Baloch protesters end Islamabad sit-in after PM Imran's pledge to meet them

Nasrullah Baluch, centre bottom, leader of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons, speaks while people hold placards and portraits of their missing family members during a press conference in Islamabad, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. Protesters calling for an end to enforced disappearances in Balochistan ended a week-long sit-in in the capital on Monday, after an assurance that Prime Minister Imran Khan will meet them next month.

“We don’t have any big hopes from this government, but the way they have reassured us, we also have decided to give them a chance,” Sammi Baloch, who has been searching for her father Deen Muhammad since 2009, told Reuters. She and other families have protested across the country for years to little avail.

The Islamabad protesters — 10 families of missing men and around a hundred supporters — said they will return if assurances are not met. Security officials say many of Balochistan’s so-called disappeared have links to separatists. But actual court punishments have been rare. The Pakistan Army and human rights ministry did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment for this story, including questions about specific family members sought by the protesters. For one week, protesters held up photos of missing relatives under the watchful eyes of police surrounding them. Among them was 60-year-old Baz Khatoon, who clutched a stack of news reports and court filings about her son, Rashid Hussain Brohi. She believes he was detained in Dubai in December 2018, was flown to Pakistan six months later, and then vanished without a trace.