Inter-Asia Cultural Studies

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The role of women’s political activism against

enforced disappearances in Balochistan: a study of
the Baluch missing persons

Shala Ashraf, Ikram Badshah & Usman Khan

To cite this article: Shala Ashraf, Ikram Badshah & Usman Khan (23 Oct 2023): The role of
women’s political activism against enforced disappearances in Balochistan: a study of the
Baluch missing persons, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14649373.2023.2265687

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2023.2265687

Published online: 23 Oct 2023.

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INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2023.2265687

The role of women’s political activism against enforced

disappearances in Balochistan: a study of the Baluch missing persons
Shala ASHRAFa, Ikram BADSHAHa and Usman KHANb
a
Department of Anthropology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; bSchool of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The article attempts to highlight the issue of enforced disappearances in Political activism; enforced
Balochistan and in particular the Baloch population. The focus is on blood disappearance; Balochistan;
relatives and specifically mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, and other close women
female relatives of forcibly disappeared persons. The Baloch women are at
the forefront of the struggle against these enforced disappearances. They
are experiencing hardships in seeking justice for the victims and continue to
search for the whereabouts of their forcibly disappeared loved ones. The
politically motivated women activists have initiated a collective struggle for
the safe recovery of the disappeared victims. The families created an
organization by the name of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) in 2009,
which provides the families legal, political, human rights, and emotional
support with a strong aspiration to bring justice to the aggrieved families.
The data were obtained using an ethnographic method of participant
observation, interviews, and conversations with VBMP members, families,
and especially female family members of the enforced disappeared victims.
The article concluded by saying that, the Baloch women’s activism and
resistance have opened a new horizon for the participation of victims’
relatives in a patriarchal society. The Baloch women have strived hard to
bring back their loved ones, thus adding a new dimension to the
ethnolinguistic politics and recognition in the age of state project of
homogenization and suppression.

Introduction
Enforced disappearances are not a new and unique type of human rights violation. It happens all over
the world (Arfat and Banday 2013; Vitkauskaitė-Meurice and Žilinskas 2010) and is prevalent through-
out human history. The disappearances are mostly executed by the state in the name of national secur-
ity and national interest. To put an end to enforced disappearances, the United Nations General
Assembly and the United Nations Framework of Human Rights Charter adopted the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPAPED) on 23 Decem-
ber 2010. The purpose of the Convention is to draw attention to the issue of enforced disappearances, to
support victims, to help States finding disappeared persons, to punish, prevent this crime, and to ensure
the accountability of the persons or groups responsible for this crime against humanity.
Enforced disappearances are generally multi-layered human rights violations. They violate sev-
eral articles of the United Nations Framework of the Human Rights Charter: Article 1: the right to

CONTACT Ikram Badshah Ikram@qau.edu.pk Department of Anthropology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

dignity; Article 2: the right to freedom; Article 3: the right to life, liberty, and security; Article 5: no
one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Article
6: everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law; Article 7: all are
entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of human rights declaration;
Article 9: no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; Article 10: everyone is
entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal;
and Article 19: everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression (UN 1949, 2015).
These basic human rights are repeatedly ignored and violated by the state in the case of Baloch-
enforced disappearances.
The Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances (OHCHR 1992)
clearly states that it is the responsibility of states to prevent their citizens from being abducted and
forbids the states from any such practice in articles 1 and 2 of the Declaration, but the bitter reality
is that state itself is involved in enforced disappearances and is violating basic human rights of its
citizens. Article 7 makes it clear in the following words that this practice must be prohibited in any
circumstances whatsoever: “No circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war,
internal political instability or any other public emergency may be invoked to justify enforced dis-
appearances” (OHCHR 1992, 3).
The problem of enforced disappeared persons is one of the most disturbing security issues faced
by different ethnic groups of Pakistan in current political situations. Violations of civil and political
rights as well as illegal and arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial executions and fake encounters are com-
mon in Pakistan. Thousands of people have been subjected to incommunicado detentions in anon-
ymous places and exposed to torture and ill-treatment in Pakistan. The families of these victims are
harassed and threatened for searching for their loved ones (HRCP 2006; HRW 2011). The enforced
disappearances in Pakistan became common practice during the “war on terror,” which was backed
up by the United States of America and its allies (Amnesty International 2006; Shafiq 2013). But
later Pakistani state apparatuses i.e. secret agencies and law enforcement agencies started using
the same method to control other political fractions considered dissents, those who fight for
their civil and political rights, an independent state as in the case of Baloch separatists, or persons
who are accused of involvement in terrorism after the incident of 9/11 (Mughal 2013).
The resistance to enforced disappearance has been recorded in many places on many different
occasions, but this article deals more particularly with the question of how the Baloch women,
together with their men, have resisted the practice of enforced disappearance. We discuss narratives
and personal stories of Baloch female activists and examine how these women politicize the
ingrained issue and record their grievances in the long political history of Balochistan that has
been historically neglected, erased, and doesn’t really exist in the mainstream national discourse.

A glimpse at the history of Baloch missing persons

Though the issue of enforced disappearances in Pakistan can be mapped from the 1970s (Mughal
2013), the first case appeared in Balochistan when Asad Mengal, the brother of Atta Ullah Mengal,
disappeared during a military operation in 1976. Later in 1995, many members of MQM (Mutahida
Qaumi Movement) disappeared involuntarily (Hassan 2011). Since 2001, there have been several
cases of enforced disappearances, unlawful detentions and extra-judicial killings of activists,
nationalist leaders, journalists, and civilians belonging to Baloch, Pashtun, Sindhi, and Muhajir
populations (HRW 2011; Mughal 2013; Shafiq 2013). The Baloch from Balochistan have been par-
ticularly subjected to enforced disappearance, ill-treatment, and extrajudicial execution mostly
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 3

because of their dissident political ideas and activities (HRCP 2009, 2011, 2012, 2019; Mughal
2013). However, according to VBMP (Voice for Baloch Missing Persons), currently, many involun-
tary disappearances have no history of political involvement or insurgent activities.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s (2011, 2019) and Human Rights
Watch’s (2011) reports, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) of Balochistan operate along with Federal
Corps and other federal bodies i.e. Military Intelligence (MI) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in
extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and killing through fake encounters. LEAs
and other federal agencies not only are concerned primarily with maintaining order but also creat-
ing disorder and disorientation in the society, i.e. in Balochistan.
Families suffer the most when one of the members disappears forcibly. Other members struggle
to find the whereabouts of their loved ones (HRW 2011). Some of the victims who previously dis-
appeared forcibly report another person in detention and inform the family members of the latter
of his wellbeing. In many cases, children who testified in court against law enforcement agencies
regarding the disappearance of their relatives have themselves been reported as victims of forced
disappearance carried out by powerful intelligence agency, in order to silence any protest against
this illegal act. (Amnesty International 2008). In many cases, especially in Balochistan, female
family members of the so-called insurgents, freedom fighters or Baloch nationalists are abducted
in order to compel these men to surrender (Shafiq 2013).
Evidence and interviews obtained by Amnesty International (2008) confirm that perpetrators
keep their identities secret. They also keep the location of detention centers secret by transferring
the victims from one detention/torture center to another. If they want to release someone, the per-
petrators would hand him over to another agency, such as the police or the Counter Terrorism
Department (CTD). The Balochistan Post (2011) reports that the CTD has been reportedly involved
in many recent forcibly disappearances and fake encounters in Balochistan. In this complicated
process, it is challenging for the relatives to trace their loved ones or to pursue justice.
The secret intelligence agencies warn the families of the victims to withdraw their petitions and
cases from court and to stop demanding the return of their relatives (Amnesty International 2008;
HRCP 2006, 2012; HRW 2011). In multiple cases, family members who are active in protests and
political mobilizations against forcibly disappearances are contacted by intelligence agencies and
informed that if they keep quiet, their missing loved ones might return from dungeons (HRCP
2006, 2009, 2012). In some cases, the missing persons have returned home; but in most cases, it
proved to be just a lie. According to HRCP Report, victims are also intimidated and abused, and
“are to remain silent. They are blindfolded and handcuffed and tortured through various means,
including injection of unknown chemicals, humiliation through body stripping” (HRCP 2006).
In many cases, those who are released are too afraid to talk about their ghastly experience or to
report the situation to anyone, because they fear that they might be abducted again or worse, tor-
tured to death/killed-and-dumped (HRW 2011). According to Mama Qadeer Baloch the vice chair-
man of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), very few cases get the spotlight, as many
families are also reluctant to report their missing members or visit the VBMP camp. The family
members of the victim know that they are being closely monitored and hanging by a thread: any
loose action could put themselves in further trouble and prove to be fatal to the missing victims.
In several cases, families who visited the VBMP camp seeking the recovery of their missing
loved ones were themselves forcibly disappeared by law enforcement agencies. This was done as
a warning to anyone who dared to speak out against the authorities.
Since 2009, after the creation of VBMP and before that too, Baloch women have taken it upon
themselves to lead from the front, to vociferously protest, and to carry out sit-ins against the forcibly
4 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

disappearances of their relatives (Shafiq 2013). Unspeakable stories of injustice, extrajudicial killings,
state-sponsored violence, and forced disappearances dominate public consciousness and the mem-
ories of women who were victims’ relatives in Balochistan. This creates a pervasive sense of isolation
to left behind family members of the missing persons (HRCP 2006; HRW 2011). In Balochistan, the
situation is quite different, among the thousands of “missing persons” majority of them are innocent
people who have no connection with the so-called separatists and terrorists groups. It is a common
belief that if someone goes missing involuntarily, it is their own fault, or they are somehow connected
to terrorists, or are terrorists themselves. But in fact, many people have gone missing just because of
their “legitimate political activities and opinions” (HRCP 2009).
In addition to being one of the major problems that Balochistan is currently dealing with on a
macro level, this issue of forced disappearance is also having a negative impact on the region’s
socioeconomic situation and contributing to feelings of deprivation and tension. This issue has
developed into a “black hole” that sucks up people willfully, negatively affecting both their families
and society. According to The News International, “the epidemic of enforced disappearances is one
of the numerous state-spread diseases that have terrified the entire country, particularly non-core
groups like Baloch and Sindhi.” Thousands of people have gone missing across the country as a
result of forced disappearances, particularly in the Balochistan Province (30 August 2012).
Arfat and Banday (2013) state that, the victims of disappearances suffer from both physical,
mental, and emotional traumas. Additionally, they go through economic loss and are exempted
from basic human rights through the practice of omission of international human rights laws.
Arfat and Banday (2013) have noted that in this entire process, the rights of the immediate family
i.e. children, wife, siblings, daughters, mother, etc. of the victims are being gravely violated as well.
Enforced disappearances are not only the violation of the rights of the victim but also the violation
of the rights of his/her acquaintances as “enforced disappearances inflict unbearable cruelty” to
both parties (Human Rights Watch 2011). The grieving family suffers from sudden loss upon hear-
ing the news of the victim’s illegal confinement. Over time, they begin the political struggle by rais-
ing their voice in support of the victims, but this comes at the cost of tremendous mental, physical
and financial loss to themselves. In addition, they constantly receive threats from unknown sources
causing them psychological stress and agony.
The harsh reality of forced disappearance has created an obscene space where the victim is
denied the right of expression. The forcibly disappeared person is illegally detained in a cell by
the state and its functionaries. He does not have the freedom to take any legal actions against
the groups who have abducted/contained him against the law. He is not provided any means to
do anything to improve his condition. He is not presented in court or provided legal support. In
this wicked game of fear and death, the stories of victims and families of victims are repressed,
and their narratives of violence are prevented from being leaked to the media. They are denied
the right to know the status of their loved ones. The relatives understand fully that they are vulner-
able and must avoid voicing their concerns constantly, as some unknown force can pick them up at
any moment for an indefinite period.

Methodology
The ethnographic method is being used to collect data in this qualitative study. The main sources of
data collection were participant observation, interviews, and conversations with female relatives of
people who have been forcibly disappeared. We also conducted unstructured, situational interviews
with family members of the forcibly disappeared, focusing on their past and present experiences.
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 5

We documented the traumas and worries of the families who suffered the most while searching for
their loved ones in this manner. Mama Qadeer Baloch, VBMP’s vice chairperson and co-founder,
has been a valuable source of information, a gatekeeper, and a mentor on the issue of forcibly dis-
appearance in Balochistan in general. He was particularly useful during participant observation and
interview sessions. Jaleel Reki, Mama Qadeer’s son, was kidnapped and tortured before his disfi-
gured body was discovered in 2009. Mama Qadeer has campaigned against the human rights viola-
tion known as forcibly disappearances since Jaleel Reki was abducted and his body was discovered.
Fieldwork and interviews were conducted in the spring of 2019 at the Voice for Baloch Missing
Persons Camp (VBMP camp), located on Adalat Road near the Press Club Quetta. From 2019 to
2021, sporadic visits to the camp and learning about forcibly disappearances continued unabated.
The camp and its participants were purposefully chosen due to the topic’s importance and the
respondents’ presence to discuss the social and political issues surrounding missing people.
Every day from 8 am to 5 pm, female relatives of victims come to the VBMP camp to register
their protest against the forcibly disappearances of their loved ones, hold sit-ins, and participate
in symbolic hunger strikes to highlight the ordeals of life behind families. Shala, one of us, visited
their camp on a regular basis to observe and document the daily activities as well as the nature of
the main problem that the Baloch women, in particular, had to deal with. Throughout the field-
work, lengthy discussions were held about activism, hope, and resistance in an attempt to find a
solution that will alleviate the suffering and distress of those who have been forcibly disappeared.
It also should be noted that pseudo-names have been used for the security and protection of the
respondents, while those respondents who consented to use their real names have been used/
quoted in the article, with their permission.

The politicization of disappearances, and the paradoxical narratives of the local

and official perspectives
There is a considerable difference between the official and local narratives on the enforced disap-
pearances (Rizwan, Waqar, and Arshad 2014). First, the official discourse completely rejects the
statement that the state is involved in any kind of forcibly disappearances or has knowledge of
their whereabouts. Second, the official narrative disputes the number of missing persons, which
according to VBMP, is 550,000, but according to official statements released by Justice (R) Javed
Iqbal, Chairman of the Missing Persons Commission, the number is only 5000. He has further sta-
ted that the missing persons are picked up by other tribes due to “personal enmity” (sic) and that
“the situation is not as bad as it sounds” (sic) (Dawn News, 28 August 2018).
The state accuses the listed missing persons of having carried out insurgency attacks against
state officials, thereby justifying to suppression of the voices that speak up for them. The state
also denies the idea of enforced disappearances, as in the narrative of “enforced disappearances,”
the state is always involved in this criminal act. The state is always playing with the politics of
words, labeling the forcibly disappeared persons simply as “missing” to normalize the main-
stream discourse.
Authorities often use criminal charges against the victims of forcibly disappeared as a means to
legitimize their disappearances (Human Rights Watch 2011). And some victims of forcibly disap-
pearances were later found in the custody of other LEAs with charges of criminal offense (Amnesty
International 2008). Criminalization is a tactic frequently used by the state to legitimize enforced
disappearances (Goral, Isik, and Kaya 2013). The official narrative of the state not only rejects the
accusations from the relatives of the disappeared persons but also portrays victims as criminals
6 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

involved in anti-state activities. For example, after the attack against the Chinese Consulate by the
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Karachi on 23 November 2018, the analyst of Defense
Affairs Lieutenant Gen (R) Amjad Shoaib stated that the attackers were listed among “missing per-
sons” (The Pakistan Tribune, 26 November 2018). In another case, Husnain Baloch, a high school
student, was forcibly disappeared along with his brother and father on 30 November 2018, in
Quetta; and two months later, the Karachi Police declared Husnain a terrorist and claimed to
have arrested him during a crackdown on terrorists (Sagaar, 14 January 2019).
The state of Pakistan has always attempted to conceal its crimes against the Baloch people and
humanity by simply politicizing them. It is written in Articles 9 and 10 of Chapter 1 of the Con-
stitution of Pakistan that all citizens must be given the security of person and safeguard of the per-
son to arrest and detention. But the State of Pakistan deviates from its constitution. Politicizing the
issue makes way for denial of justice, creates a culture of fear and an insecure environment for the
victim and the families of forcibly disappeared. In this way, the state tries to avoid its responsibility
of providing a safe and secure environment to its citizen.

Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP)

In 1999, General Musharraf announced Martial Law through a military coup d’état (Haqqani 2005),
which marked the beginning of a new era of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. Disappearances
were justified in the name of the “War on Terror” in Waziristan and FATA, and also partly to contain
the insurgency in Balochistan (Human Rights Watch 2012). In Balochistan, a chain of forcibly disap-
pearances began in 2000 and according to Mama Qadeer Vice Chairperson of VBMP with Ali Asghar
Bangulzai (the uncle of Nasrullah Baloch, Chairperson of VBMP) being the first to disappear and then
being released after 5–6 months. He was again abducted in 2001, and to this day has remained missing.
Many more people have suffered enforced disappearances since then.
As the frequency of enforced disappearances accelerated, thousands of student political activists,
especially from the Baloch Students Organization (BSO), began a fresh wave of protests to demand jus-
tice for their peers. These political activists advocated for an Independent Balochistan, aligned them-
selves with Balochistan National Movements, who resorted to armed struggle against the State
machinery for a legitimate cause, but ended up being victims of enforced disappearances. Later they
were subjected to “Torture, Kill and Dump” policies of the state agencies. (Human Rights Watch 2011).
On 27 October 2009, around 100 family members of missing persons, including notably Mama
Qadeer, Nasrullah (nephew of Asghar Bangulzai, who is missing), Farzana Majeed (sister of Zakir
Majeed, former senior vice chairperson of BSO, who is still missing) and other family members of
enforced disappeared victims held a joint meeting and decided to create a platform to highlight the
issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. They named it “Voice for Baloch Missing Persons”
(VBMP). It was decided that a protest camp would be set up in every district of Balochistan to
demand justice for their loved ones. The first camp was set up in Quetta for a week, then in
Noushki, and other parts of the province. Later a permanent camp was established in front of
the Press Club in Quetta.
Families of missing persons were selected as members of VBMP, with Nasrullah Baloch as the
Chairperson, Mama Qadeer as Vice Chairperson, and Farzana Majeed as General Secretary. A
charter was formed, and rules were laid down according to which only the family of a missing per-
son could be a member of VBMP and hold positions in its organizational hierarchy. The rationale
behind this decision was that only families of missing persons best understood the issue and were
more familiar with each other’s sufferings and problems, rather than any outsider.
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 7

In 2013, Mama Qadeer, along with mothers, daughters, sisters, and children of missing persons,
held a long march from Quetta to Karachi, and then Karachi to Lahore, and finally to Islamabad,
covering a distance of 300 km over four months. According to Mama Qadeer, the reason behind
the long march was that the government was insensitive toward the issue of enforced disappear-
ances and involuntary detention, and showed ignorance about the whereabouts, release, and
extra-judicial killings of the victims.
Currently, Mama Qadeer the permanent member of VBMP, has been holding a hunger-strike
sit-in without fail for 13 years in the Missing Persons Camp, in front of Press Club Quetta.
VBMP provides a dependable platform and political space for the families of missing
persons to voice their protests and register their cases, enabling VBMP to disseminate them
to the Commission for Enforcedly Disappeared for further investigation by the Ministry of
Interior. VBMP also calls for protest against the human rights violations and enforced disappear-
ances, conducts press conferences, and arranges for media coverage to highlight the issue in the
print media.
VBMP claims that currently they have 55,000 registered cases with them and received 18,000
mutilated bodies of missing persons from 2001 to 2021. According to VBMP, the number of unre-
gistered cases is much higher, but many families have received threats from covert sources to stop
attending the camp, it could be fatal to their forcibly disappeared relatives. That’s why many blood
relatives have avoided joining the camp, while some have shown up after many years of their loved
ones’ abduction but were disappointed to find no hope or hear any news. They had no option but to
suffer in silence and wait for news of any kind.
According to VBMP, among the missing persons there are political activists many of them being
students from student organizations such as BSO (Baloch Students Organization) Azad, BSO Pajjar,
and workers from political parties, like BRP (Baloch Republic Party), BNM (Baloch National Move-
ment), BNP (Baloch National Party), and NP (National Party). Enforced disappearances include
also innocent people who have no connection whatsoever with political parties and political activi-
ties, such as shopkeepers, farmers, and journalists. Among the missing persons, there are people
who come from all walks of life, every class, poor, rich, political, non-political, farmers, shepherds,
government servants, etc., and have no links with the movements or organizations that work for the
liberation of Balochistan.
According to Mama Qadeer, vice chairperson of VBMP,
lots of dead bodies found were beyond recognition, terribly mutilated and intentionally made uni-
dentifiable. When found they were kept in morgues in the Government hospitals in Quetta. They
were discovered by levies, police, shepherds, travelers, and construction workers. No one was
informed of their presence to the families so that they could go and identify the corpses. Sometimes
the hospital staff is too reluctant to label the bodies as the enforcedly disappeared victims. They do
not want anything similar to happen to them. In almost all cases, the staff does not have any infor-
mation related to the dead bodies, nor do they have any system of locating the families of the
unknown corpses. We have repeatedly requested the UN and other human rights organizations
like Amnesty International, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Asian Human
Rights Commission to have a dialogue with the government of Pakistan and convince it to conduct
DNA tests on unidentified bodies. But they never conducted the test. The bodies are kept for days
without informing anyone, and later put into graves. The families visited the mortuaries regularly
but failed to recognize the bodies. Sometimes one of the family members, i.e. mother or wife
would identify the body of their loved one through some specific mark on their body’s teeth, clothes
or shoes, etc. Most of the bodies have remained unidentified and were buried by the government as
unknown (Interview, 17 November, 2020, VBMP camp, Quetta).
8 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

Families of missing persons

When a person is forcibly disappeared, his/her unexpected absence not only inflicts gruesome
cruelty on the person but also causes mental distress to his/her family. In the case of women
who are forcibly disappeared, it brings with it issues of honor and shame for the family along
with tremendous emotional pain. That’s why the family members of these women, rarely show
up and report the cases. If the victim is a male member, then it surely inflicts extreme emotional
pain, suffering, grief, and financial losses along with multiple issues of economic nature.
Enforced disappearances have also paved a way for political opportunities and exposure to
the women relatives of the victims in a patriarchal and male dominant Baloch society. In a
society where men are expected to do the outside jobs of economic, social, and political nature,
it is a rather unusual phenomenon that women have taken over the political and legal struggle
for the safe recovery of enforced disappeared victims. The reason that women are given an edge
in the political landscape is due to the socio-cultural patterns of Pakistani and particularly the
Baloch society.
In circumstances of political extremism under patriarchal states like Pakistan, men are more vul-
nerable to enforced disappearances (Malik 2019) while women are shown more leniency because of
their gender (Scarpaci and Frazier 1993). Patriarchal societies and states attach notions of honor
and shame to women’s bodies, which can create tension and outrage when women are forcibly dis-
appeared or dishonored. But the leniency toward women doesn’t mean that they are not disap-
peared or hurt; it simply means that the comparative degree of disappearance is far less than
that of men. This little leniency grants women political opportunities and power to occupy public
spaces and transform them into political landscapes. Women, who were expected to remain in pri-
vate spaces, performing household chores, have availed themselves of the political opportunities left
by men due to their vulnerability and fear of being enforcedly disappeared.
Enforced disappearances have brought political opportunities for women but also financial
hardships. The persons who involuntarily disappeared and illegally detained were often the sole
breadwinners of the family. Besides, being from poor families, Baloch women relatives of enforc-
edly disappeared people find very few opportunities to generate finances to meet the basic needs of
life. The men were the sole breadwinners of the family and worked hard to earn a living. After their
abduction, their fate was unknown, and the lives of their dependents, including women and chil-
dren, became miserable, to say the least. Alongside their political and legal fight, they faced econ-
omic disparities that loomed large, and uncertainty took refuge in their homes. All the families
interviewed confirmed that the person who was enforcedly disappeared was either the sole bread-
winner or helped the family overcome financial constraints. In cases where the missing persons
were the sole wage earners, those families faced a critical economic situation.
According to Bibi Madina, abducted Shah Nawaz Marri’s mother:
Shah Nawaz has small kids. Now there is no one to feed them and care for them. Who will provide
food and safety to them? I am his mother. He has no one other than me. He has a brother, but he
does nothing, so he cannot feed the children. Now they are my responsibility. It was their father
who cared for them, but now he is abducted. He was the only breadwinner of the family. He
had a tractor to fetch water from the far-off well and provide water to the people. Now, who
will provide us money for daily needs, who will feed us? No one (Interview, 24 March 2019,
VBMP camp, Quetta).

Bibi Saeeda is from Bolan, her two sons Takkari Wahid Kurd and Dad Muhammad Kurd were
abducted from their home village Maroo, Bolan in 2010. Bibi Saeeda says that,
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 9

My sons, Takkari Wahid Kurd and Dad Mohammad Kurd, have been missing for 10 years. Takkari
Wahid was educated, but Dad M. Kurd was illiterate. Takkari Wahid had a water fetching vehicle
and together they used to work on their fields. Takkari Wahid’s children were small when he was
abducted. My sons were abducted from home. We are old and ill, who will take care of us? They
were our sole breadwinners, but now we have no one (Interview, 6 July 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta).

Similar stories of enforced disappearance continued: Gul Bibi Marri is the mother of Gul Mahmad
Marri, who was abducted in 2012 from Kechi Beg Murshid Abad. Gul Bibi says:
Gul Mahmad used to sell old clothes on his bicycle during the daytime and at night he used to go for his
duty as a watch man in a local market. He earned three thousand Pakistani rupees monthly for his night
duty. His children are ill, I am too. He was our sole breadwinner. We are poor, his other brother was
unemployed at that time, now he works at other shops. We are helpless and poor now, sometimes we
have food, sometimes nothing, and we are just sitting there with empty hands (Interview, 4 April 2019.
VBMP Camp, Quetta).

Jannat Khatoon, mother of Nizar Muhammad Shah Wali (he was forcibly disappeared in 2011 and
still missing), explains her grievances:
We are women, we are here. His (Nizar Muhammad Shah Wali’s) father is paralyzed. He has got only us,
two wives and his children. We are poor, he was our only breadwinner. We are just living our days. He used
to have a vegetable cart, he sold vegetables and feed his children (15 May 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta).

Enforced disappearances are not a single process, instead, they create a chain reaction of pro-
cesses for families, in this phenomenon the family members also become the primary victims. It
was observed and recorded during fieldwork that all the respondents were poor and had economic
discrepancies. Economic grievances are a major drawback to addressing the issue of enforced dis-
appearances, as they leave victims more vulnerable to the risks to their life and liberty, adding to
their silence and powerlessness.

We have no one except God

In a situation of despair and gloom caused by enforced disappearances, religion has played a vital
role in giving hope and motivation to the families, especially the mothers of the forcibly disap-
peared. Many of these mothers also think that God will bring justice to the perpetrators. Religion
has given the families a ray of hope in the face of alienation and depression. The families depend on
their faith and the will of Allah to help them endure the despondency. Hajari mother of Imtiaz who
was forcibly disappeared in 2018 said during her interview that they must wait for the Jirgah (court)
of Allah and his Rasool (prophet of Islam), as they have to be present at their court one day (25
March 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta). Ganj Khatoon, also a mother, while crying and said that
“my son was abducted because we are poor and helpless. We have no one except God. Poor people
don’t have anyone to stand for them” (Interview 2 May 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta). Bakht Bibi,
wife of an enforced disappeared person said during her interview that:
I pray to God that he might be released and return home. Musalmani e emb shota, nu zalimi e tembe, khuda
wath zalim a pesh dari the times of musalmani are gone now, these are times of cruelty, on the day of judge-
ment God will punish these brutes for their atrocities. We have no power, we can’t do anything, we are help-
less, and may God bring justice to every Muslim (Interview, 10 March 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta).

Murad Khatoon, wife of Shah Nawaz, says:

Mni waaris yokka Allah pak e, dga kass na. Tai darwazaga heela, dga kass ne, bs Allah tho waris e, beyar
shah Nawaz a. Zalim a Allah gi, ara zor maan, mara zor ne [I only have Allah, no one else. I only knock
10 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

at his door; I only have God. May Allah bring Shah Nawaz back, may Allah punish the brute and ruth-
less, I don’t have power, but He is powerful. I only wish him to come back safe] (Interview, 17 August
2019. VBMP Camp, Quetta).

Bibi Madina, the mother of missing Shah Nawaz Marri, also explained her experience and actions
in the following story:
I make a Relli (patched bed sheet, made of various colorful pieces of clothes), collect some money, and
go to a mullah (clergy) for my son, or organize a Quran Khwani (collective event for the recitation of the
Quran) for my son, so that God may bring him back. I use this money to go to mullahs for Paal (a
cultural way of predicting the future), for treatment of their sufferings. Mullah gives me a Taweez (amu-
let), which I keep with me at home so that my son might come back through it. I am going to see a Peer
(a person supposed to have spiritual powers) for my son. He (Shah Nawaz) has another brother, who
lives with his wife and children. We have no one else to feed us and help us (27 March 2019. VBMP
camp, Quetta).

Religion has provided these families with a means of salvation and hope. Some respondents
recite various Dorood (praise to the prophet P.B.U.H), offer prayers and recite verses from
Quran hoping that God may bring their loved ones back. Some mothers keep a regular routine
of reciting with a Tazbeeh (prayer beads) five hundred times or more, and every day they recite
verses in praise of God thousands of times in the hope that their loved ones may return home safely.
They also share these prayers and sometimes perform them collectively.

Threats to the female relatives of enforced disappeared persons

Often when families and particularly female family members of the missing persons become more
vocal, they face various threats from secret agencies. Intelligence agencies warm them to keep quiet
or else their disappeared loved ones will suffer. Many families have confirmed being contacted by
intelligence agencies and told that if they remain silent for some months, their forcibly disappeared
relatives might return. In a few cases, it turned out to be true but in the majority of cases, it is just a
gambit by Pakistani secret agencies to prevent the families from protesting and demanding the
return of their loved ones. Many women who are at the forefront of these protests are also followed
and harassed on the streets for being vocal against enforced disappearances. According to Mah-
noor, an activist of Balochistan Human Rights Organization, many families have been threatened
to abandon their protest, and in some cases, they have complied and their loved ones have returned
(12 August 2019, VBMP camp, Quetta). But such occurrences are rare. Most of the time, threats are
used to suppress the persons from raising their voice. A sister of a missing person had to abandon
her protest and go back home because of constant threats to her family. She says: “they (security
agencies) are threatening my family. Now my family is barred from attending the protest. They
want me to stop speaking up for my brother” (2 August 2019. Missing Persons Camp, Quetta).
One of the respondents, a 22-year-old university student and human rights activist (Asiya) says:
My national ID card has been blocked by the agencies. They have threatened my family and want me to
stop my activities against the issue of enforced disappearances. They have also threatened to block the
national ID cards of my other family members. Without this card, I cannot travel get a job, and above
all, my university degree would be invalid and of no use. They have blocked all paths. Because of these
threats, my father has thrown me out of home (Interview, 4 April 2019. VBMP Camp, Quetta).

Another respondent, also a university student and a human rights activist (Mahnoor) says: “I con-
stantly face situations where I am being followed. They followed me to my hostel. I can see them
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 11

following me when I come to the camp and then return to the hostel by a local bus” (Interview, 8
May 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta). Facing similar surveillance and threat of abduction, another
respondent (Bano) says: “most of the released persons and their families are threatened and warned
against coming to the camp, contacting us, or informing us of anything. They are also prohibited
from speaking to anyone about anything” (Interview, 11 July 2019 VBMP Camp, Quetta). A
respondent (Zahid) talked about the threats they have faced in return for their protest:
The camp has been burnt to ashes multiple times, and recently, they have left sewerage water in the
camp to prevent us from sitting here for any protest due to slush and smell. But we still come and
clean the camp every day and continue our protests according to our schedule (Interview, 11 July
2019. VBMP camp, Quetta).

Any kind of threat has now become part of the daily routine for the families of the victims. They face
hounding, intimidating phone calls, or sometimes direct threats to stop their activities, and on other
occasions, the missing person’s protest camp at Quetta Press Club has been burnt to ashes. In several
cases, intelligence agencies not only pick up one person but continue to abduct other family members,
creating a never-ending process of abductions and threats. Fearful of being abducted, families become
hesitant to report the case or visit the camp of VBMP. In this way, the families of the missing persons
bear double pain. On one hand, their loved ones have disappeared, and on the other hand, the threat
from state surveillance machinery is so powerful that people become reluctant to raise their voices
leading to emotional and psychological traumas and affliction. According to a report by Voice of
America’s (VOA) entitled “Relatives of Victims of Enforced Disappearances Protest in Pakistan”
(13 February 2021), Seema Baloch, whose brother Shabir Baloch has been missing (forcibly disap-
peared) for seven years, was allegedly told by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances
(COIED) the following statement as quoted, “the judge told me if you were not a woman, I would have
kicked you out. You don’t know how to behave.” The role of COIED has been questioned by respon-
dents, as they have lost trust in COIED due to its biased and humiliating behavior toward family mem-
bers and witnesses. The families have also claimed during this research that there are intelligence
agency personnel present during COIED hearings, and they threaten and warn the families to aban-
don their protests and not attend COIED or court hearings.

Emotional and psychological impacts

When an enforced disappearance happens, the missing person becomes the victim, but his/her
family also becomes an immediate victim, especially the children and the wife. The enforced dis-
appearance of a loved one has a long-lasting emotional and psychological impact. During our field-
work, we often come across mentally depressed family members. We have seen tears of mothers
and sisters whenever the names of their loved ones come up. Some mothers tried to restrain
their tears, but the pain of tragedy was evident in their sorrowful eyes and dejected faces. One
of the respondents was only five years old when her father forcibly disappeared. We could observe
emotional and psychological trauma on her face during her interview. The overall practice of
enforced disappearances and unknown deaths has left families heartbroken and led to post-
traumatic disorders. The anguish and pain of a mother can be seen in the following picture (see
Figure 1). Countless cases have suffered in the same way.
Bibi Saeeda’s two sons are victims of enforced disappearances; it has been ten years and she still
has no clue about her sons’ well-being: “I have gone blind, mni sar kharab e [I have gone mad], and
it has affected me mentally” (6 July 2019. VBMP camp, Quetta). Mahdem, another woman is
12 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

Figure 1. Mother of a missing person crying after a protest for the recovery of her son.

struggling for the recovery of her brother Abdul Hai Reki. Mahdem’s elder brother and two cousins
were forcibly disappeared. Later she and her family received their mutilated bodies. And now her
other brother has forcibly disappeared. Mahdem says:
I cannot sleep at night; I am worried about how my brother is doing. My mother died due to the trauma
of losing my elder brother along with my two cousins. They were also victims of enforced disappear-
ance. She was ill, and her lungs contained fluids. The doctor told her to rest. But how could she rest? She
used to recite the holy Quran day and night. We told her to rest and not exert herself. But she always
replied: “let me die and go to heaven and meet my son.” And one day she stopped breathing. Now my
other brother has been abducted. My father keeps crying all night. We can hear the sounds of crying
from his room. He is also losing his health (Interview, 14 May 2019. VBMP Camp, Quetta).

24-year-old Ayesha Baloch has a brother who was 22 years old at the time of his abduction.
During the interview, she cried and tried to hide rolling down her cheeks. By doing so, she wanted
to be strong enough to struggle and bring back her disappeared brother. Ayesha says: “My mother
is not well, and doctors have advised her to rest and avoid tension. How could she avoid tension
when her son is missing, and she doesn’t know where he is or in what condition he might be?”
(Interview, 9 July 2019. VBMP Camp, Quetta).
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 13

It has been four years since Fatima Bibi’s youngest son Sajid forcibly disappeared from Panjgoor.
As soon as she entered the camp, she started crying and lamenting: “I have become blind because of
intense crying for my son Sajid. He was the youngest of my children. My son was still a student when
he was abducted. I cannot stop crying ever since” (Interview, 23 June 2019. VBMP Camp, Quetta).
At the press conference held for the recovery of Hajari’s Imtiaz, Imtiaz’s mother, sister, niece, fiancé’s
mother, and other female relatives were present. When the press conference was over, all the family
members of Imtiaz broke down in tears and started wailing and sobbing, especially his mother Hajari,
who fell into a depression and was hard to console. On Eid day during a protest for missing persons in
front of the Press Club Quetta, Hajari collapsed to the ground and had to be hospitalized later.
Seem Gul was five when her father was abducted along with her uncle. She recalls:
We were children when our father and uncle disappeared. I was five at that time. We used to ask our
grandmother about our father, and she would say that he was with his second wife. My father had
two wives, my mother being the first. Despite this, he loved us and used to bring us toys and food.
My grandmother and aunts also did not tell my mother about the disappearance, because she was
pregnant with my brother at that time and was already in trauma due to my father’s second mar-
riage. The doctors advised us to keep her happy. So they told her the same story. But later, we over-
heard our grandmother talking about our father’s disappearance. She advised us not to tell our
mother. We used to cry in isolation so that our mother would not see us in daylight and ask us
the reason for crying. But later when Balach, my brother, was born, my mother realized about
our father’s disappearance, and had a mental breakdown. Even now, we do not cry in front of
her. Instead, we go and hide somewhere to cry because we don’t want her to think about this tragedy
(Interview, 26 April 2019. VBMP Camp, Quetta).

According to Mama Qadeer:

People who were eventually released testified that they were tortured, such as being forced to endure
having urine thrown on their faces; they were put into a single room with other victims of enforced
disappearance, and had to eat, use the bathroom and sleep in the same place; their eyes were covered;
and they received no food or medical treatment if they fell ill. If you are forcibly confined somewhere
for 7–8 years in inhumane conditions, it’s obvious that you get sick (both physically and mentally).
Over the course of being held for several years, it is common for the detainees to get sick and many
died there due to their illnesses. Even those who have returned alive were often left with serious mental
problems. Many received psychological support and therapy and not all of them have been able to fully
recover (Interview, 17 November, 2020, VBMP camp Quetta).

The incidents of enforced disappearances leave severe emotional and psychological scars, with
long-lasting impacts on the mental health of the families of the victims. Respondents in the camp
confirmed that they have experienced emotional issues due to the trauma. The trauma is most inten-
sified in women whose loved ones were forcibly disappeared in front of their eyes and taken from
their homes in the darkness of night. Many respondents were present at the scene when their father,
brother, or husband were abducted. In multiple cases, the effects led to physical health issues.

Unidentified mutilated bodies

Enforced disappearance is a grave human rights violation that not only creates other humanitarian
issues but also takes away the right to have an identity at both individual and collective levels. It
even denies the identity to the dead bodies. At first, the state denies the disappearance of the person,
which also implies the denial of any investigation into the case. Families fear that if the person is
killed during secret detention, then the person disappears forever. If the body is found, it is difficult
to recognize it, mostly because of mutilation or only skeletal structures are found. And the lack of
14 S. ASHRAF ET AL.

DNA testing in Pakistan and the low priority given to DNA testing, a person can disappear forever.
For the family, their loved one will forever be buried in an unmarked grave. With hardly any phys-
ical evidence remaining, the person’s identity vanishes forever, leaving the relatives to live on mem-
ories of their loved ones.

Conclusion
This article sheds light on the often-hidden experiences of families of victims of enforced dis-
appearances through ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation. While theorizing in
the light of human rights and internationalist discourse, this study demonstrates that these
localized experiences of enforced disappearances are a burning and glaring issue in Pakistan,
and particularly in Baluchistan province, that is often silenced in mainstream discourse. The
Baluch ethnic group, among others, is one of the most affected and vulnerable groups to
enforced disappearances, as well as the resultant trauma, psychological violence, harassment,
abuse, and dehumanization.
The organization formed by the families of victims in the name of “Voice for Baloch Missing Per-
sons” (VBMP) emerged as a spontaneous response to resist such oppressive practices of violence
and dehumanization. Baloch women have become the face of this new resistance and movement,
presenting the cases to the Pakistani state and the international community. Baluch women, chil-
dren, elders, and other family members who now find refuge and a platform to express their trau-
mas, wailings, and miseries are primarily affected by the disappearances of male members of the
family. The loss or the prolonged absence of their loved ones (mainly husbands, sons, fathers, or
rarely daughters, mothers, and wives) has affected their family members both psychologically
and emotionally. Religion becomes the final resort of relief for the helpless Baluch mothers,
wives, children, and families.
However, international law, as reflected in state guarantees of fundamental rights enshrined in
the Pakistan constitution in chapter 1, especially in Articles 1–28, is not practically implemented in
the case of enforced disappearances, denying victims’ their fundamental right to fair trial and pre-
vention from arbitrary detention. Exceptional zones have been created where all humans and civi-
lized laws are deliberately suspended. The study reinstates the fact that enforced disappearance is
used not only by the state as a tool of surveillance and to inflict fear in a community but also as a
sovereign exercise of power to do so without impunity. The state stretches beyond curbing dissents,
nationalists, or “insurgents” as ordinary citizens have also become victims of this brutal and inhu-
man conduct (Sarkin and Baranowska 2018).
Finally, this study calls for the grievances and voices of the victims, and their families should be
given importance and listened to find the solution. Their perspectives, feelings, and needs should be
prioritized for an efficient solution to the issue.

Notes on contributors
Shala Ashraf is a Lecturer of Sociology at the Balochistan University of information, Technology, Engineering
and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), Quetta Balochistan. She has done her Masters in Philosophy and in
Anthropology from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. Her research interests include Baloch Women,
Women’s collective actions, Women’s agency and feminist consciousness of Baloch Women.
Ikram Badshah is an Assistant professor at Department of Anthropology, Quaid-e-Azam University Islama-
bad. His research interests include Pakhtun culture, peace poetry, identity politics, students politics, necropo-
litics, postcolonial states and content analysis of text books.
 INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES 15

Usman Khan is a Postdoctoral fellow at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Xi’an International
Studies University, China. His research area covers colonial and post colonial states, social movements, bor-
derland regions, Pashtuns of Pakistan.

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