Balochistan: Pakistan and Iran are perpetrating war crimes, Baloch have right to defence, Hyrbyair Marri

LONDON: The pro-freedom Baloch leader and the head of Free Balochistan Movement, Hyrbyair Marri in a statement to the media said that both Pakistan and Iran were in collusion in perpetrating war crimes against the Baloch Nation in occupied Balochistan.

He said that on 16 and 18 January 2024, both Iran and Pakistan bombed the mud houses of unarmed Baloch citizens with missiles and drone attacks in a preplanned war aggression in which 12 Baloch were martyred and many others were injured, including women, children and elderly.

Baloch leader said that in the wake of this military aggression, we heard some customary condemnations from our sympathizers, but they also need to acknowledge the Baloch’s rights to self-defence in the face of military aggression, as both Pakistan and Iran have shut the door of peaceful means for resolving Balochistan’s disputed status. We never joined Iran and Pakistan of our own free will. They occupied Balochistan by military aggression during and after British colonial rule.

Mr. Marri further said that under a misplaced perception, both Iranian and Pakistani rulers think that the Baloch people are a small disunited nation; they can easily suppress and subjugate them under an aggressive containment policy.

“I want to make it clear that this illusion must end,” He said, “put aside Baloch intra-party politics, which exists in every nation across the world and the Western nations, it is regarded as the beauty of democracy, but in Balochistan’s case is seen as an irreparable division of the Baloch nation. However, the unity of the Baloch is demonstrated every day across the Goldsmid arbitrary line in the form of peaceful protests”.

“We’re more than 40 million people living on our soil for thousands of years, and as a Nation State since 1666. But our enemies’ problem is that they’re religious fanatics, they can’t face the reality, they’re over-obsessed with their aggressive containment policy against the Baloch nation for the trillions of dollars of Baloch wealth and the usage of the strategic location of Balochistan for economic and military purposes. 

“Both these fanatic States are afraid of transparency and openness, as both are built using religion to further their self-interests (Pakistani Punjab and Iranian Persians) and to suppress and subjugate other nations like Baloch, Kurd, Pashtuns and Al Ahwazi nations. They have turned Balochistan into a black hole of information to hide their crimes against the Baloch,” Mr. Marri said.

The Baloch leader urged the UN and international community not to ignore Pakistani and Iranian war crimes against over 40 million Baloch people and to form a fact-finding mission to investigate the crimes that both Iran and Pakistan have been continuously committing against the Baloch nation for decades.

In the case of Pakistan for more than seven decades, and in 2028 it would be 100 years (a century) of Baloch misery and suffering at the hands of the Persians, which was facilitated by the British Empire. Otherwise, they are silently aiding the oppressors and are unwittingly being used as a tool for exploitation and occupation.