Today marks thirteen years of the protest started by Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) Vice Chairperson and activist Mama Qadeer Baloch in 2009, making it one of the longest on-going protests in the country.
Mama Qadeer Baloch is a Baloch activist who held a protest and a hunger strike camp in 2009, protesting the on-going enforced disappearances in Balochistan. The protest camp was set up outside the Quetta Press Club, and continued to go on for the next ten years.
In 2012, his own son Jaleel Reki Baloch had been found dead, and in 2013, he joined other Baloch protestors in a long-march to Islamabad for the recovery of missing persons.
In 2019, the VBMP announced that it was temporarily suspending its 10-year-long protest, after the Balochistan government had given them assurances regarding the recovery of the missing Baloch persons. It was reported that the government had sought a two-months suspension from the VBMP, during which time it would address and rectify the issue at hand.
However, the protest camp was reinitiated, and today marks the 13th year of the hunger strike and protest camp.
In 2020, Mama Qadeer criticized the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for their 'insincere concern' for missing persons. "In every Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) era, Baloch persons went missing. Their bodies were found tortured and mass graves were also discovered," he said in a video message recorded from the hunger strike camp.
He claimed that even more Baloch had gone missing during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) regime, and called for parties to stop making the issue of missing Baloch people part of their political agenda.
Mama Qadeer Baloch is a Baloch activist who held a protest and a hunger strike camp in 2009, protesting the on-going enforced disappearances in Balochistan. The protest camp was set up outside the Quetta Press Club, and continued to go on for the next ten years.
In 2012, his own son Jaleel Reki Baloch had been found dead, and in 2013, he joined other Baloch protestors in a long-march to Islamabad for the recovery of missing persons.
In 2019, the VBMP announced that it was temporarily suspending its 10-year-long protest, after the Balochistan government had given them assurances regarding the recovery of the missing Baloch persons. It was reported that the government had sought a two-months suspension from the VBMP, during which time it would address and rectify the issue at hand.
However, the protest camp was reinitiated, and today marks the 13th year of the hunger strike and protest camp.
In 2020, Mama Qadeer criticized the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for their 'insincere concern' for missing persons. "In every Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) era, Baloch persons went missing. Their bodies were found tortured and mass graves were also discovered," he said in a video message recorded from the hunger strike camp.
He claimed that even more Baloch had gone missing during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) regime, and called for parties to stop making the issue of missing Baloch people part of their political agenda.