Karachi: Central leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), Sammi Deen Baloch, along with Sadaf Baloch, the daughter of enforcedly disappeared Ameer Bakhsh Baloch, held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Monday. They urged the state institutions to recover Ameer Bakhsh, who has been missing for 11 years or to present him in court if there are any charges against him.
Speaking emotionally at the press conference, Sadaf Baloch said her father was forcibly disappeared by security forces on August 4, 2014, from Ambi Bazaar, Kulanch in Gwadar. “It has been eleven years and we still don’t know where he is, whether he is even alive or not,” she said.
She added that enforced disappearance is not just the suffering of one person but becomes a prolonged torment for the entire family, causing psychological trauma and a form of social death. “We have tried every peaceful path for our father’s recovery from courts and human rights commissions to government offices and protest rallies but we have received nothing in return except silence and disappointment.”
Sammi Deen Baloch stated that enforced disappearances are like pouring salt on the wounds of the Baloch people. “We are only asking for justice. If Ameer Bakhsh Baloch has committed a crime, present him in court. But what law or human right justifies holding someone incommunicado for 11 years without any charges?”
Sadaf Baloch further shared that her mother has spent over a decade haunted by a painful question. Is she a widow or the wife of a missing person? “We cannot call him dead, nor can we say he is alive. Our lives are trapped in endless uncertainty. When will this agony end?”
Appealing to the state of Pakistan, the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and human rights advocates, she said, “We do not harbor hate, nor do we seek revenge. We just want our father back. This is not the demand of any political party or movement, it is the plea of a daughter who has been living every day in waiting and dying every night in despair for the last 11 years.”
At the end of the press conference, while speaking to journalists, Sammi Deen Baloch said that Baloch women are no longer just protestors, they are now leading the resistance. “We will not back down from this struggle until our loved ones receive justice.”
