Karachi: Seven-year-old Ambreen clutched a picture of her brother, Yasir Baloch, tears welling up in her eyes. She had not been told what had happened to him, yet she managed to say she wanted to bring him back. “He loves me a lot,” Ambreen whispered, and the tears rolled down her cheeks.
Yasir was abducted on February 25 from Karachi. A student at Karachi University, he is not affiliated with any political party. His family joined a protest outside Malir police station on March 8, led by Fozia Baloch, a member of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, and the affected families.
“The state abducts our people and when we go to the police station to file a First Information Report (FIR) or hold a peaceful protest, we are denied both. We are tortured, and now they have even attempted to abduct our women,” Fozia said.
Six Baloch people disappeared from Karachi in the last week of February, while in the first week of March, six Sindhi political activists went missing. Enforced disappearances are being reported across Pakistan, but Balochistan remains the most severely affected, along with Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The families’ demand for registration of FIRs had been met with silence, forcing them to hold the protest. About 50 people, the majority of them women, gathered at Malir police station. Yasir’s family had been asked to go there to file the FIR, but the police station refused to accept the complaint saying he had not been abducted from their area. So, on March 8, the protesters met outside the police station carrying banners and photographs of the abducted men and walked to the Malir district court, chanting slogans against enforced disappearances.
Yasir’s little sister speaks to this journalist. Photo: Mehlab Baloch.
Shahida Baloch, mother of Yasir, sobbed as she spoke a few words in Balochi, pleading for justice. “If my son has done anything wrong, present him in court. Why won’t you let us meet him?” she cried.
Ali Dost, another Karachi resident, held a picture of his only son Sabir Ali Dost, who had been abducted from the Lyari neighbourhood on February 26. His demand was the same as Shahida’s – to know the whereabouts of his son.
The police refuse to register an FIR, saying, “We have not taken them.”
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee central deputy organiser, Lala Abdul Wahab Baloch, said the Baloch are not demanding anything from the state, only the registration of an FIR, which is a fundamental right. “Even such a basic right is not available to the Baloch,” he said.
Police intimidation
On March 8, a young Baloch woman stood under the scorching sun. Since it was the month of Ramzan, people gathered slowly. A number of police officers, intelligence agency personnel in civilian clothes, and other law enforcement officers surrounded and questioned her. She calmly replied that she had come to attend the protest. The officers warned her not to block the road, but she said she had no role in the decision, and it was up to the victims’ families to decide.
At one point, the police turned to this journalist and asked whether she was Baloch. The journalist refused to reveal her ethnic identity and questioned the officer about his emphasis on the word “Baloch”. When the journalist pushed back, asserting her duty to report the truth, the officer eventually backed down.
Soon, two other Baloch women joined the younger woman. Faint smiles on their faces, they said the police were only there to intimidate and beat them. “This is what the state does – it abducts Baloch people and tortures them,” they said.
Yasir’s mother, weeping while speaking at the protest. Photo: Veengas.
Fozia recalled how the police unleashed violence on February 27 in Hub, a city in Balochistan, where she and other Baloch activists were holding a peaceful protest demanding the release of those abducted. Instead of listening, the authorities responded with violence, beating protesters and detaining several Baloch women. Seema Baloch and Mahazib, who are both from families of victims, were held in custody for 19 hours.
Fozia said that some days ago she and other activists approached a senior police officer and asked why such brutal force was used against peaceful demonstrators. “The higher authorities pressure us to drag and beat you whenever you protest,” Fozia quoted the officer as replying. She was not surprised to see the heavy police presence on March 8.
Admission, after 5 years
Sanaullah Baloch’s sister joined the protest. Her brother was abducted in 2014 from Panjgur, a city in Balochistan. Initially, the authorities denied any involvement, but later admitted they had taken him and promised his release, she said. However, the government has neither presented him in court nor allowed the family to meet him.
Aqsa Dayo, clutching her brother’s poster. Photo: Aqsa.
Aqsa Dayo, whose brother Insaf Dayo was abducted on May 29, 2017, from Larkana, a city in Sindh, told The Wire that security agencies had warned her not to protest, insisting that her brother had not been abducted and suggesting that he might have gone to India. When she reminded them that police and security personnel in a Vigo vehicle had taken him, they dismissed her claim.
Five years later, in August 2022, the state accepted that Insaf had been taken and an order was issued for him to be presented in court, Aqsa said. The family does not have a copy of the production order. Aqsa had travelled from Larkana to Karachi, only to hear a judge say dismissively, “We still haven’t received a response from Islamabad.” The judge rudely asked her to go to Islamabad and get a copy of the production order. The family is poor and cannot afford the travel. Insaf, a trailer driver, was 27 when he was abducted.
Despite the challenges, Aqsa and Sanaullah’s sister remain determined to raise their voices until the state releases their brothers.
Sindh abductions
Sarang Joyo, president of the Sindh Sujag Forum, said that Sindhi nationalists have long faced abductions, but in the first week of March, several activists were forcibly disappeared for raising their voice against the construction of six canals on Indus River. While people across the province have taken to the streets in protest, the state has launched an operation targeting Sindhi nationalist activists.
Joyo said Sindhi nationalists have linked their movement against the canals to the very question of Sindh’s existence. “We do not trust the establishment, nor do we have faith in institutions,” he said. The Sindh-Punjab water dispute dates back more than a century, and under the 1945 agreement, Punjab was required to seek Sindh’s approval for any water-related projects — an obligation that he said has never been honoured.
“Punjab has been stealing our water share,” Joyo said, and cited figures. Before the creation of Pakistan, both provinces produced around 1.75 crore acres of harvest, he said. Today, Sindh’s agricultural output has shrunk to 75 lakh acres, while Punjab’s farming land has expanded to nearly 3 crore acres, he said. Additionally, Sindh’s delta has been devastated because Islamabad has failed to implement its own water agreements from the 1990s. “The central government seeks to make desert land greener while turning Sindh’s land into a desert,” Joyo said.
Joyo warned that political parties – whether currently in power or aspiring to rule in the future – should not overlook the fact that their own workers could soon become victims of enforced disappearances. “Everyone in Sindh is opposing the Green Cooperative Initiative and the six canals – no one will tolerate Islamabad’s anti-Sindh projects any longer,” he said.
