Aug 19, 2011

Balochistan: Missing Student Activists Found Dead


The bullet-riddled bodies of four missing activists of Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad) have been found

Below is an article published by the Express Tribune:

According to local official of Balochistan Levies, Zulfiqar Shah, some passersby spotted two bodies in Ganji Dohri and informed the Levies thana.

The bodies were shifted to a nearby state-run hospital where they were identified as Azad Mohammad Tariq and Mahmood Baloch.

Two other bodies were found after dawn near Kushkak. The victims were identified as Hamid Baloch and Latif Baloch. These were also reported to be affiliated with BSO-Azad.

“All the four were shot in the head while their bodies bore multiple marks of torture,” sources at Mastung district hospital told The Express Tribune. The bodies were handed over to families without a postmortem.

All the victims belonged to Bangulzai tribe and were buried at their ancestral graveyard in Mastung.

Mohammad Tariq was a student at Peshawar University and went missing on August 8th from Mastung, along with Mahmood Baloch. An FIR was also lodged in Mastung police station for the two.

Hamid and Latif Baloch went missing some three days ago. Officials in Mastung did not reveal any further details about the killings.

The BSO-Azad leadership has accused government functionaries of kidnapping and killing its activists. “Several BSO-Azad activists were picked up and subjected to severe torture. Later their bodies were dumped in desolated places. Government and security agencies are behind these killings,” a BSO-Azad spokesperson said.

Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMP), an organization striving for safe recovery of Baloch missing persons, has put the death toll of Baloch activists at around 190, whose bullet-riddled and mutilated bodies have been found during the past 13 months.

“These victims were also on the list of missing persons,” said Nasurallah Baloch, chairman of the VFBMP.