Dejected Balochistan

 Dejected Balochistan

By Ali Jan Maqsood

In the month of February (2023) only, Balochistan has witnessed very tough days where the already sickening enforced disappearances have now included women and children too, while private jails, under ministers and local elites, have ingested innocent lives with women going raped and men tortured to death. In-between, justice has always remained a mystery for the masses because they are supported by ‘powers’ that no one can challenge. Resultantly, a sense of deprivation is taking deep roots among the Baloch youth and women which is fueling the ongoing insurgency in the ‘never-eyed’ province.

On February 3, a raid was reported in Quetta where a family was arrested-cum-disappeared including Raheem Zehri, his wife Rasheeda Zehri, his mother and two children. In the very next day, Zehri’s mother and two children were released, however, the couple remained captives without identifying what crimes they had done. Protests broke-out across Pakistan including Karachi, Quetta, Islamabad, Lahore, Turbat, Khuzdar and other parts of the country. After 13 days, Rasheeda was set free and till today she cannot reckon what her guilt was, while her husband Raheem is still in the ‘torture cells’.

The issue of Raheem Zehri had not then resolved and people were questioning the wrongful detention of the Zehri family, when on 17th of February at around 9 in the night, the notorious Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) raided the house of Mahal Baloch and detained her whole family, including Mahal herself, her mother-in-law Mahnaz (around 65 years), her two minor daughters Nugrah (7 years) and Nazink (6 years) and her minor niece Banadi (12 years). They were taken to the CTD prison where all the night, as claimed by the other detainees when they were released the next day, they (CTD) tortured Mahal Baloch and forced her to accept she had a suicide bombing jacket. “Because they were brought by CTD themselves, how could Mahal endorse that?” they say.

Apart from torturing Mahal, they interrogated the three minors which is not legal in any means. How can you interrogate minors aging 6, 7 and 12 without their guardian or next friend? Under what law was this interrogation held? And under which law was Mahal tortured in front of the minors? Who will make the tarnished CTD accountable for the human and state laws’ violations? Who has empowered them and under what law?

Historically experienced, Baloch have always questioned on legal points, but in return, they have been either abducted and tortured or killed in broad daylight and their cases were closed with FIRs on ‘unknown armed men’.

By FIR on unknown, let me remind you since 2019, a woman was seen in a video holding a Quran and shouting out loudly to save her family from the illegal detention of a provincial minister, Abdul Rehman Khetran. The woman is Granaz Baloch, wife of Khan Mohammad Marri. In a recent finding, three dead bodies were recovered in a ditch in the Barkhan district of Balochistan. The bodies, because they were tortured, raped and killed, could not be identified initially. However, Khan Mohammad Marri claimed the woman was her wife Granaz and the other two were his sons, who were in the custody of the provincial minister.

In a poster-mortem report on February 23, it was found out that the corpses did not include who Mr Marri had claimed to have been his wife Granaz. Dr Ayesha Faiz says the body is of a young girl aging 17/18 years who was raped, tortured and killed. “Three bullets were hit on the head of the girl, and acid was thrown on her neck and face to hide her identity,” says Dr Faiz.

Other reports say that the girl was the only daughter of Khan Mohammad, while Levies claim to have recovered Granaz with her children from Barkhan. This again becomes an enigma that whose dead bodies were found then? Whatsoever may be the case, we cannot oversee the involvement of Rehman Khetran in the private prison case and the murders of the innocent persons there.

Another mystery in the Barkhan tragedy is that the family had nominated the provincial minister but police had registered the FIR against an ‘unknown’ person, which means the provincial administration is trying hard to safeguard the minister in any means whatsoever. In fact, the spokesperson to Balochistan Government, Farah Azeem Shah, too, rejects news of setting aside the minister from his chair which is yet another hint that the government is favoring him.

On the other hand, police raided Rehman Khetran’s homes in Quetta and arrested. On February 23, when the provincial minister was produced in the court of magistrate in Quetta, the police asked for judicial remands of the minister for which the court granted 10 days of judicial remand to further inquire the matter.

Between all these, we can observe a great effort to ensure Abdul Rehman Khetran is removed from the case and the delay tactic is being used to relinquish the public anger and clean their memory on the Barkhan tragedy. For further strengthening their stance, the Quddus-led government formed a judicial inquiry committee which is to probe the issue and bring forth a detailed report within thirty days after the notification was issued. And again, the members belonging to the same circle include DIG of Police Loralai range (Chairman/Convener), SSP Quetta (Member), Representative of Special Branch Barkhan (Member), Deputy Commissioner Barkhan (Member/Secretary) and any co-opted member.

The tragedy, above all and everything, is that Balochistan is used to judicial commissions with no results. From the commission on enforced disappearances to the one in Ziarat’s fake encounters by the same CTD, every commission which was formed in Balochistan was to merely serve the interests of parties other than the Baloch civilians. At a realm as this, every ray of hope for Baloch seems hindered ultimately leading the masses to get disheartened with a state’s step-mother behavior towards Baloch and Balochistan.