Back in 2010, when I first met Mama Qadeer at a local bank on Quetta’s Sariab Road, little did I know it would become a lasting connection.

At the time, I was doing my intermediate and had gone to the bank to pay my college fee. Mama had retired from the bank and was there to meet a former colleague. He was there with his grandson, whose father was a missing person.

A cousin of mine worked there as the bank manager. “This is Jalil Reki’s father,” he said before introducing me to Mama, who was then known as Abdul Qadeer Reki, his official name. When asked about his missing son’s whereabouts. Mama replied in an assured tone: “He [my son] will be released soon, as he has not done anything.”

WHEN GRIEF BECAME RESISTANCE

Mama’s son Jalil, a Baloch political activist, had gone missing on February 13, 2009. His bullet-riddled dead body was found in a desolate area in Mand, a bordering town in Balochistan’s Kech district, in November 2011. Jalil was secretary information of the proscribed Baloch Republican Party (BRP), headed by Brahamdagh Bugti, the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the head of the Bugti tribe who was killed in a military operation in 2006.

Mama’s composure did not falter even after the killing of his son. Instead, he firmly held his grandson’s hand as he went to see his son’s bullet-riddled body. He kept his composure even when he spoke about who had killed Jalil and why.

In most cases, families of missing persons stop protests and continue to remain at home when the dead bodies of their loved ones are found; some due to shock and trauma and others due to fear.

After his son’s enforced disappearance in 2009, nearly 70-year-old Abdul Qadeer Reki — better known as Mama Qadeer — did what few dared: he set up a protest camp and never left. He passed away on........

© Dawn (Magazines)