State authorities urged to end enforced disappearances

Angered over ‘enforced disappearances’ of fellow political activists from various parts of Sindh, a large number of civil society representatives on Thursday marched from Regal Chowk to the local press club to demand their immediate release.

Organised by the Joint Action Committee – an alliance of various civil society groups – the protest was attended not just by political activists, but also academicians, students and relatives of the missing activists.

According to the protesters, a number of peaceful political workers, writers, philosophers, journalists and students have gone missing from Sindh over a period of time.

A leading campaigner for the release of missing persons, Punhal Sario, was one among those who went missing last week. He is reported to have been picked up on August 3 from Qasimabad area in Hyderabad by occupants of two double cabin vehicles. Sario was the convener of a recently formed group, Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh, and had recently led a march from Hyderabad to Karachi for the recovery of missing activists.

The participants of the march said that no one from the provincial government, especially the police, takes responsibility of the illegal detentions and neither does anyone know of their whereabouts.

Besides requesting human rights organisations to play their role, the protestors appealed to the prime minister, chief justice of Pakistan, the interior ministry and provincial authorities to take immediate notice of the disappearances and immediately free all those held captive.

If found involved in any criminal activities against the state, the human rights campaigners called for the abducted activists to be produced in the court of law. Vice chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Sindh, Asad Iqbal Butt, remarked that the trend is creating fear in the minds of peaceful people of Sindh.

"Sario did nothing against the law and only raised voice for the recovery of missing persons," he said. Earlier, the march’s participants held a meeting at the HRCP office to discuss the issue of enforced disappearances of Sindhi activists and to devise a strategy to campaign for their release.

Among noted participants of the rally were, Butt, Uzma Noorani and Shireen Ijaz of the HRCP, Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Ramzan Memon of the National Party, Ilahi Baksh Bikak of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Saeed Baloch of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Mehnaz Rahman of the Aurat Foundation, Ellahi Baksh Baloch of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation, Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation,  activists Shireen, Raheema Panhwar, Naghma Shaikh, Wahab Baloch and Qazi Khizer; academicians who attended the protest were Nida Kirmani, Riaz Ahmed and Hafeez Jamali and trade unionist Ayub Qureshi.