According to Asian Human Rights Commission, conservative estimates place the number of enforced disappearances at between 10,000 and 15,000. In a report submitted to the Human Rights Council this week, the Asian Legal Resource Centre pointed out that Balochistan province, at this moment in time, may be said to be the place in the world where the largest number of enforced disappearances take place. The Supreme Court of Pakistan and several High Courts have recognised the high level of disappearances that take place in the province. However, neither the courts nor the government have been able to take any effective steps to stop the practice of enforced disappearances or even to bring down the numbers of such instances that take place.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) report said that the government of Pakistan has refused to take any active steps to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. It appears that the government is under pressure from the armed forces and the intelligence services to avoid any serious steps to discourage the practice of enforced disappearances as a counter insurgency measure against the people of Balochistan. The parliament has not held any serious debate on the issue of enforced disappearances despite of the Supreme Court and High Courts making some attempts to intervene in the issue.
The ALRC has appealed the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances of the United Nations to intervene in order to stop the disappearances and the accompanying brutality such as large scale illegal abductions and the mutilation of bodies. As the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances is aware of the ongoing large scale disappearances through the interventions of many human rights organizations the appropriate response from the Working Group, as well as other UN agencies should be to cause a serious discussion with the government of Pakistan and to provide advice and any other technical assistance in order that the government may intervene more clearly and decisively to stop the ongoing practice of enforced disappearances.
In January last, the
issue of missing got a new twist when mass graves were uncovered in Kuzdar. according to the Asian
Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in total 103 bodies were recovered from the
graves. The bodies were too decomposed to be identified. Chairman, Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, Naseerullah
Baloch told a press conference among them three person have been identified as
missing persons. He said gunfire was opened when the heirs tried to reach the
mass graves. He also said that the access of media and human rights bodies have
been denied to these graves.
Many political analysts believe
that the Pakistan army is repeating the history of East Pakistan when it
launched a brutal operation against the Bengali separatists that led to the
dismemberment of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh in 1971. It is argued that
the Pakistan army was not successful in East Pakistan because the Bengali
separatists were backed by India while East Pakistan was physically separated
by West Pakistan with more than 1,000 miles hostile Indian territory. East
Pakistan was the largest province of Pakistan with 51 million population while
Balochi speaking population is only 6.2 million which is easy to crush by
Pakistani Armed Forces which rank seventh in the world in term of active
troops.
The Carnegie Paper on Balochistan
However, the Carnegie Paper of April 2013 on Balochistan by Fradric Grare suggested: "Balochistan, the largest but least populous province of Pakistan, is slowly descending into anarchy. Since 2005, Pakistani security forces have brutally repressed the Baloch nationalist movement, fueling ethnic and sectarian violence in the province. But the Pakistani armed forces have failed to eliminate the insurgency--and the bloodshed continues. Any social structures in Balochistan capable of containing the rise of radicalism have been weakened by repressive tactics. A power vacuum is emerging, creating a potentially explosive situation that abuts the most vulnerable provinces of Afghanistan. Only a political solution is likely to end the current chaos."
In 2005, the Baluch political leaders Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Mir Balach Marri presented a 15-point agenda to the Pakistan government. Their stated demands included greater control of the province's resources and a moratorium on the construction of military bases. On 15 December 2005 inspector general of the Frontier Corps, Major General Shujaat Zamir Dar and his deputy Brigadier Salim Nawaz (the current IGFC) were wounded after shots were fired at their helicopter in the Balochistan province. The two men had been visiting Kohlu, about 220 km southeast of Quetta, when their aircraft came under fire. The helicopter landed safely.
In August 2006, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79 years old, was killed in a military operation which provided a new cause to the Baloch nationalists and separatists.
In April 2009, Baloch National Movement president Ghulam Mohammed Baloch and two other nationalist leaders, Lala Munir and Sher Muhammad, were seized from a small legal office and were handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck. Five days later, their bodies, riddled with bullets were found in a commercial area. The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed Pakistani forces were behind the killings. The discovery of the bodies sparked rioting and weeks of strikes, demonstrations and civil resistance" in cities and towns around Balochistan.
On 12 August 2009, United Kingdom-based Khan of Kalat Mir Suleiman Dawood declared himself ruler of Balochistan and formally announced a Council for Independent Balochistan. The council's claimed domain includes "Baloch of Iran", as well as Pakistani Balochistan. The council contains all separatist leaders including Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti.
According to the Carnegie Paper, the failure of the security forces to end the Balochistan conflict by the sword should suggest to Islamabad that Pakistan's diversity will have to be managed politically, not repressed or suppressed by military means. "The choice is ultimately between some form of popular participation or complete fragmentation. If a solution is to be found, it will have to be political. In Balochistan, the military wanted to eliminate the traditional and local structures to reinforce state power. It has unquestionably managed to destroy traditional social structures, but in the process, it has further weakened the Pakistani state and advanced the hard-liners' position. In many ways, then, Balochistan is thus reflective of the fate of Pakistan as a whole."
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