Committee formed to campaign for Wahid Baloch’s release

An eight-member committee has been formed to oversee a signature campaign for the release of Abdul Wahid Baloch, a Lyari-based Baloch writer and activist who has been missing since his July 26 arrest at Toll Plaza, Super Highway. 

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held at the Karachi office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Thursday. 

The committee consists of Kaleem Durrani, Asad Iqbal Butt, Rahat Saeed, Naghma Shaikh, Elahi Bukhsh Baloch, Uzma Bukhari, Malaka Khan, Shoaib and Aabida Ali. 

The committee will involve political and rights activists, writers, and journalists in a signature campaign and expand the campaign by participating in upcoming programmes, including the congress of the Awami Workers Party in Karachi. 

On October 3, a little over 400 people marched in a procession from Regal Chowk to the Karachi Press Club to protest the disappearance of Wahid Baloch. 

Addressing the protesters at the Karachi Press Club, Baloch’s daughter, Hani, narrated how the gun-wielding plainclothes men had shoved her father into a vehicle and whisked him away to some destination which still has not been determined. She said that it was just yesterday that police had finally registered an FIR.

She said that her father was the most benevolent person and he had no record of anti-state activities. He was just a social activist who just helped the needy.