Abduction and rape of Baloch women by Pakistani security forces continue unabated, and are on the rise, despite repeated attempts by Amnesty International and other Human Right organisations to highlight the massive human rights violations, India's ANI news agency has reported.
Numerous women have disappeared "into thin air' after being apprehended by the Pakistani security forces, the report says. The Baloch women are detained for the simple reason that they belong to the Bugti family. "If you are a Baloch, your life is worth less than nothing," the report says.
Balochistan Liberation Front leader's daughter and wife abducted
As many as thirteen people, mainly women and children, were abducted from Dera Bugti region in Balochistan at the end of November and taken to an undisclosed location, the report says. Local people said the army officers contacted the families demanding millions of rupees to release them. During the same week four more women were abducted from the Awaran district and kept in military custody for one day. This was followed by the abduction of the daughter and wife of Dr Allah Nazar, the head of Balochistan Liberation Front, plus other two women with two small children, the report added.
"The Pakistan army has well-documented brutal use of heavy artillery against unarmed innocents, along with helicopter gunships, and its merciless acts of burning village hutments, slaughter of unarmed civilians, rape, kidnap, torture, and extra-judicial killings are utterly incomprehensible acts of inhumanity," a statement by the World Baloch Women Forum (WBWF) said.
Dr Naila Qadri, who heads the World Baloch Women Forum, said Pakistan must immediately stop state violence against Baloch women. "Pakistan Army is a rapist and pedophilic Army. They are dishonouring, raping and torturing our women and children. I feel very angry over the silence of UNO, USA, India, and the EU," she said.
Pak military policy of 'kill and dump'
Abductions have been so common in the region that local news portals and social media platforms like Twitter feature such news stories with a casualness, the report adds. "Few lines on Twitter or in Baloch websites as usual: Six persons have been abducted last night from the Hazarganji bus station: They were going to Quetta from Nasirbad district for medical reasons. Six people. Two old men, who were going to see an eye specialist, a seven years old child and three women," reads the report.
UK-based website The New Arab said hundreds of Baloch people have been killed by Pakistani security forces since 2011. The report added that the Pakistani establishment is carrying out the state policy of 'kill and dump'. Pakistan's Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances had over 2,000 unresolved cases of enforced disappearances as of March 2019, the report said.
