Balochistan In pursuit of justice
Abdul Razaq Baloch, sub-editor of Mastung based “Daily Tawar” has been missing since March 24th until
he was found dead along with four others on wednesday 21st August. Their amputated bodies were
rescued from surjani town of Metropolitan Karachi which has in recent days become the new
dumping ground of Baloch corpses previously dumped in their native Balochistan. Abdul Razaq
ranks 28th in the list of reported ‘Baloch journalists killed since 2006 (including 4 killed this
year alone) he ranks somewhere in hundreds in the list of ‘Extra judicial killings, and ranked
in thousands when he was reported missing. Abdul Razaq’s body was inflicted with severe
marks of torture, his right eye soaked in blood, deep cuts on his lower lip, his ashed face
with blisters on it showed signs of burning and his neck carried strangulation marks from
the front. He was unrecognisable at first glance even to his family who protested for his safe return
a day before his body was found, it took them 24 hours of scrutiny to finally figure out that it really was
Abdul Razaq. Like all others Abducted-tortured-killed and dumped there will be no autopsies for
Abdul Razaq, no investigations ordered and no individual court case registered, his death will be
mourned silently, making no news on the television news channels and there will be no editorials
drafted except a few news reports. This is partly because he is the usual Baloch missing person
turned kill and dump victim but mainly because it is the state and its powerful establishment responsible
for his brutal demise and slamming the death of the likes of Abdul Razaq would mean rejecting
establishment’s way of dealing with Balochistan’s climate of terror which is deemed to be in line
with notorious state policies.
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