Pakistan clamps down on Baloch rights activist, 'taken away from Urdu Bazaar'

Karachi [Pakistan], August 28 (ANI): Pakistani authorities, who are notorious for enforced disappearances of Balochs, in the latest crackdown, took away a Baloch rights activist from his book shop in Urdu Bazaar who used to publish books and magazines.
According to Dawn, Fahim Habib Baloch was taken away by four unidentified men in civvies along with some uniformed policemen.
His friends and other rights activists said that Fahim was sitting at his book shop, Ilm-u-Adab Publishers, on Friday evening when he was taken away.
Quoting witnesses, they said that the men in civvies politely asked Fahim whether he had sent books to Germany. They told him that their senior sitting in his vehicle parked outside wanted to meet him. They took him and since then, his whereabouts were unknown, reported Dawn.
Parveen Naz of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that Fahim, also a member of the rights body, had been publishing the Sada-i-Balochistan magazine.
She said Baloch's cousin, Umme Habib, who is also a lawyer, had approached the Preedy police station but they refused to receive her written complaint. Later, she sent the application through a courier company, reported Dawn.
However, Preedy SHO Mohammed Sajjad Khan informed that they did not receive any application. He said that the police were aware of the report regarding the disappearance of one Fahim Baloch.
In his written complaint sent to the inspector general of police and SSP-South, Habib narrated the incident.
She said she came to Karachi from Uthal after receiving information about her brother's disappearance and wanted to lodge an FIR.
She said her brother is also a government employee.
Notably, innocent Balochs are killed in fake encounters and their mutilated bodies are found in remote places, according to several reports.
An annual report of the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, which is an organisation that documents human rights violations in the province, has said that students remained the main target of these kidnappings both in Balochistan as well as in other regions of Pakistan. (ANI)