Media urged to highlight plight of ‘missing’ Baloch
KARACHI: The Voice for Missing Baloch Persons has accused security forces and intelligence agencies of “killing missing persons in illegal detention”.
Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, spokesman for the VMBP Abdul Qadeer Baloch appealed to human rights organisations, the United Nations and western countries to take note of “human rights violations” in Balochistan, adding: “Our apprehensions are coming true regarding the lives of missing persons. All such persons have either been killed or are being tortured in illegal custody.”
Maintaining that it was a humanitarian issue, he said the government, the judiciary and other institutions had failed to recover even a single missing person.
He said people had witnessed how security personnel tore activists from their families or friends and whisked them away. He said that during the last two months 80 mutilated and bullet-riddled bodies had been found while several bodies remained unidentified.
“We just received reports, while we are holding this press conference, that four more mutilated bodies have been found in the forests of Mastung and handed over to Bolan Medical College staff,” he added. Petitions were also been filed in the Supreme Court and the Balochistan High Court, but relatives of the missing persons have not been helped,” he said.
Mr Baloch said family members of the victims of enforced disappearances, including women, had been on hunger strike for the last five months to draw the attention of humanitarian organisations towards the issue but in vain. “Now we want international human rights organisations to intervene,” he added.
In reply to a question, the VMBP spokesman dispelled the impression that Baloch people were involved in the killing of non-Baloch persons in the province and alleged that the government agencies were responsible for the killings. He said the Baloch people had expected normality to return to Balochistan after the political government came to power, but all hopes of improvement had dashed and hatred increased with the passage of time. In reply to another question, he ruled out the possibility of any political settlement of the Balochistan issue “amid frequent attempts to repress the Baloch people”. He urged the media to highlight the “brutalities of security forces in Balochistan”, adding that the Baloch issue was not only a political one but also a humanitarian issue.
KARACHI: The registrar of the NED University of Engineering and Technology has directed students in the first year of undergraduate programmes (BE, BCIT & B. Arch) for the batch 2010-11 to attend the orientation programme being held in the university auditorium on Dec 30 at 10am.
Students of the second to final year of the undergraduate programmes would not be allowed to enter the campus on Dec 30 and Jan 3.
However, the students appearing in the ongoing supplementary exams and bearing admit cards would be allowed in, he said.
Source: Dawn
Date:12/29/2010
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