Reposted from DailyTimes.com.pk | September 13, 2012 | Story

Left: Abdul (Mama) Qadir Baloch, Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Vice President and father of extra-judicially killed Jalil Reki, R: Nasrullah Baloch, President Voice for Baloch Missing Persons

By Safiullah

Group's chairman says Justice Iqbal misrepresented number of missing persons

QUETTA: Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) Chairman Nasarullah Baloch on Wednesday condemned Justice (r) Javaid Iqbal's statement on missing persons during his meeting with a UN mission on enforced disappearances, saying the statement was partial and advocacy of intelligence agencies.

Addressing a press conference at a token hunger-strike camp set up by relatives of missing persons outside the Quetta Press Club, he said the VBMP had already expressed its reservations regarding Justice Iqbal, who is heading the third judicial commission on missing persons. He said that Justice Iqbal had twisted the facts during his meeting with the UN commission and had put the number of missing persons at 26. Contradicting the figure, Baloch said that while Justice Iqbal was hearing the cases of missing persons, 194 cases of enforced disappearances of Baloch youth were presented before him, adding that Justice Iqbal was speaking the language of country's intelligence agencies "which were involved in disappearances and killings of Baloch youth".

The VBMP chairman said that after Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took notice of the enforced disappearances and began to hear the cases, a ray of hope gleamed through the length and breadth of Balochistan and people flocked to Quetta in large numbers in hope of justice. He said as a result of Justice Chaudhry's notice, 191 cases were registered. Baloch further said that Basra Bugti, who remained missing for one-and-a-half year and was later recovered, had appeared before the chief justice and told him that he had been in custody of intelligence agencies. He said that Basra Bugti had further disclosed that 80 other Baloch missing persons were with him in the custody and he had also revealed the names of 20 of them, including his brother Kaho Bugti.

The VBMP leader said he was shocked when he heard the statement of Justice Iqbal, adding that it was a complete twisting of facts.

He went on to say that various tactics had been applied not to let the UN commission visit Balochistan, adding that a recent statement of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), in which they had threatened a long march against the UN commission, supported his argument. "We have never witnessed any protests from the platform of DPC in favour of Baloch missing persons," he said.

The VBMP chairman said that the fact of the matter was that military and rightwing parties did not consider the Baloch as human beings and worth living a respectable life and that was why they had been applying brutal force to crush them.

He said the VBMP was not a political party and did not have any political agenda and therefore did not want to comment on political issues, reiterating that however, the party wanted to make it clear to the world that DPC was a tool in the hands of agencies who first used it against the NATO supplies in Pakistan and later when the army struck a deal with the US regarding the supplies, the DPC kept quiet on restoration of the supplies which it had opposed tooth and nail earlier.

He said that such groups had always been used against the legal struggle of the Baloch. It was a positive omen that the UN had formed a commission to investigate the matters of Baloch missing persons, he said, and expressed his optimisms that such efforts of the organisation would continue in the future.