Pakistan’s ‘disappeared’ suffer kidnap, torture, murder
Despite promises while a member of the opposition to end enforced abduction by security forces, numbers have increased under Imran Khan’s government
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shah Meer Baloch / The Guardian, QUETTA, Pakistan
The abductors moved with an ease and stealth that suggested they had done this before. As Qayyum (his name has been changed to protect his identity) and his family slept, 12 masked and uniformed soldiers used a ladder to scale the gate of the house, in an affluent neighborhood of the Pakistani city of Quetta in Balochistan.
The family woke as they burst in, but the officers silenced them with an order: Don’t scream or we will beat you. One demanded Qayyum’s national identity card.
Kidnap, torture, murder: the plight of Pakistan’s thousands of disappeared Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shah Meer Baloch in Quetta
The abductors moved with an ease and stealth that suggested they had done this before. As Qayyum and his family slept, 12 masked and uniformed soldiers used a ladder to scale the gate of the house, in an affluent neighbourhood of the Pakistani city of Quetta in Balochistan. The family woke as they burst in but the officers silenced them with an order: don’t scream or we will beat you. One demanded Qayyum’s national identity card.
“Bring your phone and laptop,” barked an officer. A bag was shoved over Qayyum’s head and he was dragged outside and thrown into the back of a car.
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