Pakistan has crossed the red line in Balochistan: Human rights body

Quetta, July 27 (IANS) Paank, the Human Rights Department of Baloch National Movement (BNM), said on Sunday that the Pakistan military establishment has crossed the red line in the resource-rich province of Balochistan with the abduction of various women activists.

“In recent years, Pakistan has crossed the red line of human rights violations, religious, and humanitarian in Balochistan. The Pakistani military establishment is torturing, detaining and abducting young Baloch women, which is a grave concern for human rights defenders. They are even violating their laws in the province,” said the human rights body in a statement.

Paank further emphasised that despite being a region rich in natural resources and coastal trade benefits and a feeder to the Pakistani state, Balochistan is suffering inhumane behaviour and human rights violations at the hands of the Pakistani military establishment.

The human rights body pointed out that Balochistan is facing extreme military violence, like resource extraction, deprivation of basic facilities, military operations, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, criminalisation and collective punishment.

“The Pakistani military establishment is torturing, detaining and abducting young Baloch women.

Paank said that the torturing, detaining and abducting of the young Baloch women is a grave concern for human rights defenders.

“This new trend started in 2006. Zarina Marri, a Baloch schoolteacher, has been incommunicado. She was picked up by the Pakistani military. Reports from whistleblowers and human rights observers indicate that she has suffered physical, psychological, and sexual torture in custody, used as a tool of

repression, humiliation, and control,” the body said.

It added that Zarina Marri’s case is not isolated but part of a sustained, deliberate campaign of state terror waged by the Pakistani military establishment against Baloch women and activists.

Paank said that the arbitrary arrests and harassment of Mahrang Baloch, Bebow Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch, and Mahjabeen Baloch for peacefully demanding justice and human rights expose a system built on the brutal suppression of dissent.

“We (Baloch) have knocked every door of justice but only received condemnation from you, not practical action against the barbaric practice of the Pakistani state against the Baloch people. And yet, despite years of escalating abuse, where is your outrage? Where is your intervention? Where are the investigations, the condemnations, the demands for accountability?” the body said.

Paank said that human rights and feminist groups have never hesitated to condemn state violence in Palestine, Iran, India, Myanmar, and elsewhere.

“But when it comes to Balochistan, your silence is loud, and your inaction is complicity,” Paank added.

--IANS

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