Families anguished over Gestapo-style abductions in Baluchistan

by Ahmar Mustikhan | January 8, 2010 at 01:07 am

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Braving Siberia-like cold of Quetta valley, family members of Baluch missing persons have been squatting on hunger strike in front of the Quetta Press Club, Baluchistan -- the area-wise largest "province" of Pakistan which the Baluch call occupied territories.

Pakistan Military Intelligence and Inter Services Intelligence simply whisk away the freedom activists and their families keep wondering whether they are alive or dead.

"I have no idea at all," said Norwegian-Baluch activist Ali Arjemandi from Oslo, when asked about his missing brother's whereabouts. His brother Ehsan Arjemandi, 34, was abuducted by a military intelligence major named Major Mohammad Shahid on August 7, 2009 and he is still traceless.

In the group are the young sons and daughters of Ali Asghar Bungalzai, a 38-year-old Quetta tailor. For months after he was picked up in October 2001, military and intelligence officials reportedly kept assuring his family that he would be released soon. Between 2006 and 2007, the children — all of them then under 20 — stood outside the press club for a full 371 days, demanding that their father be restored to them. They were persuaded to leave only after the Governor assured them that he would take a personal interest in tracking down their father. But Bunglazai remains missing to this day.