On February 3, a raid was reported in Quetta where a family was arrested-slash-disappeared, including Raheem Zehri, his wife Rasheeda Zehri, his mother and two children. In the very next day, Zehri’s mother and two children were released, however, the couple remained captives, without identifying what crimes they had done. Protests broke-out across Pakistan including Karachi, Quetta, Islamabad, Lahore, Turbat, Khuzdar and other parts of the country. After 13 days, Rasheeda was set free and till today she cannot reckon what her guilt was, while her husband Raheem is still in the ‘torture cells’.
The issue of Raheem Zehri had not then resolved and people were questioning the wrongful detention of the Zehri family, when on 17th of February at around 9 in the night, the notorious Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) raided the house of Mahal Baloch and detained her whole family, including Mahal herself, her mother-in-law Mahnaz, of approximately 65 years of age, her two minor daughters Nugrah, 7, and Nazink, 6, and her minor niece Banadi, 12. They were taken to the CTD prison where through the night, as claimed by the other detainees when they were released the next day, the CTD tortured Mahal Baloch and forced her to accept that she had a suicide bombing jacket. “Because they were brought by CTD themselves, how could Mahal endorse that?” they say.
Apart from torturing Mahal, they interrogated the three minors which is not legal in any means. How can you interrogate minors aging 6, 7 and 12 without their guardian or next of kin? Under what law was this interrogation held? Under which law was Mahal tortured in front of minors? Who will make the CTD accountable for the violation of human rights and the state’s laws? Who has empowered them and under what law?
Historically speaking, the Baloch have always asked legal questions of the authorities, but in return, they have either been abducted, tortured or killed in broad daylight, and their cases were closed with FIRs registered against ‘unknown armed men’.
When it comes to the miscarriage of justice that are FIRs against unknown armed men that a woman was seen in a video holding a Quran and wailing for someone to save her family from illegal detention by a provincial minister, Abdul Rehman Khetran. The woman is Granaz Baloch, wife of Khan Mohammad Marri. In a recent finding, three dead bodies were recovered in a ditch in the Barkhan district of Balochistan. The bodies, because they were tortured, raped and killed, could not be identified initially. However, Khan Mohammad Marri claimed the woman was her wife Granaz and the other two were his sons, who were in the custody of the provincial minister.
In a poster-mortem report on February 23, it was found out that the corpses did not include who Mr. Marri had claimed to have been his wife Granaz. Dr. Ayesha Faiz says the body is of a young girl around 18 years of age, who was raped, tortured and killed. “The girl was shot in the head with three bullets, and acid was thrown on her neck and face to obscure her identity,” says Dr. Faiz.
Other reports say that the girl was the only daughter of Khan Mohammad, while the Levies forces claim to have recovered Granaz with her children from Barkhan. The situation has turned into an enigma: whose dead bodies were found then? Whatsoever may be the case, we cannot oversee the involvement of Rehman Khetran in the private prison case and the murders of the innocent persons there.
Another mystery in the Barkhan tragedy is that the family had nominated the provincial minister, but police registered the FIR against an ‘unknown’ person, which means that the provincial administration is trying hard to safeguard the minister with whatever means possible. In fact, the spokesperson for the Balochistan Government, Farah Azeem Shah rejected news of removing the minister from his position, which is yet another hint that the government is seeking to protect him.
On the other hand, police raided Rehman Khetran’s homes in Quetta and arrested him. On February 23, when the provincial minister was produced in the court of magistrate in Quetta, the police asked for judicial remands of the minister for which the court granted 10 days of judicial remand to continue further inquiry into the matter.
What we can clearly observe is a great effort to ensure that Abdul Rehman Khetran’s name is removed from the case. It is plain to see that delay tactics are being used to temper the public’s anger and for people’s memory to wipe itself clean on the Barkhan tragedy. The Quddus-led government also formed a judicial inquiry committee which is to probe the issue and bring forth a detailed report within thirty days, after the issuance of the notification. Again, the members of the judicial inquiry committee belong to the same circle, and include the DIG of Police Loralai range as the Chairman and Convener, SSP Quetta as Member, Representative of Special Branch Barkhan as Member, and Deputy Commissioner Barkhan as Member and Secretary.
The tragedy, above all and everything, is evidence that Balochistan is used to the formations of judicial commissions that ultimately lead to nothing. From the commission on enforced disappearances to the one on Ziarat’s fake encounters by the same CTD, every commission that has been formed in Balochistan sough to serve the interests of parties other than Baloch civilians. In this state of affairs, the Baloch people have no hope that the state will ever view them as their own citizens and worthy of their rights.