Dismal condition of human rights in Balochistan, around 1,000 bodies recovered in six years

Islamabad, July 28 (ANI): Some official documents have revealed that around a thousand bullet-ridden corpses have been recovered from various parts of Balochistan in the past six years, with more than 51 percent bodies belonging to the ethnic Baloch community. Further, 22 percent dead bodies belonged to Pashtuns while rest of them either remained unidentified or belonged to the Punjabis, Afghan refugees or non-Muslims. This is yet again clearly an indicator of the worsening security situation in Pakistan's largest province, reports the Geo News. The documents further revealed that Quetta remained the worst-hit district as 346 dead bodies have been recovered since 2010, while Kalat remained the second worst district where 268 dead bodies have been recovered by the law enforcing agencies. 102 dead bodies were recovered in 2010, the count was 203 in 2011, 166 in 2012, 168 in 2013, 165 in 2014, 129 in 2015 and 17 bullet-ridden bodies have been recovered so far this year. These figures were prepared by senior officials assigned to execute the National Action Plan (NAP) for crack down on terrorism and to supplement the ongoing anti-terrorist offensive in North-Western Pakistan. The data discloses that over 112 persons were still missing in the province. With these rights violations, official figures further revealed that over 658 innocent people lost their lives in sectarian incidents. A total of 1, 837 people were killed either in target killings or other disputes after 2011 in the province. Around 159 dead bodies of Pashtuns were recovered from various parts of the province while security forces could not identify 175 bullet-ridden corpses as their faces were completely burnt and spoiled. The police also recovered around 108 dead bodies of other people and some of them were identified as Afghan refugees and Punjabis. On this alarming situation, Senator (ex) Sana Baloch commented Balochistan is in a political crisis and it needs a well-sequenced roadmap to undo the damage and reverse the cycle of violence, adding that "a combination of economic collapse, Talibanisation, sectarian menace, abductions for ransom, near-to-collapsed health and education infrastructures, corruption and brutally mismanaged governance have brought the province to the verge of a Somalia-like situation where the ordinary citizen begs state-backed criminals, gangs and mafias for safety and security." (ANI)