Quetta, May 22 (IANS) Human rights body Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) on Friday strongly condemned the recent wave of violence against human rights defenders in Balochistan, alleging that Baloch activists, teachers, intellectuals and students are being systematically targeted by Pakistani authorities.
The rights body described the recent killing of academician Ghamkhwar Hayat Baloch as a major example of “state barbarism”.
Hayat, a prominent poet, literary scholar, and educator, was reportedly shot dead by individuals linked to Pakistan-backed death squads on May 16 in the Killi Mengal area of the Nushki district of Balochistan.
Additionally, the BYC expressed grave concerns over the threats issued to advocacy group Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), stating that targeting the organisation amounted to an attack on freedom of speech and constituted gross human rights abuse.
Highlighting the VBMP’s resistance against the “genocidal policy” of enforced disappearance of Baloch people by Pakistani authorities, the rights body said that the organisation has been protesting peacefully outside the Quetta Press Club for the past 6172 days.
“Astoundingly, it had been threatened multiple times to give up the struggle against forcibly disappeared people. VBMP’s camp had been distorted many times, so they must be fed up or threatened to quit their struggle,” the BYC said, extending solidarity to VBMP.
The VBMP has alleged that it has been receiving threats intended to compel the organisation to shut down its long-running protest camp and abandon its campaign against enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
“Threats are being issued to shut down the protest camp of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons and to abandon the ongoing peaceful struggle against enforced disappearances. Such tactics are attempts to suppress the voice of human rights, but the struggle against enforced disappearances will continue,” the VBMP posted on X.
Meanwhile, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) sharply criticised the attack by the Pakistani military and its local death squads on the home of a senior exiled party member, Nawaz, in the Tump area of Balochistan, calling it a sign of the “enemy’s frustration”.
According to the BNM, during the attack, women and children were harassed and terrorised, while the house was vandalised, and valuable belongings were looted, adding that his house had previously been targeted in a similar manner.
The group noted that such incidents are carried out by the Pakistani military on a daily basis in Balochistan as acts of “oppression and repression”.
“Through harassment and intimidation of BNM members and their families, attempts are being made to force them to abandon their national struggle, despite the fact that the Baloch national movement is a constitutional, political, and internationally recognised struggle for the right to freedom,” it added.
–IANS
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