QUETTA: A 10-year-old, Chakar Baloch, had his whole life before him when some unknown men kidnapped him near a market in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Three days later his body was found in a stream, making him another victim of the shadowy fight in the desolate, unstable province.

In Chakar's family they no longer count the men kidnapped, detained, tortured or beaten allegedly for their part in a long-running nationalist movement in the province.

Chakar's cousin and grandfather were detained, then released in October; subsequently it was another cousin, Sanaullah, who was taken. He has not been seen since then, according to his family.

Feeling threatened, the family left their home in the remote district of Panjgur to seek refuge in Turbat, a separatist stronghold around 200 kilometres south.

Late in the afternoon of Jan 7, Chakar was playing in a lane when according to his family a group of men, some in uniform while others in civilian clothes, snatched him and fled on the motorbike.

The family filed a complaint to the police but nothing happened.

Three days later the messy-haired boy was fished out of a nearby river, his body was slightly hit with at least two bullet wounds, according to photos seen by AFP.

“He was a lovely child. He loved playing football, cricket and video games like other boys of his age,” a member of his family said, speaking on a condition of anonymity.

“I believe that he was killed due to the political activity of the whole family.

“They wanted to give the message to the family, 'See what we can do to you — if we cannot catch the elders, then we will hit the children.'”

Pakistani authorities insist the family is wrong and Chakar was killed by Baloch separatist militants who tried to pin the blame on security forces when they realised they had killed a child.

'Kill and dump'

In Pakistan, clashes in the northwest between the Taliban and the army attract passionate debate every day, unlike the fighting in Balochistan which has pitched separatists against state forces for a decade.

The idea of giving greater autonomy to the province with the size of Italy but with only nine million inhabitants is highly sensitive in Pakistan.

Balochistan, spread over an unforgiving landscape of mountains and deserts abutting Iran and Afghanistan, is rich in gas and mineral deposits — adding a financial dimension to the battle.

In recent years, many people suspected of links to separatist groups have mysteriously disappeared, allegedly at the hands of the intelligence agencies, and never been seen again.

“Thousands of people are missing in Balochistan, we have a list of 2,850 cases of missing persons,” Nasrullah Baloch, the chairman of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) told AFP.

“Most of them are political activists and their family. When they don't find the political activists, they pick up the relatives, the family members of these activists.”

The authorities dispute the figures given by Baloch campaigners, putting the number of missing at less than 100.

Sometimes they reappear after months or years in detention. Or dead, their bodies left by a road or in a riverbed.

Tahir Hussain Khan, the head of the Balochistan section of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said 460 bodies have been found up to now; most of them are of political activists.

In January, the authorities announced the discovery of a mass grave containing 13 bodies, buried just below the surface, in the village of Totak in central Balochistan.

Peace with the rebellion?

Unusually, the authorities announced an inquiry into the grisly find, perhaps hoping to show good faith to the insurgents to get them to take part in a peace process.

The rebels attack trains, gas installations, security forces and people hailing from Punjab, Pakistan's richest and most populous province.

They also threaten local media when they fail to publish their statements.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, elected in May last year, has tried in recent months to negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban to end their bloody seven-year insurgency.

And with Abdul Malik Baloch in charge of Balochistan as chief minister, the federal government hopes of building bridges with the rebels.

“I am trying to convince the insurgents that you should come to the table and talk,” the chief minister told AFP, adding that past insurgencies in the province had been ended through negotiations.

“I think it will be better for the Baloch and Balochistan that we should go for a dialogue bringing together insurgents and tribes, this is the only solution.”

According to a government source, the preliminary contacts have been established with the disparate half dozen groups that make up the separatist movement.