Fact-check: False. Quetta suicide bomber was not previously a missing person
Images of Mahrang edited to include picture of suicide bomber to make it seem she is advocating for him
Updated Saturday Nov 16 2024
On November 9, a suicide bomber attacked a railway station in Quetta, Balochistan. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility and identified the bomber as Rafiq Bizenjo.
Soon after, social media users began alleging that Bizenjo was a missing person whom rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch had advocated for.
The claim is false and the pictures being shared online are fabricated.
Claim
On November 10, an X (Twitter) user criticised rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch for raising her voice for victims of enforced disappearances in the province.
“Rafiq Bizenjo, identified as the suicide bomber in the Quetta attack, had previously been reported as a missing person [by] Mahrang,” the user wrote, “However, both Mahrang and BYC [Baloch Yakjehti Committee] continue to depict him as a missing individual, using his image to fuel anti-state narratives.”
Accompanying the caption were two images. One showed Dr Mahrang Bloch standing in front of a poster with images of alleged victims of enforced disappearances, amongst which was a picture of Rafiq Bizenjo, the man BLA had identified as the suicide bomber. The other picture was the one released by BLA of Rafiq Bizenjo.
The post was viewed over 16,000 times and reposted nearly 100 times.
Similar claims were shared on Facebook here and here and WhatsApp as well.
Some users also claimed that Rafiq Bizenjo was the same as Rafique Oman, who Dr Mahrang Baloch had been stating was a missing person.
Fact
The claim that Dr. Mahrang Baloch advocated for the release of the suicide bomber, Rafiq Bizenjo, is false. The picture online has been altered. Also the two men - Rafiq Bizenjo and Rafique Oman - are unrelated.
A reverse image search reveals that the poster circulating online in front of which rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch is standing has an image of another man, allegedly a victim of enforced disappearance. This image has been edited and that of the suicide bomber added to make it seem as if Dr Baloch had been pushing for the release of Rafiq Bizenjo.
The original image and the manipulated one can be seen below.
Geo Fact Check contacted Naeema Zehri, a journalist from Khuzdar, who had taken the original picture of Dr Mahrang Baloch in front of the poster.
Zehri confirmed over the phone that she took this photo of Dr. Baloch on January 13 in Islamabad. The journalist then shared nine other pictures she had snapped of Dr Mahrang Baloch and the poster behind her, which carried images of alleged missing persons.
Zehri also sent screenshots of her photo gallery and specifications of the pictures to confirm that they were taken by her own camera and were not altered. The original pictures do not have the photo of the suicide bomber, Rafiq Bizenjo, on the poster behind Dr Baloch.
Furthermore, social media users are confusing Rafiq Bizenjo with another man, Rafique Oman, an alleged victim of enforced disappearance from Balochistan. However, the two men are not the same.
Dr Mahrang Baloch, an organizer of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), told Geo Fact Check that Rafique Oman was in fact a teacher from Kech, who had been missing for over ten years.
Geo Fact Check then spoke to Samia Baloch, the daughter-in-law of Rafique Oman. She said her father-in-law was around 50 years of age, while the suicide bomber looked much younger.
She added that her father-in-law has been missing since 2014 and a police complaint had also been registered for his recovery. She then shared a photo of her father-in-law which can be seen below.
Additionally, Geo Fact Check contacted the government’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. Farid Ahmed Khan, the secretary of the Commission, confirmed to Geo Fact Check over the phone that there is no case registered with them of a missing person whose name is Rafiq Bizenjo.
Geo Fact Check also contacted two police officials from the Turbat police station, who asked not to be named. Rafique Oman’s police complaint has been registered at their police station. They further confirmed that Rafique Oman and the suicide bomber, Rafiq Bizenjo, are two different people.
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