QUETTA: Almost 4,000 Baloch youth, most of them political activists of Baloch nationalist parties, are in the “illegal custody” of intelligence agencies and are being subjected to “inhuman torture”, Senator Dr Abdul Malik, senior leader of the National Party (NP), said during a press conference on Monday.

He said secret agencies had also picked up two “innocent citizens”, Rehmatullah Shohaz, a college librarian, and Abdullah, a 60-year-old NP activist, on May 7 from Bulleda in Turbat District. Their families have no clue of their whereabouts, he said. In spite of peaceful and democratic protests, he said, the kidnapped men had not yet been released. “The kidnapping of innocent citizens from their houses and keeping them in illegal torture cells has become the norm,” he complained. “The agencies free severely injured men after subjecting them to inhuman torture.”

He urged the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of the increasing number of extra-judicial arrests of the Baloch people. “The government is trying to settle political scores with the Baloch leaders by penalising the innocent people,” he remarked. Dr Malik said that if there were any charges against the detained people, cases should be registered against them according to the law. They should be presented in a court and, if found guilty, be punished.

Speaking on the occasion, Jan Mohammad Bulladai, an NP member of the Balochistan Assembly, condemned the abduction of Samiullah Baloch, the younger brother of Senator Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party (BNP). “Equally, we condemn the kidnapping of Agha Shahid Bugti’s brother and cousin. All these acts are aimed at muzzling the Baloch voice,” he added. Referring to the government’s decision to keep two leading JWP leaders, Senator Shahid Bugti and Mir Humayun Marri, also a former Balochistan chief minister, under house arrest, Bulladai said the government had was targeting Baloch leaders. staff report

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