Baloch activists highlight Pakistani atrocities
Mar 11, 2019
Geneva (Switzerland), Mar 12 (ANI): Baloch activists have raised the issue of gross human rights violations in Balochistan by Pakistan Army and their proxy terror organizations during the ongoing 40th session of UN Human Rights Council here today. A conference titled “Balochistan of Pakistan – The Human Cost” was organized by Baloch Human Rights Council (UK) at a tent at Broken Chair, in front of the UNHRC. A hashtag #Balochgenocide was also launched during the event. The speakers including a Member of European Parliament and Baloch human rights activists demanded an end to state and non-state atrocities on the Baloch people. They highlighted the plight of the people of Balochistan in the face of unchecked and concentrated brutalities being perpetrated against them by the state security forces of Pakistan for the last many decades. The activists later organised a protest against Pakistan Army and demand an early intervention by the United Nations to stop genocide of Baloch people. The Baloch were joined in solidarity by Sindhi, Pashtun and Kashmiri activists, who raised slogans against the Pakistan Army and the ISI.Taj Baloch, Head of Human Rights Council of Balochistan said, “The human rights situation in Balochistan is getting worse since 2012. Before, it was only enforced disappearance which is already a crime, and then the extra-judicial killings. Now, they have started burning villages and expelling the entire population without any compensation. The kids and women are dying without food and medical care. We just want to raise the issue that the world shall speak against it and investigate whatever is going on in Balochistan”. Zafar Baloch, a human rights activist said, “The people of Balochistan should have political rights. People of Balochistan should be in a politically powerful position to decide about their own future, their land, their natural resources, development and social uplift of the society. Baloch people are secular and they want terrorist outfits like LeJ, LeT, JeM should be completely driven out of Balochistan”. He added, “Pakistan Army is using these terrorist outfits not only against its neighbours but against its own citizens in Balochistan.”
