In run-up to Baloch protest, 19 individuals disappeared: Report

QUETTA: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has organised the Baloch Raaji Muchi (Baloch National Gathering) in Gwadar on July 28 in response to the alleged Baloch Genocide. Ahead of that massive march, the Balochistan Post has released its report on the crisis of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.

The report states that the Genocide continues to cast a dark shadow over the region and that these disappearances have targeted individuals from various walks of life, including students, activists, journalists, and politicians.

According to the report, 19 individuals were forcibly disappeared in the past two weeks and continue to be missing. Four individuals who were kidnapped were later released and returned to the safety of their homes, while six bodies were found. The average number of abductions for the first two weeks of July stood at 1.36 per day.

Awaran, Dera Bugti, Kalat, Kech, Gwadar, Mastung and Khuzdar areas saw the highest number of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. The pervasive fear of being kidnapped or being made to disappear has left nearly every family in Balochistan bruised and terrified.

The reports says that thousands of children await the return of their missing fathers; individuals like Sammi Deen Baloch have spent their youth in protest camps, campaigning for their fathers’ safe release, only to be met with silence. Sammi Baloch is now at the forefront of the Baloch protests and has urged all Baloch’s to show up at the Gwadar protest rally on July 28.

“In these times of genocide, where the Baloch people are enduring the deepest scars of oppression in the form of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, road accidents, economic suppression, and the systematic erosion of Baloch identity, she appeals to the nation to join Baloch Raaji Much on July 28 in Gwadar,” she said in a video message.

Another key Baloch activist Mahrang Baloch said the Baloch must now unite to prove themselves.

“It is the national duty of every Baloch to prove their Balochism by ensuring their participation in Gwadar on July 28. If Baloch and Baloch land are to be saved, then Baloch have no other option but to wake up, wake up and take the field. We have time to unite and prove ourselves as a living nation and tell the whole world that the Baloch will no longer tolerate their genocide on their land. Baloch Raji Machi is a historic and golden opportunity to put aside all the divisions and conspiracies and unite as one nation. The loss of this opportunity will be to the ‘Baloch nation’ and national and collective benefit from the opportunity is national survival,” she said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, as per the bi-weekly report, the Baloch community faces a grim reality; they are not safe in their homes and not even in countries that should offer sanctuary. Thousands have fallen victim to enforced disappearances, and the numbers continue to grow. (ANI)

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