MUNIR Mengal, who reportedly has no links with any political party, was arrested on April 4 at Karachi airport. He had been preparing to launch a Baloch-language TV station, and this appears to be at least part of the reason he was arrested. His whereabouts are unknown, and he is in danger of being tortured or being made to ‘disappear’.

Mr Mengal is the director of the ‘Baloch Voice’, the first independent Baloch-language satellite television channel. Based in the United Arab Emirates, it was scheduled to start broadcasting in June. He has applied to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority for a licence for the channel.

His relatives say that they were told by immigration officials that Munir Mengal was taken away by the staff of an intelligence agency. They were told the same thing by the director of the FIA. They believe that he may be held in the Malir Cantonment of Karachi. Karachi-based journalists told the NGO Reporters without Borders, which campaigns for press freedom, that intelligence agencies were investigating the source of funding for the ‘Baloch Voice’.

Mr Mengal’s family tried to file a complaint with the police, but failed to do so. The staff at Malir Cantonment has refused to respond to the family’s request for information about his whereabouts. The local people in Balochistan are demanding a bigger share in the revenue generated by the province’s natural resources, principally natural gas, which they believe now benefit other provinces. A number of Baloch groups are seeking more rights for the province, some of which have resorted to violence, while others are campaigning peacefully. The government has attempted to suppress this opposition by increasing the military presence in the region.

In such a situation it would be appropriate that the whereabouts of Munir Mengal be made known, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally, unless he is charged with a criminal offence.

SHAHID BALOCH
Karachi