Shaal (Balochistan): The human rights condition in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan is worsening by the day, with a large number of innocent people being kept in illegal detention by the Pakistani forces, including in the ‘private prisons’ set up by the so-called tribal chiefs, according to the Baloch National Movement (BNM).
Every month, scores of innocent Baloch people become victims of ‘Enforced Disappearances’, wherein they are illegally picked up by the Pakistani forces or their proxies and after that their whereabouts are never known.
While some of them are killed by the Pakistani forces in cold blood in an extra-judicial manner and their bodies disposed of, some are kept in illegal detention for years and decades together.
According to the monthly report of the PaanK, the Human Rights Department of BNM, 38 Baloch people were forcibly disappeared last month (December 2022).
Among them, one Imran Babu was killed by the Pakistan Army in Bani Kolwah, a village in the Awaran district, and his mutilated body was thrown at Buzdad, it said.
Earlier in the month of November, Pakistani forces subjected 36 Baloch people to enforced disappearances and killed 23 Baloch in various operations, according to the PaanK.
“The death squads, with the backing of the Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies, have turned Balochistan into a vast prison and deprived the Baloch people of their right to life,” the report said.
“Far away from providing national rights, even the basic civil rights have also been snatched and national parties are banned,” the report further states.
According to Paank, “the so-called tribal chiefs have set up their private prisons under state patronage in Balochistan where people are being imprisoned and forced to work, which is a violation of human rights.”
The report also referred to last month’s peaceful sit-in by the local Baloch people in Gwadar against looting of resources by Pakistan and China. It noted that the authorities used force and tortured people there.
Many protestors, including a senior Baloch political leader Hussain Wadhela, were arrested and transferred to other cities, it said.
“The women participating in the sit-in were also tortured, which shows that Pakistan is unwilling to allow the Baloch to hold peaceful protests,” the report said.
According to PaanK, many Baloch people, fed with the oppression by the Pakistani military, have migrated to Iran and Afghanistan, where they live in the worst conditions.
