Families of Baloch missing persons reach Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: After 2,000 gruelling kilometres on the road, the families of Balochistan’s missing persons arrived in the federal capital on Friday.

The marchers, led by a retired banker known as Mama (uncle) Qadir, hope to present a petition to UN officials in Islamabad and meet foreign diplomats to raise awareness of their cause. "We want to tell (the world) that people are being kidnapped every day in Balochistan, districts are being bombarded and almost every day we are receiving mutilated bodies," Qadir told AFP on the road close to Rawalpindi, Islamabad´s twin city.

The marchers set out from the Balochistan capital Quetta last October, walking first 700 kilometres to Karachi, on the shores of the Arabian Sea, before turning their steps northwards to Islamabad.

The Supreme Court has also been investigating cases of missing people in Balochistan, issuing warnings to the government to recover these people.