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BWP Seminar Monday, 10 December 2007 : A Baloch sister explaines how the Baloch prisoners a treated in Pakistan army's secret cells (click to watch the video)
The method used to torture and ill-treat Baluch detainees in Pakistani jails includes:
• Electric shocks
• Putting plastic bags over the heads of detainees
• Suspending a detainee from a pole between two tables
• Cigarette and candle burns
• Placing the barrel of a gun in a detainee's mouth threatening to shoot
• Threats to beat the detainee's family
• Gagging the detainees with a piece of cloth so they cannot shout
• Kicking and beating, including with truncheons and butts of guns
• Inserting iron rods into their bodies
• Cutting the flesh with sharp item and rubbing salt and paper on the wounds
Torture and ill-treatment of Baluch prisoners in Pakistani jails
The people in the Pakistan occupied Balochistan are facing a peculiar situation of uncertainty and injustice. The secret agencies of Pakistani army can pick a Baloch at any time with impunity. They do not care whether this Baloch is 80 years old or a 12 years teenager. In the list of the disappeared Baloch, many victims have included women and children also. They could be taken at any time, day or night. Their captors may be in uniform or civilian clothes. They forcibly take them away, giving no reason, producing no warrant. Their relatives desperately try to find them, going from one police station or army camp to the next. The officials deny having arrested them or knowing anything about their whereabouts or fate. The courts are helpless. A decision made by even an army subaltern carries more weight than a high court judge does.
Torture by Pakistani authorities (police, FC and army men- including with electric shocks and cigarette burns continues in Balochistan. Many cases still do not become known because police cover up their crimes and detainees are often afraid to complain or identify the perpetrators for fear of repercussions.
The method used to torture and ill-treat Baluch detainees in Pakistani jails includes:
• Electric shocks
• Putting plastic bags over the heads of detainees
• Suspending a detainee from a pole between two tables
• Cigarette and candle burns
• Placing the barrel of a gun in a detainee's mouth threatening to shoot
• Threats to beat the detainee's family
• Gagging the detainees with a piece of cloth so they cannot shout
• Kicking and beating, including with truncheons and butts of guns
• Inserting iron rods into their bodies
• Cutting the flesh with sharp item and rubbing salt and paper on the wounds
Disappeared and extra judicial killing of Baloch
This is an act, which is indicative of extreme conditions and desperation of Baloch masses where women held the utmost respect and not supposed to take to street on political or social issues.
Enforced disappearance of Baloch elders and youth by Pakistani armed forces violates the rights of both the disappeared person and their relatives and the Baloch society as a whole. The clear responsibility to provide answers regarding the fate of missing persons lies with the government of Pakistan as government secret agencies and it armed forces are responsible for these enforced disappearances. Even the supreme court of Pakistan has stated in a statement that it is now crystal clear that all missing person are in custody of Pakistani agencies and they must be either released or produced in the court of law. Nevertheless, it is now an open secret that Pakistan has neither any respect of National and International human rights laws nor it has any tradition to respect value or human lives. This has been particularly obvious regarding their attitude and behaviour for Baloch people.
Several times the family members of missing persons expressed the difficulties and desperation of not knowing the condition of their missing family members, if their loved ones are being tortured and whether they ever see them again. Inhuman ways are being used to extract information, usually through torture and ill- treatment. We believe that holding detainees alone in dark cell 0.9 meters long by 1.8 meters deep by 2.1 meters high is torture, as is beating they receive.
In Pakistan army’s secret dungeons, Baluch prisoners are told that they have no right to meet anyone, to see a lawyer, to do anything except what the army tell them. Some of the prisoners who have been released said that if anyone asks for a lawyer they will be punched, kicked in stomach, and handcuffed squatting and struck with foreign objects several times with their clothing on and off. They will also be threatened with amputation or beheading; and they will be whipped, while chained to the floor in crouching position with full back and neck exposed.
The only hope left for the Baloch and for the members of missing persons’ is the support of international community. It is the moral obligation and duty of International Human Right Groups, International Commission on Missing Persons (ECMP) , UN, EU and all freeborn people to put pressures on Pakistan regarding enforced disappearances, torture, extra judicial arrests and gross human rights violations in Balochistan, as currently the fate of tens of thousands remains unknown. The Baloch are looking for justice and peace of mind. There will be no peace of mind for their families.
Note: this is the text of the video we put it down for the convenience of our viewers
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