My Struggle for my Missing Father

By Sammi Baloch

I am Sammi Baloch, daughter of missing Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch. We are the inhabitants of Mashkay from district Awaran in Balochistan.

I have an elder brother, a younger sister and my mother who is a housewife.

We were small but a happy and prosper family. We were living a happy life because we were complete and all family members were living together.

I still remember that moment when my father came back home from Quetta when he was doing his preparations for his medical profession. Those were the happiest days of our lives. We were very excited that our father will become a doctor and we will spend an everlasting comfortable and prosperous life like other well stable families.

As my father became a professional doctor and he got his government job. He worked in different areas of Balochistan and eventually he was deployed for Khuzdar Hospital. we started living in Khuzdar with our father, where we lived an expected normal life, undoubtedly those few years were the happiest and memorable times of my life where we had started our basic educations. After four years my father was transferred to Ornach, one of the rural areas of district Khuzdar due to which we returned back to our hometown Mashkay.

My father always performed his duty with sincerity. He was a hardworking and honest doctor. It was a great pleasure for him to serve his nation. As this was his dream for a great cause.

In 2009, when I was in 4th standard, I was suffering from a throat infection and my father took me to the hospital in Quetta city where I underwent surgery for this infection. During my surgery, a man from Ornach Hospital called my father for some important work. Next day my father went for his duty to Ornach Hospital. He assured us that he will come back soon because I was admitted to the hospital.

In the next morning, on 28 June 2009, at 5 am, my uncle received a phone call from the administration of the Ornach Hospital and said that Pakistani intelligence agencies have taken Dr Deen Mohammad away from the hospital. That news shocked us, we even didn’t what to do for our father.

My only brother and my uncle went to the Ornach Police Station and registered First Information Report (FIR). We went to the court and filed a petition against his enforced disappearance. In Quetta Press Club (QPC), we addressed a press conference regarding this incident and protested in different areas of Balochistan and Karachi for the safe recovery of my father.

During these years of his abductions, we held meetings with many government officers where we had requested them to take actions against my father’s abduction and also urge them to start an inquiry about his case. We visited the courts every day and then finally after a long wait, a hearing date was given. We appeared before the court with new hopes that this time we might get any clues about our father’s whereabouts, but each time we returned home with disappointments.

I along with my younger sister used to sit in the hunger strike camp of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) started by relatives of Baloch Missing Persons in 2009.

We also demonstrated in front of the Islamabad Press Club (IPC) three times. We presented our father’s case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan along with other family members of the Baloch missing persons and Justice Javed Iqbal assured us that our abducted loved ones will be released within 10 days. We waited for ten days nothing happened, in fact, those ten days have now dragged for ten years but unfortunately, my father and many Baloch have still not been released.

I participated in a protest-walk [Long March] of 3,000 kilometres from Quetta to Islamabad via Karachi with the team of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons and the family members of other Baloch missing persons. It was very hard to walk such a long distance where we had to face lots of life-risking troubles but there was no one to listen to us in those developed cities and we came back hopelessly from the federal capital of Pakistan.

Every year, we have been protesting on the day of the abduction of my father in different areas of Balochistan and Karachi. We tried all the possible measures for the safe release of our father. Our childhood has passed while struggling for our father which has affected our education badly.

Since then, we have not been able to complete our studies properly. Our father was the only earner of the family and after his enforced disappearance we have faced many financial issues. We had only our house as our property which was looted and then occupied by the personnel of the Pakistani Army and till date, we even have no place to live.

My mother is suffering from many illnesses. Our entire life has passed in wait for our father, in these 10 years of sufferings. We have been facing mental stress about the sort of torture that our father went through during the years of his captivity and we have concerned for his safety and whereabouts. Since his enforced disappearance, we even don’t know that our beloved father is alive or dead.

I cannot define the sufferings of these hard times in words. If someone gets released luckily from the illegal detention ( Enforced Disappearance ) of Pakistan Army, then these type of news gave us a new hope that he might be our father or he might come back like them.

The discoveries of the mass graves from different areas of Balochistan make us more anxious. One decade has almost passed but we have no clue about our father till now. Even if my father accused of being involved in any crime, then the punishment of 10 years in secret cells is enough for a human.

We again request those authorities that either present my father before a court of law or tell us about his whereabouts. Keeping my father detained doesn’t only punish him, but it is torturous for our whole family. We are living a distressful life. Our life cannot be prosperous as long as our father won’t come back home. My struggle will continue until the safe release of my father. I will use my all efforts for this cause.

I request to the United Nations (UN), UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International Asia, other human rights institutions of the world including Pakistan, particularly the doctors’ community of Balochistan and Pakistan, to raise voice for the safe recovery of my father and support us to raise our voice.

The enforced disappearances should not be considered the only issue of Balochistan but as the issue of entire humanity. Everyone has to play their role in the safety of human lives in Balochistan. The missing persons’ issue is a very serious issue of Pakistan including Balochistan. Play role to keep our voice raise because your silence put their lives at risk.