Agencies Unable to Find

Senator’s Missing Brothers

QUETTA: Law enforcement agencies have still not been able to find two missing brothers of Senator Sanaullah Baloch, information secretary of the Balochistan National Party (BNP).

The two men were allegedly kidnapped near Askari Park in Quetta Cantonment while heading towards Quetta Airport on July 16. Members of the Baloch family hold intelligence agencies responsible for the kidnapping. No case has been registered in this regard yet.

Obaidullah, 26, had recently returned from the US and worked as a civil activist on the platform of the Balochistan Institute for Future Development. “He has never been part of any political organisation. He is only being punished for being Sana’s brother,” said one family source.

The family sources said Samiullah Baloch, 24, who held a Masters degree in law, headed the Balochistan Institute for Future Development. He was also working as a social activist and his organisation had established about 20 schools in Kharan district and other remote parts of the province.

Senator Sanaullah told Daily Times via phone from London on Tuesday that if anything happened to his brothers, he would hold the Balochistan governor, chief justice, inspector general and chief secretary responsible.

He demanded that the Supreme Court of Pakistan, national and international media and human rights organisations take immediate notice of the increasing cases of disappearances in Balochistan.

“We expect the Supreme Court of Pakistan to play its due role. Our children are unwilling to go to school, as they fear being kidnapped by intelligence agencies. The agencies have ruined our lives even though we are peaceful and democratic people,” he said.

Citing the example of intelligence officials chasing former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s children in Karachi, Baloch said the families of Baloch nationalists were always being hounded by intelligence personnel and due to this, the children and elderly people of their families were suffering the most.

“If the government has to settle political scores with me, I should be taken in, not my innocent brothers, who have no links with my political struggle,” he said. Sanaullah termed the kidnapping of his brothers as the worst form of political victimisation. He termed it a tactic of the Pakistani government to silence the Baloch voice.

The kidnapping of his brothers has received wide condemnation from Baloch nationalists. Sardar Akhtar Mengal, president of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), called it an illegal and extra constitutional step taken by the government. This, he said, would further alienate the people of the province against the centre.

Kachkol Ali Baloch, leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, told Daily Times that cases of illegal detention were increasing due to the Supreme Court’s failure to contain such illegal activities. “The courts are equally guilty in this connection. We expect them to take action against those responsible for the illegal detentions,” he said. He warned that if timely action was not taken, the opposition parties would stage a sit-in before the Balochistan High Court.

Bilal Bugti, the younger brother of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Secretary General Agha Shahid Bugti, and Murtaza Bugti, the son of Balochistan’s first finance minister, Ahmed Nawaz Bugti, were also allegedly “kidnapped” by intelligence agencies from Karachi last week. Their whereabouts are still not known.

Independent sources suggest that hundreds of Baloch youths are currently missing. They are believed to be in the custody of intelligence. agencies