The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, also known as the United Nations Convention against Torture,
is an international human rights instrument aimed at preventing torture
around the world. The United Nations General Assembly adopted it on
December 10, 1984; it came into force on June 26, 1987. June 26 is
recognised as the International Day in Support of Torture Victims.
Pakistan signed it on April 17, 2008 and ratified it on June 3, 2010.
It observed this day by dumping Buland Khan’s tortured, bullet-riddled
body in Dasht, Mastung, abducted five days before from Quetta.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention against Torture on
December 10, 1984; it came into force on June 26, 1987. June 26 is
recognised as the International Day in Support of Torture Victims.
Pakistan signed it on April 17, 2008 and ratified it on June 3, 2010.
It observed this day by dumping Buland Khan’s tortured, bullet-riddled
body in Dasht, Mastung, abducted five days before from Quetta.
The Pakistani state since signing this convention has decidedly
trampled all over it in Balochistan. In 2010, 103 bodies were
discovered, while 2011 saw this number rise to 203 and this year, so
far, 80 bodies have been recovered. Kalat district heads the count,
accounting for 133 victims; 60 bodies were discovered in Makran district
and 102 victims were found in Quetta. Note: these figures are only for
the past 18 months and many were victims before too, and it does not
include people like Professor Saba Dashtiyari
and other victims of targeted killings. No convention unless backed by
sanctions is good enough to deter those who have enjoyed immunity for
all past atrocities. Victims of the Frontier Corps (FC), intelligence
agencies and their henchmen’s brutality litter Balochistan’s landscape
but the Baloch persist with their struggle.
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| Mother of Mohammed Khan & Mohammed Nabi |
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPED)
was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 20, 2006
and came into force on December 23, 2010; 91 states have signed it and
32 countries have ratified or acceded it. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan
remains one of the countries that refuse to sign it and even if it did,
it will flout it as brazenly as it does the one on torture. August 30 is
observed as the ‘International Day of the Disappeared’, which Pakistan
observes by making even more people disappear.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPED)
was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 20, 2006
and came into force on December 23, 2010 . August 30 is
observed as the ‘International Day of the Disappeared’, which Pakistan
observes by making even more people disappear.
This Wednesday the Senate’s Functional Committee on Human Rights
expressed displeasure over the increasing number of missing persons and
adopted a resolution recommending the government to sign international conventions on the protection of people against forced disappearance. The Defence Secretary, Nargis Sethi, staunchly defended the intelligence agencies
and stated that the whole world was hostile to the government agencies,
which were doing their work in the country’s best interest. Some work!
She deflected the indictment of the Supreme Court about the
responsibility of the FC for 85 percent of disappearances in Balochistan
by stating that the FC was under the interior ministry. This lame
excuse would be laughable if only the matter was not that of hundreds of
Baloch being abducted and killed by the state.
The Baloch have suffered terribly at the hands of the state since
1948 but maintain their dignity and have shown resolute courage under
fire. The Baloch consider crying over the dead a sign of weakness; a
picture on the internet showed the mother of my students, Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Nabi Marri,
flashing a victory sign by their graves. The pain she must have
undergone during their disappearance and then seeing their mutilated
bodies can only be known to her. In Balochi, to express the sorrow of
loss of the dead, they rightly say the fire heats most the spot it burns
on.
I cannot claim that I am more hurt than those who have lost their
loved ones in this ongoing dirty war against the Baloch, but I too am
deeply hurt and saddened because among these dead are many persons whom I
knew well and was associated with during our long exile in Afghanistan.
Will someone tell how one condoles and commiserates with a person who
has at once lost two brothers to state brutality? Should I tell him to
accept it as destiny and ask him to show forbearance? If I do that, will
he not think that Ustad with age has lost his marbles? Because I would
not be speaking about unknown people, strangers, but persons I knew as
flesh and blood, with a passion for studying, who patiently sat hours on
the gravelly ground, summer and winter, to learn the three Rs I taught
them.
Each Baloch who has fallen victim to state brutality, regardless of
the fact whether the interior ministry, the defence ministry or their
henchmen were responsible, deserves to be thanked and remembered for
their dedication and commitment to the Baloch struggle, for had they
succumbed to pressures or temptations they would be alive. Among these
nearly 500 Baloch who have recently paid their debt of blood to their
nation, I personally knew many. But I want to especially mention my
students who have died gruesome deaths at the hands of the brutal
enemies of humanity, who recognise no moral or religious norms, though
ostensibly they do all this in the good name of Islam.
I feel honoured and privileged to be identified with those young men,
my former students, who fell participating in the fight for a life of
dignity and freedom for the Baloch people. I will name them with their
sub-clans sobdar: Wahid Bakhsh, Shah Mir and Ahmad Murghiani. Zaman Khan
and Ahmed Ali Chalgari. Arzu, Sherbat, Murad, and Zaman Sherani.
Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Nabi Pirdadani. Faiz Mohammad, Nasir and
Wazir Khan Mazarani. Gulzar Taingiani and Ghulam Qadir Pirukani. Some
including Dr Akbar Pirdadani are missing. They died honourably and the
Baloch owe them a debt, which can be redeemed only in struggle for a
just and dignified life for the Baloch.
There will be no change in the brutality towards the Baloch even if
the Convention on Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
is signed by Pakistan. The brutalities will continue; for after
ratifying the Convention on Torture, they mercilessly continue to
torture and kill in custody. Toothless and worthless conventions will
not hinder those who are bent upon subjugating people and land for
exploitation. Apparently, the world too does not take these conventions
seriously enough, for had these meant anything, there would have been a
reaction to Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan. At present, the only
thing that can and is making the essential difference is the Baloch
resistance to these atrocities but that needs support from all. Those
silent at atrocities on the Baloch should remember that the perpetrators
will sooner or later come for them too. (
Courtesy:
Daily Times)
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