Free Balochistan Movement announces online awareness campaign on 28 May

LONDON: The Free Balochistan Movement (FBM) has apprised its members, Baloch nation and the international community that party’s FBM Information Department ‘Twitter Desk’ will a run an online awareness campaign on twitter against the nuclear tests Pakistan conducted on 28th May 1998, in Chaghai district of Balochistan.

The hashtag for the twitter campaign will be #NoToPakistaniNukes on 28 May 2020; activists will highlight the effects of the nuclear test on the local population and ongoing human rights violations in Balochistan.

The FBM said that these illegal tests on Baloch soil turned Chagai Mountains and surrounding areas into a nuclear wasteland where the fauna and flora of Baloch land became permanent victims of immeasurable nuclear radiations.

After the tests, Pakistan didn’t take any measures of protection of the residents of the area from radiation harms. On top of that, it even didn’t allow the local media and political activists to report the environmental damages of post-nuclear tests, let alone the international media and IAEA to visit Balochistan and assess the real situation.

After learning that Pakistan would response to India’s Pokhran tests in Balochistan, the Patriotic leader of Balochistan and head of Free Balochistan Movement, Mr Hyrbyair Marri, at the time representing the will of the Baloch nation in the so-called Balochistan Assembly, immediately issued a statement to Balochistan national media against Pakistan’s intentions to use Baloch land for its nuclear tests.

He vehemently asked, Nawaz Sharif, government at the time not to carry out nuclear tests in Balochistan. “If you’re so interested in nuclear testing, then do it in Pakistani areas of Punjab, not in occupied Balochistan,” Mr Marri said.

The statement further read, “Free Balochistan Movement would like to reiterate its principle stand that the nuclear tests that Pakistan carried out on Baloch soil in 1998 are regarded as a blatant act of war against Balochistan’s sovereignty.

“Pakistan has turned Balochistan into a test zone for its Tactical Weapons of Mass Destruction which includes the use of Balochistan’s coast not only for the missiles tests but also for smuggling of lethal drugs to Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East with the help of Pakistan Military, Coast Guards and Frontier Corps (FC) whereby earning billions of dollars.”