June 10, 2023
By Ahmed Saeed
LAHORE
Javed Baloch, who went missing on May 4, 2023 from his home town of Khuzdar in Balochistan, returned home during the early hours of June 9. His family has confirmed that he is safe and sound.
“My nephew is back, and he is doing well,” Javed’s uncle, Rasheed, told Voicepk.net over the phone, adding that the missing youth immediately met with the local leadership of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), because of party leader Akhtar Mengal’s continuous efforts for his recovery.
“We are happy that our beloved Javed is back. But we do not want to go into details of the incident – who abducted him and for what reasons,”
said Rasheed.
Javed had completed his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Agriculture (UoA) in Faisalabad, where he also served as the Chair of the Baloch Student Council (BSC) until his graduation.
After graduation, Javed started teaching chemistry at a private school in his hometown of Khuzdar. Later, he began working as a salesperson at the store of a private fertilizer company. He was planning to appear for UoA’s entry exam for postgraduate studies.
However, on May 4, at about 9:30 AM, Javed and his colleague were waiting outside his cousin’s shop next to his workplace for a ride when three SUVs suddenly arrived. It was reported that about 10 armed men, dressed in black clothes and masks, stepped out of the vehicles and grabbed Javed. One of the masked men confirmed Javed’s identity to the rest through gestures and dragged him into one of the vehicles.
On May 7, three days after the incident, the Khuzdar police registered an FIR under section 365 (kidnapping) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Following the abduction, Javed’s father, Bashir Mengal, had told Voicepk that his son had participated in a protest for the recovery of missing persons on Eid day, which could have been the reason behind his abduction.
During a discussion of his case on Aaj News’s Spotlight, Senator Kamran Baloch, a member of a commission addressing the grievances of Baloch students, had stated that the issue of enforced disappearances was brought up before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) on May 16.
“The Prime Minister is aware of the matter, and he assured the NSC that the security forces will address this,”
he stated, adding that the issue should be viewed in two instances: the disappearances that occurred in the past and those that are likely to happen in the future or are currently happening.
Around 8,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been recorded since the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED) was established. In 2022 alone, 69 students were forcibly taken away. The specifics of these disappearances remain uncertain.