Daily Times

The 25-year-old son of a poor employee of my uncle went missing in the second week of Ramazan. The missing son was in search of a reasonable job and facing financial problems on account of payable debts.

The grieved family probed many possible reasons behind his disappearance ranging from illegal abduction by LEAs to likely accidental or criminal occurrence. Luckily, the missing boy was found alive once LEAs apprehended him in a failed border crossing attempt in Taftan. His safe recovery ended the negative speculations against the state institutions.

The boy went missing in pursuit of career goals but his family had reservations against the state without having any credible evidence of perceived foul play. This brief episode is just the tip of the iceberg growing beneath the surface invisibly. Rhetoric on the issue of missing persons is spreading exponentially on social media platforms. Misplaced campaigning of a particular segment of society comprising self-style human rights activists, leftists, journos, right-wingers and ethno-lingual groups is a key factor behind the illusionary perception shaping up against the state of Pakistan.

Twisted truth exploited by the anarchists can only be countered with the projection of ground facts.

Let’s be clear that the issue of missing persons is neither exclusive to Pakistan nor every missing person is a victim of enforced disappearance. Dust kicked off persistently with the agitational manoeuvres often obscured the vision of common masses. We should not forget the recent episode of the sit-in staged in the federal capital for the rights of Baluchistan. Activists belonging to ethnic brands of groups vigorously overplayed the issue of enforced disappearance with direct allegations on the state.

As usual, social media platforms fired a barrage of fabricated allegations to portray the state as a villain. People are forced to believe these lies with an overdose of social media campaigning. Who bothers about the fact check and authenticity on social media platforms? Interestingly, the fact-check moment came uniquely.

A retaliatory missile strike on terrorists’ hideout inside Iran compelled the firebrand lady doctor to spill the beans at a sit-in venue during media conversation. Iran unhesitatingly acknowledged the killing of illegally stationed terrorists of Baloch origin. However, the showgirl of sit-inn openly owned the killed ones on account of Baloch missing persons. How can the missing persons hiding in terrorist camps on foreign soil be blamed on state institutions? Such terrorists cannot be called a ‘Missing Person’ in the first place.

Probing questions about the reality of missing persons asked by the media from the sit-in leaders are still unanswered. The only reply to all such questions repeatedly came in the form of more allegations leaving no room for sane argument. Forces inimical to the stability of Pakistan are alarmingly active in Balochistan.

The lethal combination of hardcore terrorism, ethnic violent separatism and subversive social media propagation cannot be ignored as isolated developments. Why do the exploiters of the enforced disappearance issue avoid the clarification about the undeniable spotting of a killed terrorist as a ‘Missing Person’? Coordinated hue and cry of ethnic anarchists, INGOs and human rights watchdogs seemingly reflect traditional double-speak and rhetoric-based activism. Interestingly, so-called champions of human rights USA is identified as a country having the highest number of unresolved missing person cases. According to a report on the website of World Population Review, more than half a million persons went missing in the USA in 2021. In South Asia, a record of India is convincingly the worst because 88 persons go missing every hour in the so-called largest democracy of the world. Mother of modern democracies, the UK has to deal with an average of 180K missing persons annually.

Comparatively, Pakistan’s statistics on this issue are not alarming. Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED) claimed that 77% of cases have already been resolved with the support of LEAs. The solution of 1125 out of a total of 1489 cases reported by the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (UNWGIED) speaks volumes about the seriousness of Pakistan. Hollowness of rhetoric can be assessed with the fact that a prominent Baloch politician from Khuzdar, who happened to be the ex-CM, could only provide the names of one thousand names against the exaggerated claim of five thousand missing persons. Ironically, none of the firebrand agitators has any credible clue about the involvement of the state.

Likewise, flagbearers of anti-state rhetoric are always tightlipped and evasive about the presence of disappeared persons in the ranks and files of terrorist organizations. The complicated geo-political situation and surging terrorism wave, pointed at strategic developmental projects, are part of venomous campaigns woven with the fibre of anti-state rhetoric. Twisted truth exploited by the anarchists can only be countered with the projection of ground facts and blunt questions exposing their hypocritical double-speak.

The writer is a graduate of QAU, PhD scholar and a freelance writer and can be reached at fa7263125@gmail.com