ISLAMABAD: A leading Baloch activist urged the government on Tuesday to allow a United Nations fact-finding team to probe rights violations in the southwestern Balochistan province while vowing to continue a protest in the federal capital until the demand was met.
More than 200 Baloch demonstrators, including women and children, have been rallying in Islamabad against what they call “enforced disappearances” and “genocide” of ethnic Baloch people in their province.
Many of them walked up to 1,600 kilometers to camp outside the National Press Club in the federal capital under the banner of Baloch Yakjehti – or Solidarity – Committee after a 24-year-old resident of Turbat district, Balach Baloch, was killed in the custody of the provincial Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) that accused him of involvement in a number of militant attacks. However, Baloch’s family and civil society activists deny the CTD claim and call his death a case of extrajudicial murder.
Baloch protestors stage a sit-in outside the National Press Club in Islamabad on December 23, 2023, against the arrests of its marchers earlier this week. (Photo courtesy: X/@BYCislamabad)
Speaking to a local news channel, Mahrang Baloch, who led the march to Islamabad, said they rejected a committee formed by the government to probe the issue and wanted a permanent end to rights violations in Balochistan.
“It is our demand to bring the UN fact-finding committee to Balochistan which should take notice of the human rights violations in the province,” she told Aaj News TV. “The UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances has been writing letters to Pakistan for the last ten years and seeking NOC [no-objection certificate to visit Balochistan]. But Pakistan has not been allowing them.”
Baloch said the government had also formed committees in the past but they had never published their findings.
She said Baloch demonstrators were not visiting Islamabad to seek justice for a few individuals, adding the practice of enforced disappearances in her province was not new and needed to end.
The government and state agencies have frequently denied such claims in the past.
The Baloch activist also demanded the release of several demonstrators which were recently arrested by the police in Islamabad.
