London/ August 30: The representatives and supporters of Sindhi Baloch Forum held a protest demonstration on Sunday outside the Houses of Parliament in London to highlight the unresolved issues of “enforced disappearances” in Pakistan. The protesters who had gathered to voice their concerns on the occasion of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances provided disturbing accounts of victims of enforced disappearances in Sindh and Balochistan and of the various challenges faced by their families whom Pakistan’s judiciary has failed to offer any remedy.
According to Dr Hidayat Bhutto, a representative of the Sindhi Baloch Forum, the criminal practice of enforced disappearances by the military establishment of Pakistan has been employed against the Sindhi and Baloch political activists to contain their legal right to exercise their right to self-determination.
“The enforced disappearances of Sindhi and Baloch nationalists is a routine practice in Pakistan. The security forces of Pakistan forcibly disappear the victims, often in the presence of eyewitnesses, and detain them incommunicado. They are not charged or tried in the court, instead, the military acting outside its constitutional ambit keeps them in detention for an indefinite period of time, and in most cases, torture the victims and dump their mutilated dead bodies in desolated areas to terrorize the entire population with impunity,” said Dr Bhutto.
The Protesters also chanted slogans against the practice of “enforced disappearances” and demanded the release of Baloch and Sindhi activists who have been subjected to enforced disappearance by the Pakistani military.