One More for the Chief Justice: Tensions brew in Balochistan as countless missing By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui

I know Iftikhar Chaudhry does not come to this baithak. But am counting on one of you to forward this to this attention. We have a Swat-Buner-N/S Waziristan in the making - or worse perhaps in Balochistan. Some say it is too late. But we should not give up and hope it is not too late. ~~t

'It was a white car. My face was covered with a black mask so I could not see and my hands had been tied... they began beating me up instantly,' recalls Adnan Baloch, who was picked up in Quetta on April 18, 2009, while on his way back home from his college. He claims that eventually the car stopped outside a 'torture cell’ and he ‘was treated with electric shocks all day long’ which 'ended up paralysing' both his legs.

According to him, he was released in Mastung a day later and was taken to a hospital for treatment. 'The police was there at the hospital...and even before I could begin talking about registering an FIR, I was told that it would not be registered,’ he adds.

Although Adnan has been released after the ‘abduction and subsequent physical torture, for being politically active and for being the nephew of currently missing Baloch Republican Party's central leader Chakar Qambrani,’ there are several in Balochistan who continue to remain missing.

On March 26, 2009, Shahzeb Baloch, president of the Baloch Students Organisation – Azad’s Quetta zone was reported missing. He continues to remain missing.

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The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s provincial coordinator in Balochistan, Fareed Ahmed, while saying that ‘hundreds appear to have been victims of enforced disappearances in the region,’ said the HRCP’s list of such cases indicates a figure of 150.

‘This is mostly because we at the HRCP include names to the list once the victim’s family approaches us,’ Ahmed said.

‘Once we have a reporting family, we try to approach the High Court to get the FIR registered, or we forward the case to Asma Jehangir in Lahore. We are also currently approaching the Supreme Court for the reopening of the missing persons’ cases.’