Thursday 8 September 2016

BRP Media Cell report on enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan since January, 2016.

Geneva: This is a reportage by Baloch Republican Party Media Cell team, based on the verified information provided by our sources, about some of the victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan since 1st January to the 31th of August in the year of 2016.
Because of lack of media coverage in Balochistan, the actual figures of victims could be higher than that we have compiled in this report which estimates to 570 of the enforced disappeared and 260 of the extra judicially killed ones only in the eight months of year 2016. It is  of importance to mention here that our sources have collected information of these victims only through their relatives and locals who are eye-witnesses of those incidents.
Through our sources, we have only been able to report the abductions and killings of the victims who were abducted, killed or dumped before a certain local(s) and family relative(s) bearing witness to the incident: However, speculating how victims are dumped in isolated places where wild animals happen to consume them, or the places where they are never found, or in mass graves, the figure of the victims could rise to thousands more.
While reporting, it has also come to our knowledge that the death squads in Balochistan, such as the Bugti Aman Force headed by Ghulam Qadir Masori, father of interior minister of Balochistan, Mr. Sarfraz Bugti, own private torture cells, where abducted Baloch(s) are detained, tortured and killed. Most of the victims, either abducted by law enforcement agencies or their death squads, such as mentioned above, are killed under custody, and their dead bodies are dumped either during military operations or in mass graves after being labeled as terrorists in fake “Encounter” or “Exchange of Fire” by state forces.

“There is a certain pattern of abductions in Balochistan: Firstly, they, most of whom happen to affiliate with a certain political or pro-freedom organizations, are followed for sometimes, their movements are tracked, and when they are finally confirmed as a particular person, they are picked up and disappeared by law enforcement agencies. Most of the people are abducted during unwarranted raids, military operations, while travelling or in a particular place like a hospital where they need to be for a certain necessity.”

Military operations have also claimed more lives in Balochistan than poverty. Our sources report on the military operations almost on a daily basis across Balochistan. One of the recent military operations that we have managed to collect some informations about was a two weeks continued operation in Dera Bugti started in this August 13 and it was over at the end of the month. More than 130 Baloch civilians were abducted and more than fifty people were killed. Two days later, our sources reported that fifteen Baloch civilians were later handed over to the levies in Sui who were buried into a mass grave in the Anayat Shah Darbar area in Sui, Dera Bugti District: three of the victims were as young as seventeen.
Meanwhile in three separate military operations in Awaran, Tump and Bolan areas on February 14 and September 4, 2016 , Pakistani forces bombarded with gunship helicopters the civilian population of the areas and wounded many unarmed Baloch civilians including women and children and destroyed at least a dozen houses during the operation. Eight Baloch civilians were abducted during the operation in Bazadad area of Awaran on 14th Feb. Our sources said that the victims were totally innocent civilians and their whereabouts remained undisclosed since their abduction by Pakistani army. It is worth mentioning here that these military operations continued for five consecutive days: Furthermore, three Baloch civilians were abducted in Nazirabad area of Tump on Sept 4th. The abductions were made during a military operation in the area. Our sources said that the relatives of the abductees protested before an FC camp, but returned with no response or knowledge of the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Similarly, Pakistani forces killed more than 35 innocent Baloch civilians during a brutal military operation in Mastung area of occupied Balochistan on April 10, 2016. BRP Media Cell sources contacted with the relatives of the victims and confirmed that the killed ones were non-combatant and totally innocent Baloch civilians most of whom were engaged in common jobs like farming. The operation was conducted in the region’s Johaan area where houses were also destroyed in large number and cattles were butchered with indiscriminate shelling with gunship helicopters by Pakistani army. Our sources have also confirmed that three of the victims belonged to the Bugti tribe. According to the information we have collected, the three Bugti tribesmen were abducted by Pakistani forces in 2012.
Deliberate killings of Baloch civilians and political activists in fake encounter has also become a practice of a weekly basis by Pakistani army in Balochistan. Four Baloch civilians were abducted, killed and dumped in different areas of Kech and Awaran on May 18th, 2016. The locals said before the forces dumped the dead bodies of the victim, they fired some shots to create an ‘encounter-like’ atmosphere in the area. Earlier, Baloch Republican Party Media Cell released a video on social media showing Pakistani armed forces offloading a political activist of BRP from an army truck; The activist was blindfolded and shot multiple times in the head in a very close range.
Shah Nawaz Bugti, editor of www.balochrepublicanparty.com and head of Baloch Republican Party Media Cell has said that these are only the numbers which our team has been able to report, but the actual figures are much higher that goes unnoticed due to lack of communication and media blackout in the territory.

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