Quetta – The lawyer community protested outside the Quetta Press Club on Saturday against the abduction of their four colleagues, announcing to initiate protest demonstrations and rallies on daily basis till the safe recovery of abductees.
They also threatened to besiege the chief minister’s house against the extra-judicial arrest of lawyers and political workers and recovery of mutilated bodies of missing persons. The demonstration was jointly organized by all three lawyers’ bodies – Balochistan Bar Association, Balochistan High Court Bar Association and Baloch Bar Association.
Protesting lawyers shouted slogans against the government for failing to protect the life and property of the people, stoping extra-judicial arrest of lawyers and ending ‘kill-and-dump’ policies of Baloch political workers.
Four senior lawyers Saleem Akhtar, Syed Tahir Hussain, Agha Zahir Shah and Munir Ahmed were abducted and the whereabouts of these lawyers are still not known while a couple of lawyers were whisked away and their mutilated bodies were found in the streets. The relatives of the victims and Voice for Baloch Missing Persons accused intelligence agencies and the Frontier Corps Balochistan of killing Baloch youth and dumping their bodies.
Addressing the occasion, former president of Supreme Court Bar, Ali Ahmed Kurd said that abduction and kidnapping of lawyers was aimed at intimidating lawyers to stop them from struggling for justice. Baz Muhammad Kakar, president Balochistan Bar, said that Balochistan was burning and the issues were not being handled properly by the authorities concerned and media.