PAKISTAN: ABDUCTED POLITICAL ACTIVIST AT RISK OF DEATH

abducted political activist at risk of death�Zahid Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch Student Organisation-Azad (BSOA) was abducted in Quetta, Balochistan, on 18 March. His family do not know where he is or what has happened to him. He is at grave risk of ill-treatment, torture, or even death. Hundreds of other activists have suffered similar fates in the province over recent years. Witnesses claim Zahid Baloch was taken at gunpoint in the Satellite Town area in Quetta, Balochistan on 18 March by personnel of the Frontier Corps, a federal paramilitary force. The authorities have not provided any information concerning his abduction and have failed to investigate it adequately. Zahid Baloch is the Chairman of BSOA, a student organization advocating the separation of Balochistan province from the state of Pakistan. It was banned by the Pakistan government in March 2013 because they claimed it was “involved in terrorism.”Zahid Baloch’s abduction follows a pattern of enforced disappearances in Balochistan province whereby Baloch political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and suspected insurgents have been picked up by state security forces, and never seen again. Across the province many of those subjected to enforced disappearance have been recovered dead, often bearing bullet wounds and marks of torture. Activists calling for greater autonomy for the Baloch population, seen by the Pakistani authorities as ‘anti-state’, are particularly vulnerable to these violations. Relatives and eyewitnesses frequently accuse the security forces, especially the Frontier Corps and intelligence services, for carrying out these violations. READ MORE:  
 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA33/008/2014/en/44c3100a-f6d1-44b8-b77e-8dcffa13e447/asa330082014en.html