How can I celebrate Eid while my brother is missing?

People are busy celebrating Eid but Asifa Qambrani from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, could not celebrate Eid.

Instead of celebrating Eid, she arrived at the Quetta Press Club with a small child to protest on the first day of Eid.

Why did Asifa Qambrani have to leave the joys of Eid and join the protest? 

This is because one of her brothers, Muhammad Hassan Qambrani, has been missing for more than three months [since 14^th of February 2020].

She says Eid is no longer a happy occasion for her and other members of her family. 

She says that on the first day of Eid, she arrived outside the Quetta Press Club at a symbolic hunger strike camp for the recovery of missing persons and then took part in a protest that relatives of missing persons from Balochistan have been doing for many years on every first day of Eid.

During the protest, Asifa told the BBC that her brother was a student who had been forcibly disappeared from Kali Qambrani area of ​​Sariab Road, Quetta.

Asifa’s sounded very anxious and worried [about her brothers].

Asifa said that Eid is a day of happiness but if the brothers or any other relatives of the sisters are missing alive, then Eid or any other festival become meaningless and can’t make one happy.

She said that instead of rejoicing, she and other relatives of the missing persons were wandering in search of their brothers.

Mama Qadeer Baloch, the vice-chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, who stood next to Asifa during the protest, said that Salman Qambrani, another brother of Asifa, was also forcibly abducted a few years before Hassan Qambrani’s disappearance.

Mama Qadeer went on to explain that Salman Qambrani’s tortured body was found shortly after his disappearance. Now, after the disappearance of the other brother, the concern of Asifa and other members of her family have increased once again.

When did the Eid protests in Balochistan for the recovery of missing persons start?

Although the series of enforced disappearances in Balochistan began in 2002, a formal symbolic hunger strike camp was set up 11 years ago to protest the disappearances.

The camp was set up by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, an organisation of relatives of missing persons.

Mama Qadeer Baloch said that like Hassan Qambrani, thousands of people are missing from Balochistan. Relatives of the missing have been protesting on every Eid for 11 years for their recovery.

“Our demand is simple,” he said. “All the missing persons should be recovered and presented to courts of the country [Pakistan].”

He said he was ready to accept whatever sentences the courts give him.

Representatives of Human Rights Commission of Balochistan (HRCB) also took part in demonstrations for the recovery of missing persons.

Bibi Gul Baloch, the chairperson of the organisation, said Eid was a joyous occasion for Muslims around the world, but in Balochistan, those whose loved ones are missing protest on Eid. ۔

She said the purpose of the protest was to make the world realise that how can a person or other members of their family celebrate Eid if their relatives are missing.

This report was originally published in BBC Urdu by Mohammad Kazim Mengal