Kamila Hyat

Still without a trace by Kamila Hyat

February 12th by Kamila Hyat.

 

Almost a year after the PPP government took charge in Islamabad, hundreds of people who have been missing in the country for years have still to be located.

Asif Ali Zardari, in the days before he moved into the Presidency, and into the world of delusional bliss that the gilt-decorated chaises longues, sofas and chandeliers of that building seem to induce, had promised these people would be released. The consequences of the failure to keep that pledge are now being felt. A previously unknown group, the Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) has claimed responsibility for the audacious kidnapping in Quetta of the UNHCR chief in Pakistan, John Solecki. The style of the abduction, during which the UN official’s driver was tragically killed, and the fact that Solecki, moving without an escort at the time, was a US national, led to suspicion turning the way of militants. Several previous instances in Quetta had suggested the Taliban were moving rapidly into the city, expanding their hold well beyond tribal areas. On this basis, the Chaman border was sealed in anticipation of an attempt to whisk the victim away into Afghanistan. It now seems he was taken in quite the opposite direction, into the heartland of Balochistan and the stronghold of nationalists. The BLUF has said it waited to speak until such a place of safety had been reached.

The BLUF has said Solecki is safe – for now – and that his abduction is intended to highlight the plight of the Baloch people and demand the release of 600 persons from the province that the BLUF says are still missing. We have no way of determining the authenticity of all this. In the past, Baloch groups have been created in agency offices and used to fulfil various purposes. Attempts to whip up ethnic hatred have been made. In some quarters, Zardari’s initial pledge of a new deal with Balochistan had sparked unease. It is known that warnings were issued about doing business with “traitors”; attempts may also have been made to paint Baloch nationalists as militants allied with the Taliban. Nothing could be further from the truth. As their websites indicate, and as their leaders openly state, most Baloch nationalist groups have no sympathy with religious extremists. Many adhere to a liberal, secular creed that runs diametrically opposite to the rigid orthodoxy of the Taliban.

But this does not prevent them from following the lead set by the extremists in some spheres. Indeed, the dangerous examples set by the Taliban are being used by others, for their own purposes. We already have one horrifying incident in which a killer in Bhakkar “hired” the services of a suicide bomber to murder a business partner with whom he had fallen out. Twenty others died alongside the intended victim, many others were injured, some scarred for life. The thought that others could resort to the same methods to settle petty scores is terrifying. The BLUF, if it is indeed a real entity, has also taken its lead from the extremists, emulating their mode of operation and their strategy. The net result, of course, is an expansion in violence in our society and an increase in the dangers that exist everywhere within it.

Though the BLUF’s statement has received, like the Baloch cause itself, only limited publicity in the mainstream media, it has been flashed across newspapers in Balochistan province. The comments highlight the grievances of the people and their deep sense of injustice. It is this sense of discrimination that needs to be tackled as a means to cut down on the many layers of violence we see everywhere. The fact that hundreds from Balochistan remain missing is obviously a matter that needs to be taken up. The recent account by Munir Mengal, the journalist taken away from Karachi airport in early 2006 and held for over 16 months, of a cell where a Baloch woman was repeatedly raped and subjected to the most inhumane treatment, has only deepened anger in the province. Other accounts provided by Baloch people who have been held in custody also speak of the same contempt and of terrible torture inflicted on them. The refusal to permit a Baloch language television channel to be established and the attempts made to blank out the vibrant websites run by Baloch groups is yet another example of why there is so deep a feeling of lack of fair play in the province. The issue of Balochistan’s natural resources and a say in their use underpins much of this.

The prime minister, the cabinet and the president need to explain why the process of change they had promised in Balochistan has not moved forward. The progress that has been made is too limited to satisfy nationalists and the growing numbers who sympathise with them. Which are the forces that hamper efforts to bring change–or is the main issue simply the indifference and incompetence that we see everywhere in government? Not only in Balochistan, but in Islamabad itself, the issue of missing people continues to crop up. Ahead of Eid and the New Year, families had once more protested to demand the release of husbands, sons, brothers or fathers who have in some cases been missing for almost a decade. The horrifying story of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who was among those who “disappeared” from within Pakistan, is a reminder of what can happen to these people. We still know almost nothing about how she landed up at Bagram or why she was present, before then, in Afghanistan. Since the dismissal in November 2007 of the Supreme Court headed by deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, we have heard nothing of the missing people. The petitions seeking their release seem to have been buried and forgotten.

It is understood that as it first walked into the offices of government, the PPP had sensibly identified key areas on which it intended to move swiftly. The release of missing persons and action to draw Baloch nationalists into the mainstream had been a part of this. There has been only the most limited success in all this. As it approaches the end of its first year in office, the reasons for these failures need to be reviewed by the government. There have been several events that suggest just how volatile the situation remains in Balochistan. The banishing of women from some Quetta cafes following Taliban demands, the murder of a Hazara leader and the kidnapping of John Solecki are among these. They all point to the urgent need to tackle the issues of Balochistan before they become even more complicated and even harder to find adequate solutions to.