QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: Today marks three full months since the enforced disappearance of my brother, Dad Shah Baloch
“It is impossible for me to put into words what our household has endured these three months, or the anguish my mother has lived through every single day,” she said. “We wake up each morning with only one hope that today we might receive some good news about our brother. But every day, all we have received from the state is silence and despair.”
According to Fozia Baloch, despite three months passing, the family has still not been told what crime her brother was accused of. She said he was forcibly taken in front of the family, but no FIR was registered, no arrest was disclosed, and he was never produced before any court. “To this day, our family has not even been granted the basic right of being told on what grounds he has been deprived of his freedom,” she said.
She argued that neither the law nor the Constitution grants any institution the authority to keep a citizen missing for months without an FIR, without an arrest warrant, without legal proceedings, and without presentation before a court. “If someone is accused of something, the Constitution and the law require that they be produced before a court and given a transparent legal process,” she said.
Fozia Baloch said the family has received no information about her brother’s wellbeing, whereabouts, or condition in the three months since his disappearance. She said testimonies from individuals who have been recovered from enforced disappearance in Balochistan and their physical and mental state upon return leave the family unable to stop imagining what her brother may be going through.
“Despite all this, we are only demanding justice,” she said. “We want our brother and all forcibly disappeared persons to be produced before courts in accordance with the Constitution and the law. If there is an accusation, let legal proceedings take place. If there is no crime, let them be released immediately.”
She added that if the state genuinely possesses evidence or a case, it should present it in court, since every arrest must be legally justified before a judge. “But when someone is kept missing for months, the question naturally arises why is the state avoiding court?” she said.
Fozia Baloch said she and other families have witnessed numerous cases in Balochistan of enforced disappearances, some ending in extrajudicial killings staged as “encounters”, with bodies recovered only later. Despite these experiences, she said the family continues to believe in the Constitution, the courts, and the rule of law and reiterated its demand that her brother and all forcibly disappeared persons be immediately produced before the courts.
She concluded by stating clearly that if any harm comes to her brother, Dad Shah Baloch, full responsibility will rest with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government, the Sindh Police, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), and other relevant state institutions.
