The Baloch Hal | March 9, 2011 | Story

by Muatasim Qazi

Naeem Sabir was a prominent social worker and a human rights activist in Khuzdar, Balochistan. Sabir had been associated with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) since 1997 and had been working to promote human rights in the district. In the recent past, he had been helping the Commission in documenting the cases of enforced disappearances of students, lawyers, political activists and other citizens and the subsequent recovery of their bullet-ridden, mutilated bodies in desolate places in the province.

It was June and the monsoon season had already begun in the country. The torrential rains had drenched and devastated much of Balochistan"”and now it was probably Quetta's turn.

I remember it was the last day of a two-day workshop at the Lourdes Hotel in Quetta on "˜Conflict Resolution.' Organized by ActionAid Pakistan and Balochistan Development Consortium (BDC), the workshop focused on the worsening law and order situation in the province and the main causes of conflict between Islamabad and the Baloch. At the last session of the last day, the monsoonal downpour started in the city, creating a spectacular view outside the hotel hall where all the sessions of the workshop were held. But the excitement evaporated into melancholic feelings of the participants"”the rains had also caused huge devastation in many parts of the province, mainly in Mekran division in the southwest.

The torrential rains were caused by Phet, a tropical cyclone that had developed in the Arabian Sea in June last year and had hit the coastal areas of the province. The cyclone and subsequent rains had rendered thousands of people homeless, and the government's approach to help the people affected seemed apathetic. The rescue and relief operations were being carried out at a snail's pace. However, some local nongovernment organizations had started recue and relief services independently, but their resources were inadequate to overcome such a massive natural calamity.

Back in the Lourdes Hotel, the participant had decided that they would hold a protest demonstration in front of the Quetta Press Club to attract government's attention towards the situation in the affected areas. They feared if the government didn't act swiftly, epidemic would break in inundated villages and towns.

Instantly, the participants grabbed flip charts and turned them into placards inscribed with slogans demanding immediate relief for the people in those areas. As the participants left the hotel to go to the press club for the demonstration, the downpour got heavier and heavier. Most of the placards got soaked in rain water, making the writings too shabby to read. Despite that, the participants staged their protest asking the government and international relief organizations to reach to the help of the people.

I was attending the workshop in my capacity as volunteer working with the Council for Community Development (CCD), a non-profit, nongovernmental organization working in social sector in Balochistan. It was for the first time that I met with people from different parts of the province working for the welfare of their communities. They all were doing a tremendous job to raise the living standard of the people, but there were few people that had done great services in their native districts and towns. Other than Hafeez Baloch of CCD, whom I had known for quite a while since I was working in his organization as a volunteer, I met the likes of Sharaf Zehri, chief executive officer of Poverty Alleviation Organization Kalat (PAOBK) and Khuda Bakhs Marri from district Kohlu. But the person that impressed me the most was a slim, well-dressed man with a regent mustache and a cogitative look on his face. He was Naeem Sabir, a social worker and human rights activist.

Unfortunately, Sabir didn't live long to accomplish a cause working on which is equivalent to asking for trouble in the volatile province of Balochistan. He was shot dead by armed motorcyclists in Khuzdar district last Tuesday. An armed group called Baloch Musla Defai Tanzee, which is believed to be working at the behest of intelligence agencies of the country to thwart a snowballing insurgency in the oil and gas rich province, claimed responsibility for the assassination. Sabir has left behind a bereaved widow and a less than 2-year-old child.

Naeem Sabir was a prominent social worker and a human rights activist in Khuzdar, Balochistan. Sabir had been associated with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) since 1997 and had been working to promote human rights in the district. In the recent past, he had been helping the Commission in documenting the cases of enforced disappearances of students, lawyers, political activists and other citizens and the subsequent recovery of their bullet-ridden, mutilated bodies in desolate places in the province.

Sabir's killing was condemned by HRCP and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Dr. Mehdi Hasan, chairperson of the former, demanded in a statement that those responsible for the killing must be brought to justice. The Asian Human Rights Commission also came up with a statement and urged the government to establish a judicial commission to probe killing of Sabir along with other activists in the province and bring the perpetrators to justice. AHRC demanded that the murder of Naeem Sabir be "properly investigated and justice provided to his loved ones and family."

The human rights organization in its statement also said that Sabir had been receiving continuous death threats for several months from persons "believed to be from the intelligence agencies" of the country. In fact, Sabir had told the Commission that his life was in danger, and he either would get abducted by the law enforcement agencies and disappeared, or killed.

Incidents like these in Balochistan make it evident that the times are getting hard for political opponents, students, lawyers, and rights activists who want to amplify the voices of people the most suppressed and subjected to discrimination and exploitation. However, one thing is clear: The government's inability to control its own law enforcement agencies shows that she wants the latter to enjoy completely impunity for abducting, torturing and killing its own citizens. Will shrugging off the situation in Balochistan do them any good? Only time can tell.v

Muatasim Qazi is a journalist from Balochistan currently studying in the United States of America.

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