The Pakistan Army is being criticized for abusing human rights and enforcing disappearances in Balochistan; NGOs are calling to prevent genocide and end eliminations with impunity.

A Paris-based NGO named the Baloch Voice Association has organized a virtual conference in which they discuss how Balochistan could possibly suffer from a genocide amid the effects of Coronavirus in their area and the world as a whole.

In said conference, influential humanitarian activists from Balochistan and foreign analysts implicated Pakistan’s Army in enforced disappearances, torture and killing of intellectuals, students, and political activists in the region.

Mama Qadeer Baloch, an activist fighting for Balochistan, has accused ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) of taking advantage of conditions brought on by COVID-19 and seeing them as an opportunity to “whisk people away”.

As of right now, almost every single family in Balochistan has at least one member missing, even women and children. The Baloch Voice Association has a list of more than 350 females and 200 infants who have fallen victim to involuntary disappearances.

“The Baloch people are small in number and the Pakistani forces are eliminating them steadily. Some say that this is a genocide of the Baloch.[…] The only thing that can save them is the international recognition of their issue and international support,”

Hussain Haqqani, author and Pakistan’s ex-ambassador to the United States

Balochistan is an area very rich in resources, and The Chairperson of Baloch People’s Congress, Professor Naela Quadri Baloch has said that Pakistan is “an ideology of religious terrorism” that loots commuties’ resources in order to dominate them.

The genocide of the Baloch people is attributed to the occupation and the division of their land. An agreement made with Britain in 1947 endorses the sovereignty of the Baloch people on their land.

An Italian journalist named Francesca Marino has stated that “the genocide in Balochistan is being done silently”. Even though the European parliament is aware of mass graves being found in the region, there is still no sign of action from the European Union.

Two Pakistani journalists have suffered the consequences of Pakistan’s Army’s strategic motives. When speaking of the death of Baloch Journalist Sajid Hussain in Sweden, Marino mentioned that two months following his initial disappearance, his dead body was found in Upsala River. Comparably, Pakistani Journalist Waqas Goraya was beaten, threatened, and assaulted in a European country. The European Union has remained silent.

Even Reporters Without Borders has raised suspicion that the ISI is behind the kidnapping and murder of Sajid in Sweden. It is frankly not possible to rule out their involvement in Sajiid’s death.

The conflict has been going on for years, but since the Baloch do not have politicization at an international degree it has gone unnoticed. It is important to spread the news now and make the Baloch people heard.

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To learn more about the Baloch Voice Association, what they do and how to help them, please go to this link:

https://www.balochvoiceassociation.org/?page_id=7

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Sources: