ISLAMABAD: The administration of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan has set up de-radicalization centers to address the issue of enforced disappearances, Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told Arab News this week, adding the new system would make interrogation of suspected militants possible under legal oversight while allowing the inmates family access.
The issue of enforced disappearances, commonly known as the missing persons issue, has been one of Pakistan’s most sensitive human rights concerns, particularly in Balochistan where separatist insurgents routinely target civilians and security forces.
Families of missing individuals and rights groups have long accused security agencies of enforced disappearances during counterinsurgency operations, allegations the state has repeatedly denied, saying that most of these people have either joined militant groups or fled the country.
“Regarding the issue of missing persons, we found a solution,” Bugti said during a conversation in Islamabad. “After the 1st of February that just passed, now from the Government of Pakistan there will not be even a single missing person since we have established de-radicalization centers.”
He revealed the government has already placed a few suspects in these facilities.
“Right now, as we speak, there are about five or six boys in these centers,” he continued, adding that intelligence agencies had been given this new tool by parliament to ensure they can interrogate suspects in an environment where suspects have full access to legal remedy.
Bugti said the government believed the missing persons debate had often been politicized and that new institutional mechanisms were being introduced to address both security concerns and legal safeguards.
“If you are certain someone is an insurgent, then that is a different matter,” he said. “Then it becomes a bloody fight between you and the state ... But when the issue is suspicion, then what do you do? You pick up that person, bring him into custody, conduct proper interrogation, and through that interrogation break his entire network.”
“You reach those who supply him, who provide weapons, who give food, who support him, where his hideouts are,” he added. “All these are requirements for security forces.”
DE-RADICALIZATION CENTERS
Bugti said that in the newly created de-radicalization centers, proper interrogation will take place headed by a senior superintendent-level police officer.
“Any intelligence agency can come and interrogate, but they are not allowed to take that person to their own offices or any other facilities,” he said. “Interrogation will happen there [at the centers]. Medical facilities will be available. Meetings with parents will be allowed. The magistrate will know, the parents will know.”
He said after three months of detention, the Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court will decide on whether to free the suspect or extend the detention.
“The matter will be heard in chambers. The investigating agency — whether CTD, police, ISI, MI or FIA — will brief the judge. The judge will have the authority to grant or deny extension. Then prosecution will follow, because you cannot just keep someone without moving toward prosecution.”
In response to a question, he said these facilities are named de-radicalization centers as the government will try “to rehabilitate the suspect through psychiatrists to understand why he chose this path and who pushed him toward it.”
Bugti cited an example of a suspect who killed the former Balochistan High Court chief justice, Muhammad Noor Meskanzai, in 2022 after being radicalized through social media.
“He received a message in a social media inbox and within a month became so radicalized that he went and killed a chief justice inside a mosque,” he said. “So someone has to carry out de-radicalization, and we will do that.”
The chief minister said for those who actually committed crime, faceless courts have been established for prosecution.
“We have established faceless courts and introduced a witness protection law. Witnesses will be protected [and] their identity can be changed so they can testify in faceless courts. The accused will also have legal counsel,” he said, adding that measures have been taken for the protection of both judges and witnesses.
'SELF-DISAPPEARANCE'
Responding to criticism from nationalist groups and activists of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a local rights organization, who say that enforced disappearances fuel anger in the province, Bugti questioned the framing of the issue.
“Even if one person is missing, there’s no justification [for that]. But the subject has become dicey now,” he said, emphasizing it was important to differentiate between “enforced disappearance and self-disappearance” while pointing out that the United Nations had set criteria for the former.
He said it had to be established in such cases who made the person disappear, arguing it could even have been done by one's relatives.
“But we’ve turned it into a fashion to blame our intelligence agencies as soon as someone disappears,” he continued, arguing that the phenomenon of missing persons was everywhere in the world, including the United States, United Kingdom and India.
The chief minister added that official figures from the government’s commission on missing persons suggested the number of unresolved cases in his province was relatively limited.
“Look, in the commission formed for missing persons, there are about 200 or 300 figures from Balochistan,” he noted. “I don’t know the exact figure. Now, [after] establishing which institution they are with, I will bring them to the center. What about self-disappearances? They are also there.”
He said the whole subject had become quite tricky in Balochistan.
“It is used as a propaganda tool against the state of Pakistan,” he added.
