ISLAMABAD: Baloch publisher and activist Abdul Wahid Baloch, who was seized on July 26 by Pakistani intelligence, remains missing, his family said in comments published on Thursday.
Letters sent to higher authorities by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) inquiring about his disappearance have returned to its Karachi office.
This was stated by Asad Iqbal Butt, vice chairperson of the HRCP's Sindh chapter, to the media at a press conference held by Wahid Baloch's family on Wednesday, the Dawn reported.
“After forming a fact-finding mission, we sent several letters to the law enforcement authorities," he said.
"Strangely, all the letters came back to us. And we found out that the letters had reached the authorities but were not received by them."
Hani, one of Wahid Baloch's two daughters, explained how her father went missing.
On July 26, Wahid Baloch, a telephone operator at the Civil Hospital in Karachi, was returning to Karachi from Digri in Mirpurkhas district after meeting friends and attending an event.
A poet friend, Sabir Ali Sabir, was travelling with him along with his two children.
Hani said their van was stopped at a toll plaza by two men in plain clothes who asked Wahid Baloch to step out and drove away with him in a blue vehicle.
The local police refused to register a complaint, Hani said.
“We were told that the intelligence agencies had picked up my father and police can't do much about it,” she said. “A police officer asked us to wait for 90 days for my father to return.”
The family has filed a petition in the Sindh High Court demanding that if Wahid Baloch has done any wrong, he should be brought before a court.
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by area, has been hit by unending violence including a low level Baloch insurgency.