How Pakistan Army Targets Women in Its Campaign Against Balochistan Rebels

Mahal Baloch is one of many protesters against enforced disappearences, held in custody citing terrorism links.

Image: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint

Quetta, at night, is pin-drop silent. One can visualise the home of a young widow who lives with her three children and her late husband's mother. Suddenly, the night is no longer quiet, there is no peace or silence anymore.

People at the door screaming, giving rise to confusion and fear. Men from the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) burst inside the house, disrupting peace of the sleeping little family. Mahal Baloch is the name of the young widow and her late husband Nadeem who was a member of the Balochistan Liberation Front, and was killed in 2016. Since then Mahal, like many other Baloch women, has become an activist and a member of the groups that protest against enforced disappearances.

A new wave of state repression sweeps Balochistan as abductions by the Pakistan Army is on the rise which has led to the outbreak of massive protests in the country.

• A new wave of state repression sweeps Balochistan as abductions by the Pakistan Army is on the rise which has led to the outbreak of massive protests in the country.

• Mahal is still in custody despite human rights activists protesting all over the world for her release and the Baloch Interior Minister announcing publicly that the charges against her would be dropped and she would be released soon.

• It took years to highlight the rape horrors during the Bangladeshi war, and it will take years, when and if all this will end one day, to disclose in full the plight of Baloch women.

• Despite Human Rights Commission in Geneva trying to attract attention the world, the issue of Balochistan women and Balochistan in general, barely gets any attention at an international level.

Enforced Disappearences, Atrocities: Pakistan Is the Hotbed of Human Rights Crime

According to the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, “CTD broke into Mahal's house, searched it, took the money and whisked away mother-in-law Mahnaz, Mahal and the three children—Nugrah, Nazeenk, and Banadi and another lady. All family members including the children were blindfolded and taken to a police station.

The children were interrogated in the absence of a guardian and were placed in a room where they could hear Mahal's screams coming from an adjacent room. Mahal was denied a lawyer while being brutally tortured in custody.

Family members say, "Mahal was produced in front of a local court where she collapsed unconscious due to severe physical and psychological torture. Her children and the other two ladies were lately released."

Mahal is still in custody despite human rights activists protesting all over the world for her release and the Baloch Interior Minister announcing publicly that the charges against her would be dropped and she would be released soon. The charges are, in fact, fake and fabricated by the same CTD that broke into Mahal's house.

Based on their narrative, Mahal had been arrested in a public park near Satellite Town in Quetta while she was carrying a suicide bomber vest into a laptop bag. Either it was a giant laptop or they just invented slim-fit suicide vests.

Even The Balochistan Liberation Front issued a media statement clarifying that Mahal Baloch is not affiliated with the group. Adding that they are detaining her to pressurise her family to silence her and that “the Pakistanis security forces are unable to apprehend actual BLF fighters and instead, resort to detaining innocent civilians and framing them as militants. They do this to show the world that they are taking action against the raging insurgency in Balochistan."

But targeting women and, in some cases, even children, will only lead to a further escalation of the conflict. All over the world, an unwritten law has been upheld among self-respecting criminals, including the Mafia in earlier days by which the safety of women and children is, in most cases, inviolable.

Pakistan Army’s Balochistan Excesses

Harming or killing, as they did years ago to the sister and the niece of Brahumdagh Bugti, defenceless women and children in cold blood is, for any professional killer, breaking the code of honour. But the Pakistani Army in Balochistan has no code or honour.

The abduction of women and children is not new. In the past, there have been several cases of women abducted, detained, and tortured, used as sex slaves by military personnel, and then discarded. However, it is difficult to get numbers because, as it always happen in these cases, women feel ashamed and don't want to disclose their misery.

It took years to highlight the rape horrors during the Bangladeshi war, and it will take years, when and if all this will end one day, to disclose in full the plight of Baloch women.

“I demand to stop the state violence on our mothers and sisters,” said Dr Naila Qadri who heads the World Baloch Women Forum. “Pakistan Army is a rapist and pedophilic Army. They are dishonoring, raping and torturing our women and children. I feel very angry for the silence of UN, USA and EU."

No End to Violence Against Women in Balochistan

And there is proof that many Baloch women have been taken to these torture cells. Ali Arjumand, a Norwegian citizen who 'disappeared' for twelve years in these 'secret' cells, recalls very well how women were raped and tortured, and one of them left to die, bleeding, in front of his cell.

“We, the concerned organisations (Baloch Voice Association, Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, and Baloch Peoples Congress), Baloch people’s representatives, and human rights activists, write this letter to draw your attention towards the continued abuse of rights of Baloch women by Pakistani forces. In recent years, the Baloch women protesting, against enforced disappearances have been threatened, attacked, and disappeared by force. They have been kept in army torture cells where many have been sexually abused."

The letter, addressed to The Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, has been sent a few days ago.

It stated also that, “However, instead of addressing their concerns, the Pakistani state has continued to ignore their plight, and the practice of enforced disappearance has gradually increased." But, despite issuing statements, giving regular speeches and holding them during Human Rights Commission in Geneva, trying to raise the attention of the world, the issue of Balochistan women and Balochistan in general, barely gets any attention at an international level.

(Francesca Marino is a journalist and a South Asia expert who has written ‘Apocalypse Pakistan’ with B Natale. Her latest book is ‘Balochistan — Bruised, Battered and Bloodied’. She tweets @francescam63. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for his reported views.)