Pakistan: Due to four relatives’ forced disappearances, Baloch families are blocking the CPEC in Kech
Pakistan: Families staged a sit-in protest in the province’s Kech district, blocking a crucial section of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the Tejaban region for the third day in a row, demanding the recovery of four missing members of the same family as Pakistani forces continue to escalate the enforced disappearance of civilians throughout Balochistan, according to local media on Saturday.
The protest follows accusations that women and children were left on the road overnight in frigid temperatures after the local administration violated an agreement.
The demonstrators claim that during discussions with the district government last week, representatives gave them assurances that missing people, particularly women, would be found. The Balochistan Post said that when the authorities did nothing, the sit-in was momentarily put on hold but then restarted.
The demonstrators said that the authorities’ inability to find the four members of the same family—one of them is nine months pregnant—has raised grave worries.
The four individuals were taken by Pakistani troops from Tejaban in Kech, comprising two males, Fareed Ijaz and Mujahid Dilwash, and two women, Hani Dilwash and Hair-Nisa, who were taken by force from Hub Chowki.
However, demonstrators said that at the Hub checkpoint, Pakistani soldiers arrested four more individuals, including two Tejaban women, and took them to an unidentified place. Social media reports that the arrested persons were preparing a suicide attack have also been denied by the protesters and their families.
The demonstrators said that women and children in Balochistan are forced to hold rallies in the freezing cold on the streets, calling for the recovery of their loved ones, while the world rings in the New Year.
A number of human rights organizations have expressed recurring concerns about the delicate topic of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
Meanwhile, both local residents and travelers across districts allegedly experienced significant disruptions as a result of the CPEC route shutdown.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a human rights organization, claims that the people of Balochistan are still subjected to systematic human rights abuses, terror, and persecution.
The BYC encouraged international humanitarian organizations to hold Pakistan and its institutions responsible for the unlawful kidnapping of Baloch women and men, and called on the people of Balochistan to show sympathy with the victims’ families.