Students protest 11-year-old's kidnapping in Pakistan's North Waziristan

Students of a private school staged a protest and blocked the main road in Pakistan's North Waziristan after an 11-year-old was abducted, while he was on his way home from school, by unknown car-borne kidnappers.

According to Dawn, the 11-year-old student has been identified as Nazirullah was abducted on Tuesday.

Following the kidnapping, the students of the school staged a protest and warned that they would continue the agitation till the kidnapped student was not recovered safely. The road remained blocked to traffic for a couple of hours.

Later on, local elders held talks with the protesting students and assured them that the kidnapped student would be recovered immediately.

The civil society also showed concern over the increasing incidents of abduction of minors and demanded that such cases should be stopped immediately and students should be provided security.

Pakistan has been grappling with the issue of enforced disappearances that have put the lives and security of Pakistani citizens at risk.

Last month, Pakistan witnessed substantial human rights violations in 2020, from forced conversions of religious minorities and crimes against women to enforced disappearances and curbs on freedom of expression, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said in its annual report.

On the issue of enforced disappearances, the report said, "Since the inception of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has topped the list in terms of numbers of missing persons. At end-December 2020, the total number of cases registered in the province stood at 2,942."

The international community and the United Nations have so far failed to push the Pakistani state authorities to address the issue of enforced disappearances.

The families of the victims have lost faith in the Pakistani government and its state institutions. Parents of the victims have perished during these series of protests and the long wait for justice lasting for years.

( With inputs from ANI )