Eight bullets
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COVID-19, an improvised explosive device, eight bullets, and a photograph of a blood-soaked young man bracketed by his parents. This is how dreams have died in a series of events that appear random but are not.
On the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day, a young man was returning home to Turbat, Balochistan when an IED blast targeted a Frontier Constabulary (FC) convoy nearby.
The young man was Hayat Baloch, an undergraduate student at the Karachi University whose classes were suspended by a coronavirus shutdown of educational institution. He was the first in his family to attend university, aspiring to improve his and his family’s fortunes.
It was around midday when, according to eyewitnesses two FC officers reached Hayat father's date orchard during a search operation. They accused Hayat of involvement in the IED blast and assaulted him. His father told the officers that Hayat had been with him all day, but the young man was blindfolded, taken away to the side of the road and eight bullets pumped into him in front of his parents.
Earlier reports had claimed Hayat had died in the roadside bomb explosion. It wasn’t until several days after Hayat’s death that pictures of that moment circulated on social media. The hashtag #JusticeForHayatBaloch trended on social media. An FC soldier named Shahidullah was handed over to the police after an inquiry within the force. The IG FC South Maj. Gen. Sarfaraz visited Hayat’s father in solidarity. Students and civil society representatives held protests across Balochistan and later in other cities calling for the paramilitary force to be held accountable.
On the civilian side, officials were on the defensive. Balochistan’s interior minister, Mir Zia Langove, said the accused FC soldier had been handed over to police. “It is not appropriate to blame the entire institution. Security forces have been performing their role with full dedication and devotion in the province,” he told the media. In the National Assembly, Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said there should be a standard operating procedure for such search operations, maintaining that “progress had been made.”
In the short-term, the arrest and the FC soldier’s confessional statement before a magistrate do indeed seem like progress. But we’ve been here before.
Balochistan is a province where separatists and terrorists have inflicted casualties on both civilians and security personnel, where enforced disappearances are still an open wound. Hayat Baloch and his family’s dreams died with him. Balochistan is a province where promises of resolution have died over and over again.
Amber Rahim Shamsi
Parallels can be drawn from another extra-judicial killing. The case of Naqeebullah Mehsud was another that germinated from social media, with pictures of the model-aspirant from another far-flung area leading to protests and extensive media coverage. The prime suspect, "encounter specialist" police officer Rao Anwar and other accomplices seem to have evaded justice so far two years on.
Another case: Sahiwal, Punjab, January 2019. A couple, their minor daughter and another man were killed by Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officers in broad daylight. The case consumed much media space and produced many promises from the ruling party’s provincial and federal ministers. A video of the couple’s shocked remaining two children moved many on social media. When six CTD officials were acquitted, however, the then information adviser to the prime minister, Firdous Ashiq Awan, tweeted that the court decision would be appealed. But there has been a deathly silence since.
Balochistan is a province where separatists and terrorists have inflicted casualties on both civilians and security personnel, where enforced disappearances are still an open wound. Hayat Baloch and his family’s dreams died with him. Balochistan is a province where promises of resolution have died over and over again.
Questions need to be asked: what are the standard operating procedures during search operations, how well are officers trained, do they undergo regular psychological evaluations, is it possible to independently verify and document disproportionate and excessive use of force by the FC and other law-enforcement agencies, and was Hayat Baloch’s murder an individual act or an institutional failure?
In his statement to a magistrate, the accused FC officer Shahidullah said he had been wounded twice before in separate incidents, and the IED blast on Aug. 13 caused him to go into a fit of rage. Eight bullets, and the rage was spent. But other questions still remain, there was another FC officer along with Shahidullah at the scene of the crime, is he too not an accomplice? Where were the others?
These are questions that perhaps a fact-finding mission, a judicial commission or consistent parliamentary oversight could help answer. The Senate's human rights committee has rightly summoned the IGs of the Balochistan police and FC. While sustaining the pursuit of truth and answers is probably too much to ask, this is some start.
– Amber Rahim Shamsi is an award-winning multimedia journalist who hosts the Newswise news and current affairs show on Dawn News. She has worked with the BBC World Service as a bilingual reporter, presenter and producer.
Twitter: @AmberRShamsi
