KARACHI – The whereabouts of social worker and publisher Abdul Wahid Baloch are still unknown after he went ‘missing’ on July 26, with his family alleging that he was picked up by law enforcement agencies.
The resident of Lyari was a telephone operator at the Civil Hospital in Karachi, according to Dawn.
Abdul Wahid was a book lover and helped Baloch authors and activists publish their works and posters.
According to a close friend, Ghulam Mohammad, he was known for participating in events, protest rallies and hunger strikes held by Baloch activists and fishermen seeking justice for the province’s thousands of missing persons. “He was referred to as comrade and used to be a constant fixture at the Karachi Press Club,” said Ghulam.
Baloch’s eldest daughter, 20-year-old Hani, said her father, his friend Sabir Ali Sabir, and his friend’s two children, were coming back from an event in Digri on Tuesday afternoon when two men in plainclothes apprehended him. “One in black and the other in white, came towards the caravan as it broke at the Superhighway toll plaza and took my father’s friend to show his identity card,” she narrated.
Hani was given details of the incident by her father’s friend.
“One of the men dressed in black colored shalwar kameez — similar to how the Levies dress in Balochistan — then turned towards my father and asked him to show his identity card. Upon looking at his ID, the man took out his phone and checked something.
He then asked my father to step out with his bags. As he did so, the men asked the driver to leave immediately.”
According to Hani, the two men were standing near a blue-coloured Vigo in which her father was taken away.
Abdul Wahid has three daughters and a son.
