Siddique Eido and Yousaf Nazar
28 April 2011
Thousands of defenders of Baloch nation have perished in Pakistan’s dirty war in Balochistan. Thousands killed and their body dumped, thousands more still suffer in torture cells of Pakistan. Villages bombed and burned their inhabitant forced into becoming internal displaced person (IDP), cities turned into fortress with many check posts surrounding them all this to isolate the Baloch freedom fighters in the mountains.
Activists living in cities of Balochistan are most vulnerable, after the Murgaap incident, in April of 2009, when Pakistani intelligence agency picked up three prominent Baloch leaders Ghulam Mohammed Baloch, Lala Muneer and Sher Mohammed Baloch from their lawyers chamber in Turbat and within days killed them in custody and dumped their bodies in Murgaap it became clear that Baloch activists are not even save within the boundaries of a Pakistani court.
With every passing day a trend emerged, that bogus cases registered against Baloch activists were death traps, they were meant to lure them in courts from where they were picked up by intelligence agencies, tortured to death and then their body dumped in isolated places.
On 21 December 2010 Siddique Eido and Yousaf Nazar Baloch were travelling back from a court appearance in Gwadar, accompanied by one Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) and four police constables, when they were abducted by men in state security forces uniforms. After remaining “Missing Persons” for four months their tortured bodies were dumped at Ormara, Balochistan on 28 April 2011.
Siddique Eido was a human rights defender affiliated with Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), and Yousaf Nazar Baloch was a tailor by profession and was doing his Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) as a private student and was affiliated with Baloch Student Organization (AZAD) (BSO-A). A bogus case was registered against them in Pasni their home town for attacking the Pakistan Coast Guards.
Siddique Eido was born and raised in Pasni, a tehsil of district Gwadar. Pasni is a medium-sized city of Makarn’s costal belt located on Arabian Sea about 450 Km west from Karachi and approximately 126 Km east of Gwadar. He was born in 1979 to Waja Eido. During his student years he was a leader of BSO (Star) the student wing of Balochistan National Democratic Party (BNDP) led by Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo. After completing his graduation in Bachelor of Arts he joined Pakistan Meteorological Department and was stationed in Pasni as a weather observer. At the end of academic career, he felt he could serve his people better as a human rights activist so in 2001 he joined HRCP.
Siddique Eido was a dedicated and committed human rights activist, as the Core Group Pasni Coordinator of HRCP, he followed each human rights case. He traveled throughout his region and kept HRCP updated with every atrocity committed by Pakistani occupying forces in Balochistan. His fearless and humanitarian work made him a target of Pakistani establishment.
The other comrade whose mutilated body lay with Siddique Eido on the sacred soil of motherland was of Yousaf Nazar. Belonging to a very poor family but rich in culture and heritage which gave him strength to stand tall and sacrifice his life for his fellow brethren.
Yousaf Nazar was born to Waja Nazar Muhammad at Chumbur, Kolwa on 22 May 1988. He studied till fifth grade from his local school in Kolwa, tehsil Awaran. For economic reason his family migrated to Pasni. To help out his family economicallyhe started to work from a young age, but did not quit his education. He passed his matriculation from Government Boys High School Shipanko Bazar, Pasni and later he registered himself as a private student of Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC), for his day job he worked as a professional tailor master. Even after the enormous burden of looking after himself and his family from young age, he did not forget his responsibility as a member of his oppressed and subjugated nation. He did not only work hard for the betterment for his fellow students but also defended the rights for his beloved nation.
A bogus case of attacking the Pakistan Coast Guards was registered against both of them in Pasni, at the Anti-Terrorism Court, Turbat. For unknown reasons the case was shifted from the Turbat court to the Anti-Terrorism Court in Gwadar. Friends advised them to skip the hearing for they feared for their safety.
Both believed in peaceful struggle, so they assumed that they will be treated differently. Traveling in the custody of Pakistan Police to Anti-Terrorism Court in Gwadar and being a member of HRCP, Eido felt Pakistan intelligence agencies will not put their hand on them, but their judgment of Pakistani states ethics waswrong.
We will never know how they felt when they were stopped by Pakistani intelligence agencies and men in Pakistan army uniform on 21 December 2010 at the check post of Frontier Corps (FC) in Karwat, 50 kg from Gwadar on their return from the court. They must have felt helpless when they were dragged of the vehicle and when police resisted their illegal abductionthey toowere severely beaten by Pakistan army personals and kept in custody for some hours. In the meanwhile, Eido and his friend were sent to an unknown location. The display of “state within a state” was in full swing under the bright sun of Balochistan on the Coastal Highway that day.
Families of both the activist’s collected the mutilated body of their loved ones from Ormara where Pakistani state had dumped their body on 28 April 2011 and buried them in Pasni. These Baloch families are considered the luckyones for having a closureto their pain, then those whose loved ones have now been missing for years. But the bottom line is closure or no closure, the pain never stops when the life of your family member is savagely snatched by a state to which a good dissident is a dead one.
Today even children and woman in Balochistan are not spared by Pakistani forces’ savagery. Collective punishments have become norm of the day. “When crimes begin to pile up, they become invisible” Bertolt Brecht said. Pakistan’s dirty war in Balochistan has reached the point where it has disappeared from media by state censorship or lack of interest. The state of Pakistan boasts it has put down the two decades old insurgency in Balochistan, a handful of Sarmachars who are left are isolated and ineffective in the mountains.
From the bombed and burned houses, and from the tears and angers of fallen and missing person’s family of Balochistan the Phoenix will rise. The Baloch nation shall rise from the catastrophe of death and destruction given to them by Pakistan much stronger, smarter and more powerful to win their freedom.
Long Live Free and United Balochistan
Struggle Until Freedom
Baloch Vanguards
