1. 8/22/2016 Balochistan: One Province, Two Wars | Newsline
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Balochistan: One
Province, Two Wars
By Hajra Komal Feroz (http://newslinemagazine.com/contributor/hajra-komal-
feroz/)
Blog Row (http://newslinemagazine.com/category/web-stories/blog-row/)
August 29, 2011
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2. 8/22/2016 Balochistan: One Province, Two Wars | Newsline
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Pakistani missing persons families hold pictures of their missing
people as they staged a
demonstration in Karachi 10
December 2007. Scores of
individuals and civil liberty
groups observe the International
Human Rights Day in Pakistan
terming it the ‘black day’ due to
imposition of emergency in the
nuclear-armed South Asian nation. AFP PHOTO/ Asif
HASSAN[/caption]
Abdul Ghaffar Lango, an activist for Baloch nationalism, was
abducted right in front of his wife on December 11, 2009.
When his abduction was reported, the police told his family that
he had been detained because of his political activities. Seven months
later, his body was found covered with marks of brutal torture. It was
a poignant symbol of the cruelty being inflicted on the Baloch
population.
Global non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW)
released a report on the role of Pakistani security forces in the
disappearance of Baloch nationalists on July 28, 2011. “We Can
Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years” documents how the authorities
have, since 2005, taken hundreds of people into custody without
cause, ignoring their families’ pleas for information. “The government
agencies that HRW found to be most involved in enforced
disappearances in Balochistan are Military Intelligence (MI), the
Frontier Corps (FC) and, to a lesser extent, the Directorate for Inter-
Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB),” states
the report.

3. 8/22/2016 Balochistan: One Province, Two Wars | Newsline
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The HRW report is based on over 100 interviews with the family
members of missing people, lawyers who’ve fought for their release,
witnesses to abductions, human rights activists and former detainees.
Such a scope allows the report to include many detailed accounts of
horrifying “disappearance” cases. HRW found that most of the people
abducted have been men associated with Baloch nationalist parties
and movements, and that often the kidnappers “beat the victims and
dragged them handcuffed and blindfolded into their vehicles.” When
not alone, victims have been beaten on the spot while those around
them (sometimes family, the elderly and the sick) are held at
gunpoint.
One man recalls his time in a detention facility this way:
“They beat me all over my body and on the soles of my feet with
their fists and feet. They hit me for around one to two hours
continuously in the morning, then again in the evening. At
night they would not let me sleep or lie down, I was forced to
stand. If I started to fall asleep they would hit me on the back
and shoulders to keep me awake.”
HRW has supported the allegations levelled at official intelligence and
security agencies in many ways, but this paragraph sums up the
situation for most of the “enforced disappearances” it has examined:

4. 8/22/2016 Balochistan: One Province, Two Wars | Newsline
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“In 31 of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch,
witnesses described the perpetrators as armed men in civilian
clothes, typically arriving in one or more four­door pickup
trucks. The witnesses usually referred to these perpetrators as
members of the “agencies” because of the circumstances of the
abductions – often perpetrated openly in broad daylight, with
the assistance of the police or FC personnel, in areas only
readily accessible by security personnel. These suspicions of
state responsibility were often then corroborated by
information about their relatives’ whereabouts they managed
to obtain after the disappearance.”
However, the military is not the only perpetrator of violence in the
troubled province. Armed assailants, the HRW reveals, have now
taken to attacking non-Baloch civilians. As the Baloch are made to
feel more and more vulnerable because of their ethnicity, they are
clearly becoming defensive and lashing out against those who belong
to other ethnic groups.
Much as we urban-dwellers try to ignore – until we need to use the
plight of the oppressed province to pad our anti-government rants –
Balochistan is as much a part of our country as any other province. As
Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, succinctly puts it: “All Pakistanis
will pay the price if the government fails to protect Balochistan’s
population from heinous abuses at the hands of the Pakistani
military.” You might “disappear” next.

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To read the report, including all the 45 cases it has
documented, the incredibly detailed recommendations
as well as separate letters addressed to Balochistan
Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, please click here
(http://www.hrw.org/reports/2011/07/25/we­can­
torture­kill­or­keep­you­years).
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