Signatures to this letter can be viewed at this link.

Note: Sammi Baloch, the General Secretary of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons and the daughter of Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch, will mark 14 years since her father was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani security forces. Read her personal appeal for solidarity on this link.

ON THE 14TH ANNIVERSARY OF DR DEEN MOHAMMAD'S DISAPPEARANCE

#ReleaseDrDeenMohammad #EndEnforcedDisappearances

We sign this letter in solidarity with Sammi Baloch and her search for her father, Dr Deen Mohammad, who was forcibly disappeared in the middle of the night by Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps. On 28 June 2023, Sammi will mark 14 years since her father was abducted from a hospital. While on night duty, he was brutally beaten, blind-folded, hand-cuffed, and thrown into a military vehicle to never be seen again.

Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch is one of thousands of people who have been forcibly disappeared in Pakistan over the last two decades by Pakistani security forces. Pakistan’s Baloch – a racialised ethnic group/marginalized nation within Pakistan – have come under attack by Pakistani security forces. These forces carry out a brutal policy of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and army operations, recently even picking up Baloch students from university campuses across the country. Other racialised ethnicities, marginalized nations, or persecuted groups within Pakistan have come under attack in similarly brutal ways: Pashtuns, Sindhis, Mohajirs, Shias as well as political dissidents, critical journalists, and human rights defenders. As a result, several movements against disappearances have emerged out of Pakistan, including the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Defence for Human Rights, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, the Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh, Shia Missing Persons, and more. A recent military crackdown on the country’s main opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf led by Imran Khan, is a sign that a violent military policy once reserved for frontier populations, critical dissidents, journalists, and others is now being deployed against those in the very center of power in Pakistan.

In Pakistan, the policy of enforced disappearances is a direct legacy of 9/11 policies, though it has earlier examples in Pakistani history. After George W. Bush asked then military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, to deliver suspect “terrorists'' to the United States to be whisked away to Bagram, Guantanamo, and other black sites, Musharraf implemented a two-decades long policy of extra-judicial kidnapping. It also reflects an older technique pursued by US-backed military juntas in for example in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala aimed at destroying political alternatives. And, it is a technique that has been pursued in other parts of the region and the world. In South Asia, regimes in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have been behind brutal enforced disappearances, for example India in Kashmir. And further afield, enforced disappearances take place in the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Syria, Turkey and elsewhere.

Today, thousands remain missing, disappeared by Pakistan's security forces.

We demand that Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch and all others subject to enforced disappearances be immediately released. If they were killed while in custody, we demand that their bodies be returned to families, so they can be buried with dignity. We demand an immediate cessation to the policy of enforced disappearances and associated extrajudicial killings, torture, and raids on people’s homes. Finally, we demand accountability and justice for the atrocities committed.

Note: Both individuals and organisations are welcome to sign. Signatories will be added on a rolling basis until 28 June 2023, the anniversary of Dr Deen Mohammad's disappearance.

When sharing this petition, please use the following hashtags:
#ReleaseDrDeenMohammad #EndEnforcedDisappearances #ReleaseAllMissingPersons
#Disappeared
#HelpBringThemHome
#DisappearanceinBalochistan
#BalochHumanRights
#BalochMissingPersons
#SaveBalochMissingPersons

* We understand that security remains a key concern for many signatories that live in Pakistan. Would you like us to anonymise your signature? If so, please email us at pakistansolidarity2020@gmail.com. Note: This option is only available to those who have serious concerns that their security will be at risk if they sign this form.