Islamabad universities accused of targeting Baloch students

Islamabad [Pakistan], October 3 : For the fourth consecutive day, Baloch students at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad are holding a sit-in protest, demanding the safe recovery of two missing students and an end to racial profiling they say is rampant across universities in the capital, as reported by The Balochistan Post.

According to The Balochistan Post, the demonstration, organised by the Baloch Students' Council (BSC) Islamabad, began on Monday when students set up a protest camp on campus.

On the first day, transport services were halted, classes were boycotted, and a peace walk was staged to raise awareness. Since then, students have continued their sit-in without disrupting academic activities. Members of the Pashtun Students' Council have also joined the protest in solidarity.

At the heart of the agitation is the disappearance of Saeed Baloch, a seventh-semester student of Strategic Studies at QAU, who was allegedly abducted on July 8 while travelling to Quetta.

According to the BSC, university staff and hostel wardens were complicit in monitoring Saeed before his disappearance, with suspicious individuals repeatedly questioning his classmates about his whereabouts. The BSC claims the sequence of events indicates a premeditated plan.

The protesters are also demanding the recovery of Feroz Baloch, a student of Arid University in Rawalpindi, who has been missing since May 2022 after allegedly being picked up by intelligence personnel. Despite legal petitions and repeated demonstrations, his fate remains unknown, as cited by The Balochistan Post.

Students urged that these cases are part of a broader pattern of enforced disappearances and harassment targeting Baloch students across Pakistani universities.

They cited the case of Hafeez Baloch, an MPhil scholar from QAU's Physics Department, who was abducted in 2022 from Khuzdar, sparking weeks of protests before he was eventually produced in court and acquitted of false charges.

The BSC has reiterated that until Saeed and Feroz are recovered and racial profiling of Baloch students ends, the protest will not be called off, as reported by The Balochistan Post.

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