Geneva:
The Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) has written to the United Nations saying Balochistan is in turmoil and in urgent need of rescue as the state of Pakistan has only been relying on military repression in dealing with the Baloch national question.
In a detailed written statement to the UNHRC at its 48th session, the Baloch rights group has highlighted the various aspects of human rights abuses resulting from the highhandedness of the state.
According to the BHRC, in parallel with social, cultural, and economic exploitations, collective punishments, the enforced disappearances, kill and dump, illegal detentions, torture of political and human rights activists have become the norms in Balochistan whereas the Pakistani security agencies have organized anti-social and extremist religious elements to fight their protracted conflict with the Baloch national resistance forces.
“The people are living in a state of the siege while the Pakistani authorities convey the impression to the international community that the national resistance of the Baloch has been contained or crushed. But the fact is that on the one hand, the army and the Baloch resistance have been locked in a bloody, protracted, and devastating confrontation with no side appearing as the winner. The fact is that the whole region of Balochistan has officially and unofficially been declared as a no-go zone. National and international media has been barred to enter Balochistan for the last many years. Humanitarian organizations and human rights groups are not being permitted to investigate the crimes being perpetrated by security forces. The conflict between the powerful Pakistani security establishment and the helpless Baloch national resistance is uneven. The Pakistani army is fighting a war in Balochistan without witnesses”. read the BHRC statement
The statement by the BHRC revealed that in recent months, human rights violations have increased in intensity and quantity. Data collected from different districts of Balochistan by the Baloch Human Rights Council and other human rights organizations show that only in the first half of 2021, more than 37 people have been forcefully disappeared by the security forces and its death squads.
Highlighting the economic challenges, it said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the economic aggression in which the Chinese corporations are siphoning off gold, uranium, platinum, and other natural resources from Balochistan. The whole coastal region of Balochistan has been leased out to China.
It further said that the Baloch people are pinning their hope on getting help from the international community, the UN, and its human rights institutions as the legal institutions in Pakistan are in the grip of the powerful military establishment and unable to give any relief to the suffering people in Balochistan.
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