed has completed 11 years in Pakistani torture cells. Instead of discouraging the Baloch youth through abductions and torture to end politics, this policy is becoming a stimulus to declare Pakistan a terrorist state at the international level,” Baloch tweeted.
Zakir Majeed was enforcedly disappeared on June 8, 2009 along with two of his friends Waheed and Basit Baluch. Later, Waheed and Basit were released while Zakir was kept in extrajudicial custody and till this day no one has any trace of him.
According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakistani government, about 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered since 2014. Most of them are still unresolved.
Independent local and international human rights organisations put the numbers much higher. Around 20,000 have reportedly been abducted only from Balochistan, out of which more than 2,500 have turned up dead as bullet-riddled dead bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture.
Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple interviews about the involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those involved responsible.
Enforced disappearance
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