Baloch march for justice

In a desperate attempt to focus public attention on their 'missing' near and dear ones Baloch men, women, and children walked some 700 kilometres for 26 long days from Quetta to Karachi arriving at the destination on Thursday. The march, starting with 20 people, soon rose to nearly 70 affected families. Voicing their common grief one of the marchers told a journalist that her mother had lost her mental balance since the disappearance of her father, Dr Deen Baloch, in June 2009, saying "we still have hope. Every phone that rings gives us the hope that maybe someone has some information about my father. Every sound of a car coming to our house gives us hope that my father can be in it." A father who had found the body of his missing son joined the march, organised by Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, for the sake of others. "I understand their pain," he said. "My son is no more but all these missing men are like my sons."
It is deeply saddening that enforced abductions and extra-judicial killings, reminiscent of Central American dictatorships of the long-gone past, should be happening in this democracy. The victims are not only suspected members of separatist groups but also mainstream nationalist parties. It has become the topmost issue fuelling Baloch anger and reinforcing the old sense of alienation between that province and the federation. The affected families have been running from pillar to post for the recovery of their relatives, setting up camp in Islamabad as well. And the mainstream media has kept the spotlight on the issue - all in vain. The suo motu notice the apex court took of this horrendous human rights violation has not helped, either. Notably, the Supreme Court had set up two benches, one in Islamabad and the other in Quetta, to hear missing persons' cases for about a year on a regular basis. Repeated directives by the court to security agencies' officials to appear before it and account for the victims have failed to produce the desired results. Only a handful of the missing have returned to their homes, the rest remain unaccounted for, leaving their families in a constant state of anguish and despair, as described by Dr Baloch's daughter.
It is frustrating to see all the efforts to seek a civilised settlement of the issue thwarted by the powers-that-be. Although the previous government had shown little interest in the recovery of the forcibly-disappeared citizens, the PML-N decision to let a nationalist party head the new provincial government had raised the hope of positive progress. But the day National Party's Abdul Malik Baloch took oath as the province's Chief Minister last June several bodies of the missing persons were found dumped in public places. Body dumping has not stopped since. The purported method to this madness is to quell dissent. But it generates only rage and hatred towards the federation, creating opportunities for outsiders to exploit for their own purposes. The powers-that-be must realise that the need of the hour is to win hearts and minds by addressing Baloch grievances. And the most important step in that direction would be to fully cooperate with the apex court in recovering the missing persons. Those accused of serious crimes against the State ought to be formally charged and brought to trial. Arbitrary punishment must come to an end.