Balochistan: Enforced-disappeared persons are being killed in fake encounters: VBMP

QUETTA: The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Organization of relatives of disappeared persons in Balochistan, has said that abducted persons are being killed in fake encounters.

Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Chairman, Nasrullah Baloch, has made these revelations during a press conference in Quetta on Tuesday evening.

The press conference was held to demand the safe release of Ali Asghar Bangulzai who has been abducted by Pakistani forces form Saryab Road Quetta 15 years ago.

Farooq Bangulzai elder son of Ali Asghar Bungalzai said that his father has been forced disappearance on 18 October 2001.

He said that his father was abducted along with a man named Mohammad Iqbal by the government forces in Quetta.

He demanded that if there are any charges against his father then he should be presented in a court.

On this occasion, Narsullah Baloch, Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, cited two incidents in Quetta city where 6 people were killed.

The Pakistani police alleged that these six persons were killed during encounter with security forces but Nasrullah Baloch said that these six people were already in the custody of Pakistani security agencies.  He said that the accused persons were killed in staged-encounters.

He demanded that justice institutions must investigate this matter.

It is pertinent to mention that on 13 October 2015 Pakistan forces killed three Baloch prisoners were in cold blood and their bodies were found in the Kanak area of Mastung district, Balochistan.

Two of the victims Shafqat Rodini and Ibrahim Nechari were arrested in June, 2015 near Quetta at a security forces checkpoint.

The men were kept incommunicado until 1, September, 2015 when the Pakistani minister Sarfaraz Bugti paraded them on National TV and alleged that they belong to a Baloch militant organisation and were wanted for several cases.

The Police and intelligence agencies later coerced Shafqat Rodini to record a short video confession where he is shown as accepting crimes that he did not commit.

The duo was presented before a court twice but the police could not bring any evidence against them. Their next hearing was due on 28 October, 2015 but the Pakistani police, intelligence agencies and other security force have killed the two men and another prisoner in custody on 13 October,2015.

In a similar case of fake encounters on 9 September, 2016 the Pakistani media reported killing of Abdul Bari son of Rasool Bakhsh Nichari, Javed s/o Abdul Salam Bangulzai and Ijaz Ahmad s/o Rahim Baksh Nichari.

All the three men were previously abducted Baloch activists and Pakistan media confessed their arrest during a state TV show on 4^th of August, 2016 where the men were shown having links with an alleged ‘terrorist’ organization.

Apart from these two examples several such cases have been reported from different areas of Balochistan where Pakistani forces killed previously abducted persons in fake encounters. After the infamous pick, kill and dump policy, the recent rise of fake encounters in Balochistan shows that Pakistani forces seem to be more inclined toward the policy of staged encounters.