Thread by @Defense785

Balouchistan – Land of oppurtunities for Non-state actors

*THREAD*

This thread will cover the issue of Missing Persons (MPs)

Due to economic potentials, Baluchistan has become a venue of geo-politics and battlefield of economic interests between global and regional power players.Baluchistan was becoming prone to terrorism and sectarian violence; however these tendencies have been sufficiently contained

A misperception is widely prevalent that thousands of innocent persons are missing in Pakistan particularly in Balochistan. This highly exaggerated figure has been propagated by various interest groups having vested agendas; these include nationalists,

relatively less informed politicians, foreign funded media and few human rights organizations, both domestic and international.

The issue of Missing Persons (MPs) date back to October 2006, when agitations gained momentum against the issue and Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) took suo moto notice. In the backdrop of agitations and different high level meetings,

a committee in Ministry of Interior (MoI) was formed by the Federal Government, which laid down the criteria of enforced disappearance, which “means such persons as has been picked up/taken into custody by one of the law enforcement/intelligence agencies,

working under the civilian or military control, in a manner, which is contrary to the provision of law”.

By the end of year 2009, the list of MPs had swelled to 2390 and after detailed scrutiny by the said committee, 2201x cases were dropped from the given list being misreported/failing to fulfill the criteria of enforced disappearance.

To further institutionalize the system, in April 2010, 1st Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance (ColoED) compromising 3x retired judges was formed by the Federal Government of Pakistan.

This was an independent commission having all the judicial powers of SCP. Commission was given the mandate under laid down Terms & References to trace out the whereabouts of MPs. After a detailed scrutiny by the committee,

only 189x cases from the entire country were considered as MPs and in this list only 52x persons were from Baluchistan.

The said list was handed over to 1st Commission of Inquiry and this Commission duly assisted by law enforcement and intelligence agencies made a substantial progress in tracing out 134x MPs (including 32x MPs from Balochistan).

In March 2011, 2nd judicial Commission was formed. Since March 2011, the Commission has traced 1233x individuals (including 78x individuals from Balochistan).

According to a report by "COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES " , there are 2110 cases of Missing Persons in Pakistan.

As regards to enforced disappearances, following types of individuals are also included/propagated in the category of MPs:-

(1) Suicide bombers and unidentified persons, who die in suicide attacks.

(2) Victims of sabotage incidents, whose bodies could not be recognized.

(3) Mentally retarded individuals, who leave their homes and move into other parts of the country.

(4) Individuals, who die in Ferrari Camps and information for their death is not known to the families.

(5) Proclaimed offenders many a times are also reported as MPs by the relatives.

(6) Incidents have also come to light where persons, who are serving sentences in various jails are also included in the list of MPs.

(7) Most of the purported MPs, having links with various terrorist outfits and fearing arrest, have taken refuge in the far-flung areas of KPK/FATA and Ferrari Camps of Baluchistan. In addition, many have fled to other countries mainly Afghanistan.

To mislead the authorities their families purport them to be MPs.

Source: Faith, Unity, Discipline The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan by Hein Kiessling