India: Seminar on Pakistan Repression in POK,Gilgit- Baltistan, Balochistan and Sindh

 Pro-freedom Baloch leader Hyrbyair Marr’s message at Seminar on “Pakistan Repression in POK,Gilgit- Baltistan, Balochistan and Sindh”. This message was read by Balach Purdili Baloch on behalf of Hyrbyair Marri.

Since Pakistan occupied Balochistan in 1948 – it conducted five major military operations to crush the Baloch independence movements. The latest phase of military operation which started in year 2000 and continues to this day. In each of these operations hundreds of thousands of people were expelled from their villages, thousands were arrested and disappeared and many hundred killed in indiscriminate bombardment where long range artillery, fighter jets and cobra helicopters were use against Baloch population.

Only in past 10 years Pakistani army enforced disappeared more than 19,000 Baloch men, women and children from different areas across Balochistan. Thousands of the abducted Baloch have been killed in custody and their bodies were dumped all over Balochistan, Karachi and some other areas of Sindh. The military operations, kill and dump and the abduction of Baloch activists still continues with full intensity. The families of enforced disappeared Baloch knocked all the doors in Pakistan to seek justice for their loved ones but to no avail. They even organised a foot march from Quetta to Islamabad to register their protest with United Nations – the UN too have ignored their peaceful march and plea for help.

Despite these brutal and inhuman acts of Pakistan the Baloch nation continues their struggle for liberation and the current freedom movement is continuation of the liberation struggle that Baloch people had started in 1948 when Pakistan occupied sovereign Balochistan. Even though the Baloch struggle is for Baloch national survival but if one looks at the broader concept of Baloch struggle one would easily understand that we are fighting against a monster that has disrupted the peace of India, Afghanistan and the entire world community. A monster that openly expresses its support for Taliban and to other religious groups.  The Pakistani military generals including General Nasirullah Babar, General Aslam Beg and others consider the Taliban and other Jihadi groups as strategic assets of Pakistan. These butchers of humanity are trained, financed and armed by Pakistani military and then send to all corners of the world to create havoc and also send to Balochistan to counter the pro-freedom Baloch political forces.

As the vast majority of Baloch people do not allow these Jihadi groups to indoctrinate and radicalise their children to hate other religions and nations. So, we the Baloch are playing a leading role in war against global terrorism but we are deprived of the due international attention and support. The the international community takes notice of human rights violations in Palestine, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the world but they have turn a blind eye to Pakistani state barbarism against Baloch people and the bloodshed in Balochistan.

Some UN member states are using their status to only protect their own individual interests and helping others on linguistic basis. Such states are occasional humanitarians – they only remember human rights if their own interests are at stake or if their linguistic groups are in trouble.

Pakistan which is also a UN member state and a signatory of UN human rights charters but it still violating Baloch human rights and committing Baloch genocide since 1948. As the UN and other international humanitarian organisations remain silent on Pakistani state atrocities in Balochistan that is why it considers itself above the international conventions and laws so it has intensified the extra-judicial abductions, kill and dump and military operations in Balochistan.

Pakistan has also systematically kept Balochistan economically backward to keep the Baloch people below poverty line so that they would struggle to survival rather than thinking of their national liberation and national identity. However, on International forums Pakistan claims to have started mega development projects in Balochistan – these project have proven to be nothing but mega exploitation of Balochistan’s natural resources and means of demographic changes which will benefit occupiers – the Pakistani Punjabis.

At present Pakistan in nexus with China has initiated the so called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor but again this is only to serve the interests of Pakistan and China. Baloch people will be left nothing but misery and expulsion from their native villages and town in the name of development work. If the Baloch homes are being destroyed, Baloch are being forced to vacate hundreds of thousands acres of their lands in Gwadar and Turbat to facilitate Chinese and Punjabis then how can Pakistan claims that this corridor will benefit the Baloch? The so called CPEC will lead to more death and destruction in Balochistan. That is why for the Baloch it is a corridor of death not development.

We wish that India have a clear policy about Balochistan because Pakistan’s policies about Kashmir are clear and their interference in Kashmir is not is secret or hidden from anyone.  If Pakistani officials can openly meet the Kashmiri leadership then why shouldn’t India do the same? If Pakistan can speak at UN about Kashmir issue why shouldn’t India raise the issue of human rights violations in occupied Balochistan? As one of the biggest democracies of world and a power in South Asian region we expect India to diplomatically and morally support Baloch freedom struggle.

India should mend its historic mistake of not helping the Baloch – when in 1947 and 1948 Baloch people turned to India for help but the response of India at that was disappointing because it did not understand this evil state [Pakistan] which was created on the basis of hatred for other religions. Had the Indian leadership of that time helped the Baloch, today India, Afghanistan and many regions would not have faced Pakistani terrorism.

The world media has ignored the France size Balochistan where Pakistani army is busy abducting and killing Baloch people on regular basis. Not even a single foreign journalist is found in Balochistan. Humanitarian organisation including Red Cross, UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, UNICEF and others are not allowed to help the Baloch victims of Pakistani state atrocities. That is not a tragedy only for Balochistan but also for the whole of humanity that millions of people are ignored by International community just to please Pakistan. That is why we wish that the Indian people and Indian media play a leading role in informing the world about ground realities in Balochistan and be the voice of the oppressed nations under Pakistan’s occupation – including Pakistani occupied Kashmir, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Sindh and Pakhtunistan.