Shahab Rahmat Baloch, a student of Philosophy at the University of Karachi, was abducted from his home in Turbat, Balochistan, last night. At about 2 AM, dozens of Frontier Corps soldiers along with intelligence officials in plainclothes raided his home and whisked him away without showing any warrant for his arrest.
“I was cooking Sahoor when about 50 soldiers stormed our home,” his mother, Shahida, tells Balochistan Times. “They took away my child.”
She says that she asked them why they were abducting her son but they had no answer. She was horrified by the number of soldiers in their compound. “The neighbouring houses were raided too.”
Shahab is a 21-year-old graduate student at the University of Karachi. He was occasionally vocal about the students’ rights but his focus was on his studies. His family is unable to comprehend why he was picked up.
“We are in quarantine. Shahab was at home all the time. How could he have possibly harmed anybody? He has done nothing,” Shahida says. He was her most peaceful son, obedient and respectful, according to her.
Shahida says she kept pleading to the soldiers to let her son go. “They did not listen to me and drove away with my child before my eyes,” she says.
She says she will protest for Shahab’s safe return. “I will sit on the prayer mat but I will also take part in demonstrations so that they release him. I will not rest,” Shahida says.
Update: Shahab Baloch has been released. He reached home at about 7 PM today.
