Torture of Baloch Nationalist Activists

BNP student activist reappears after 6 months in 'torture cell'

** Speaks of 'indescribable torture' being inflicted on large number of
detained Baloch, including the elderly, women and children

Staff Report*

QUETTA: A young Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) activist resurfaced
here on Friday after presumably languishing in intelligence agencies'
'torture cells' for six months.

Plainclothes intelligence and Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) personnel picked up
Babu Sumalani, a 28-year-old University of Balochistan graduate student, on
September 22, last year.

On Friday, addressing a press conference at the Quetta Press Club, Sumalani
claimed he had been taken into custody by an intelligence agency and the ATF
from Smungli Road, Quetta. He said he had been blindfolded, shoved into a
vehicle and taken to a 'torture cell'.

Indescribable: He told reporters he had found a large number of political
activists, students, professionals, the elderly, women and children in the
torture cells, and spoke of indescribable torture being inflicted. "They
used to beat us so much that it is beyond description. Most of us were
apparently victimised because of our political views. I saw with my own eyes
several Baloch old women, elderly citizens and children being put into these
torture cells," he told reporters.

The student leader also disclosed that Javid Lehri, a missing journalist
from Khuzdar, was in the ATF jail, and was continuously being put through
"inhumane mental and physical torture".

He cited "security reasons" for not clearly answering many questions
concerning his detention and the nature of torture that he had endured and
that was being inflicted there. Sumalani said the Baloch were being
persecuted for standing up for their due rights. "We are being punished
because we Baloch talk of our right of ownership on our coast and
resources." But, he warned, "this tactic applied by the state to deal with
the Baloch dissent is likely to backfire."

Sumalani, who hails from a generation of Baloch youth that has vocally
opposed President Pervez Musharraf's policies in Balochistan, thanked the
Baloch Women's Panel, other human rights groups and columnist Fatima Bhutto
for their "unlimited support" while he was detained, and credited them for
his release.

Around 4,000 Baloch people from all walks of life are currently in the
custody of intelligence agencies, according to BNP Secretary General Habib
Jalib, who accompanied Sumalani at the press conference.

"Even the courts of the land have failed to deliver justice to the victims
and their families," said Jalib. "The courts seem to be totally helpless in
front of the intelligence agencies. The unchecked practice of illegal
detentions is rapidly increasing in Balochistan, with too little
intervention by international human rights organisations. "

--
Senator Sanaullah Baloch
Member Senate of Pakistan
http://www.sanabalo ch.page.tl