Pakistan: 37 cases of enforced disappearances reported in October

It seems the menace of enforced disappearances continues unabated in Pakistan as 37 new incidents of abduction have surfaced from across the country in the month of October.

It seems the menace of enforced disappearances continues unabated in Pakistan as 37 new incidents of abduction have surfaced from across the country in the month of October. The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, in its monthly report, said that the commission has received 37 new complaints of alleged enforced disappearance from across the country in October, The Friday Times reported.

The commission statistics for the month of October added that the commission traced 30 people last month - of whom 18 persons returned to their homes, 8 were found imprisoned in internment centres of the security forces, 3 are confined in jails and the dead body of one person was found. The Commission statistics indicate that a total of 14 cases were deleted due to not being deemed to be cases of enforced disappearance.

As per the data of cases from March 2011, when the commission was established, till October 2021, the commission received 8,154 complaints related to enforced disappearances out of which it has disposed of 5,924 cases, while the whereabouts of 2,267 persons could not be ascertained during the course of inquiry. Enforced disappearance has been used as a tool by the Pakistani state to silence the oppressed people of Balochistan since the very first day of its occupation.

While countless abductees have been killed, many of them are still facing inhuman torture in army secret cells. While successive governments have promised to criminalise enforced disappearance, none has taken concrete steps and the practice continues with impunity.

Recently, fighting between the Pakistan security forces and Baloch insurgents have intensified in the region. In its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights, the US State Department has highlighted significant human rights issues in Pakistan, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and forced disappearance of Pashtun, Sindhi and Baloch human rights activists. (ANI)

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