Concrete action needed to eradicate enforced disappearances: Pak rights body

Lahore: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has raised concerns over the enforced disappearances in the country and said that expressions of solidarity can be no substitute for concrete action towards safely recovering victims.

In a statement, the human rights body chairman Hina Jilani said that it is required that the perpetrators be identified and held responsible through a transparent and effective mechanism.

The HRCP welcomed the recent meeting between the families of forcibly disappeared persons and Pakistan interior minister Rana Sanaullah, law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, and poverty alleviation minister, Shazia Marri, in Quetta.

"While this was a positive development, HRCP firmly believes that expressions of solidarity alone can be no substitute for concrete action towards safely recovering victims of enforced disappearances. Such action, in turn, requires that the perpetrators be identified and held responsible through a transparent and effective mechanism," the human rights body chief said.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances remains a painfully inadequate mechanism for ensuring that victims receive justice. Given the poor record and controversies that dog its current chairman, HRCP demanded that he be removed and the commission's mandate strengthened to ensure its independence and integrity.

"The Cabinet's subcommittee on missing persons must make good on its promises and act swiftly to eradicate what is recognised internationally as a crime against humanity, in the first instance, by criminalising enforced disappearances, " Hina Jilani said in the statement.

Earlier, Human rights activists and various student bodies in Pakistan staged a protest and demanded the immediate release of all the missing persons including Faheem Baloch.

On the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) organised a protest outside the press club, Dawn reported.

The protesters held placards bearing pictures of several missing persons, the places they disappeared from and the dates of their disappearance. The demonstrators shouted the names of the missing persons whose photos were featured at the gathering and demanded their release.

According to several reports, innocent Baloch are killed in fake encounters and their mutilated bodies are found in remote places.

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 remain the main target of these kidnappings both in Balochistan as well as in other regions of Pakistan.

In July, Pakistani security forces forcibly abducted 45 persons including 10 students. Fifteen people were released later while the whereabouts of 35 people remain unknown.

July witnessed an increase in the cases of killings as compared to the previous months. (ANI)