However, year after year, from 2009 to 2023, the girl continued to raise banners, seeking justice for her father’s release. Governments came and went, promises were made, but nothing tangible happened. That little girl, named Sami Deen Baloch, is now 24 years old. Yet, in these past 14 years, no significant progress has been made towards securing her father’s freedom. Sami Deen Baloch’s father, Dr. Deen Muhammad Baloch, was a government employee in Balochistan. On June 28, 2009, while on duty at the government hospital in Nach, Khuzdar, he was forcibly abducted by armed men in plain clothes. To this day, there has been no news about his whereabouts.
Sami Deen’s family has tirelessly knocked on every door, from government to state institutions, appearing before commissions and committees, demanding justice. They sought answers and closure, whether her father was guilty or innocent. However, their hopes have been consistently shattered, and progress has eluded them.
In 2011, the former Chairman Justice Retired Javed Iqbal, who was heading the commission for sensitive cases like enforced disappearances, raised questions about their case. He had promised them that her father would be released, but that promise remained unfulfilled.
Similarly, in 2021, during Imran Khan’s government, the Prime Minister himself met with the families of missing persons, including Sami Deen’s family. The government assured them of resolving the issue and pledged to pass legislation against forced disappearances. However, numerous loved ones, including Sami Deen’s father, remain unaccounted for, and the forced disappearances bill vanished within Imran Khan’s government.
Protests by families of missing persons from Balochistan took place in various cities of Punjab. Maryam Nawaz, a leader of the Muslim League-N, participated in these protests, criticizing Imran Khan and appealing to institutions to present the missing individuals in court. They demanded information even if the missing persons were deceased. Subsequently, the PML-G government formed a special committee of the cabinet to address missing persons’ cases.
In 2022, when the families of missing Baloch people staged a fifty-day sit-in in Quetta’s red zone, expressing their frustration with the provincial government’s helplessness, a federal government delegation led by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah met with the demonstrators, offering assurances. They claimed progress would be swift, but nine months have passed since the sit-in ended, and there has been no visible progress.
Like hundreds of other families, Sami Deen has been protesting for her father’s release every Eid for the past 14 years. This Eid, thousands of families are on the streets, asking the state: Where are their parents? In what condition are they, alive or not? They seek answers from a higher power.
The writer is a teacher at DELTA, The Change Agent, and can be reached at aminwastoo@gmail.com.