In the scorching heat outside Karachi Press Club, the Balochistan chief minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, sat next to a pale Lateef Johar and asked him to give up the hunger strike. “I have come to meet you and appeal to you to end your hunger strike,” he asked Johar. The chief minister had come to Karachi especially to meet Johar.
The student activist who has been on hunger strike for the past 38 days, however, refused to give in. In a low voice, he replied, “Tell me the name of the agency that has detained Zahid Baloch. When those who have him admit he is in their custody, I will end my strike.”
The chief minister became silent and helplessly looked at the crowd of journalists and activists who pressed him to blame the law enforcers for his abduction, and to let everyone know when he would be recovered.
But the official parried all these questions. “I can’t make promises that can’t be fulfilled,” he lamented. “But I wish to resolve the missing persons’ issue and hope Zahid Baloch will be found soon.”
