Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) is Non-Profit Organization, working to unite and Organize all Baloch in North America, to expose the Occupation of our land (Balochistan)  and  exploitations of our resources by  Pakistani and Iranian Governments, and to bring their Human Rights Violations in Balochistan into the world’s Notice.

Mengal’s guards tell BHC they were tortured in custody

Friday, April 06, 2007

Staff Report

QUETTA: Two guards of Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the former Balochistan chief minister being tried in Karachi by an
anti-terrorism court, have told the Balochistan High Court that they were held in solitary confinement and tortured
in custody. Ghulam Hadier and Abdul Khaliq also told a BHC bench of Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai and
Justice Akhtar Zaman that they and 12 other servants and guards of Mengal were picked up by “intelligence
personnel”.Mengal’s 14 servants and guards “disappeared” after Mengal was moved to Karachi on December
23 after being held under house arrest at his Lasi Farm House since November 27.

They told the court that they were tortured for 20 days in 6x6 feet rooms which could accommodate four persons
each. They added they had little knowledge of the rest of their companions. They could only hear their cries when
they were being tortured but they were not allowed to meet them, they said. Haider and Khaliq said they were
handed over to Clifton Police in Karachi on February 24 with two other persons, Mohammad Rahim and
Mohammad Ismail. They were warned that they would be whisked away again if they revealed their ordeal to
anyone. “They said they were brutally tortured and asked what heavy weapons Sardar Akhtar Mengal
possessed, who visited him and who had links with him,” Zahoor Ahmed Shawani, vice president of the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan, told Daily Times.

Shawani said Haider and Khaliq had informed their captors that they had no knowledge about Mengal
possessing heavy weapons or his contacts.The HRCP vice president said two other missing guards of Sardar
Mengal, Shah Nawaz and Bahar Ahmed, had resurfaced in Sakran in Lasbela district, but they were not
speaking about their capture. Earlier, Bashir Ahmed, a relative of some of the missing persons, filed a petition
before the BHC demanding they be found. But Ghulam Yaseen, district police officer of Lasbela, told the court
that Mengal’s guards and servants were not in police custody.

Haider and Khaliq decided on their own to file an affidavit before the BHC. The court asked the concerned
federal and provincial departments to inform the court about the whereabouts of the rest of the missing persons.
Baloch nationalist say that over 4,000 Baloch political workers, students, intellectuals, poets, academics,
doctors and engineers are missing.

Pak intelligence sleuths accused of torturing Mengal's guards

Malaysia Sun Friday 6th April, 2007  

Islamabad, Apr 6 : The two body guards of Baloch leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who has been put under house
arrest since November 27, have told the Balochistan High Court of being tortured by Pakistani intelligence
officials, after arresting them for terrorist activities.

The two guards Ghulam Hadier and Abdul Khaliq told the two-member bench of the High Court that they were
held in solitary confinement and tortured in custody, and also alleged that 12 other servants and guards of
Mengal had been picked up by intelligence personnel.

"They (the two guards) said they were brutally tortured and asked what heavy weapons Sardar Akhtar Mengal
possessed, who visited him and who had links with him," the Daily Times quoted Zahoor Ahmed Shawani, vice
president of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, as saying.

Disposing before Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai and Justice Akhtar Zaman the two guards narrated the
torture, which were inflicted upon them, as they were confined for twenty days in 6x6 feet rooms that
accommodated four persons each.

Unaware of their fellow colleagues, the guards said that they could only hear their cries, when they were being
tortured, but they were not allowed to meet them.

Earlier, Bashir Ahmed, a relative of a missing person, filed a petition in the court urging it to find all the aides of
Mengal who had gone missing since December 23, when the Baloch leader was shifted to Karachi.

However, police have rejected the allegations and told the court that Mengal's guards and servants were not in
the police custody.

The court has asked the concerned federal and provincial departments to inform the court about the
whereabouts of the rest of the missing persons.

Baloch nationalists allege that over 4,000 Baloch political workers, students, intellectuals, poets, academics,
doctors and engineers are missing.