Amid the increase in cases of alleged enforced disappearances in Pakistan, the Baloch Human Rights Council urged the United Nations to dispatch a fact finding mission to investigate the human rights violations in Balochistan, Baloch Human Rights Council said in an official statement on Wednesday. This came during a side event hosted on the sidelines of the 52nd Session of UN Human Rights Council by the General Secretary of the Baloch Human Rights Council to highlight the atrocities faced by the Baloch people in Pakistan.
Representing the Baloch Human Rights Concil, Qambar Malik elaborated in his address at the event that, in constant violation of national and international laws and its obligations under various UN conventions, Pakistan has been committing heinous crimes against humanity in Balochistan. He also showed the data collected by the Baloch Human Rights Council on enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Baloch political and human rights activists, including women and children, lamented that the perpetrators of these crimes are roaming around with impunity, the release said.
He provided a brief background of the human rights situation in Balochistan, emphasizing that the Baloch struggle for self-determination directly resulted from Pakistan’s invasion of Balochistan and its forceful annexation into Pakistan in 1948 against the will of the Baloch people. Moreover, Baloch National Movement Chairman, Dr Naseem Baloch, expressed his concern about the existential threat faced by the Baloch people on the sociocultural, economic, and political fronts. He called upon Europe and the international community to break their silence about the humanitarian crisis in Balochistan and urged them to make Pakistan accountable for its crimes in Balochistan.
Additionally, the representatives of various human rights organizations also spoke at the occasion on various aspects of human rights violations facing different oppressed nations in Pakistan. The speakers included Dr Hidayat Bhutto of World Sindhi Congress, Dr Naseem Baloch, Chairman Baloch National Movement (BNM), Sardar Nasir Aziz Khan of United Kashmir Peoples National Party (UKPNP), Fazal ur Rehman Afridi, President of IRESK, Hassan Hamdam, Vice president of Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC), Razzak Baloch of BHRC and other activists from various international human rights organisations.