Quetta: The protest camp organized by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) against enforced disappearances in Balochistan, set up outside the Quetta Press Club, has entered its 6,058th day. On this occasion, the families of youths killed in a fake encounter in Mastung joined the protest camp and recorded their protest.
The families told VBMP that on January 19, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed to have killed five individuals in an armed encounter in the Dasht area of Mastung. However, the identities of three of the bodies were later confirmed as Aslam son of Kanar Khan Lehri, Ghulam Hussain Lehri, and Shah Murad son of Nokar Khan Lehri, residents of Johan, Narmak area of Qalat district, who had been taken into custody by security forces and forcibly disappeared a year earlier.
In a statement issued by VBMP, it was said that the organization’s Chairman Nasrullah Baloch and Central Secretary Hooran Baloch, after two days of efforts, received the bodies of the Baloch youths from the CTD and handed them over to their families. The bodies were then taken to their native area Johan, Narmak for burial, so they could be laid to rest with dignity and respect.
The statement further said that the fourth person killed in Mastung was also identified as Abdul Muttalib, who had previously been forcibly disappeared. One body is still present at the Civil Hospital, and there are concerns that this individual was also previously forcibly disappeared and later killed in a fake encounter.
VBMP Chairman Nasrullah Baloch said that the security forces’ claim of deaths in an encounter is contrary to the facts. According to him, Baloch youths who had already been forcibly disappeared were killed extrajudicially and their bodies dumped, which constitutes a serious violation of human rights. He said that if any individual is involved in illegal activities, they should be produced before a court and punished according to the law, rather than being killed in fake encounters.
Nasrullah Baloch demanded that the government immediately take notice of the Mastung fake encounter, bring those responsible to justice, and present the true facts of the incident before the public so that constitutional responsibilities can be fulfilled.
