Pakistan transforming Balochistan into a controlled camp: BYC

Balochistan government is transforming the region into a mass internment camp, drawing a parallel to conditions in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, to control and repress public opinion: Dr Mahrang Baloch

QUETTA: Dr. Mahrang Baloch, the leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), has taken to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to condemn severe and systematic abuses by the Balochistan government.

According to Dr. Baloch, the government, acting on the directives of the military establishment, is expanding the Fourth Schedule—a stringent anti-terror watch list—by including the names of thousands of individuals, thereby violating their rights.

Dr. Baloch highlighted that 137 individuals were added to the Fourth Schedule in July in Quetta alone. This list reportedly includes students, social activists, writers, lecturers, and professors. Among those listed is Dr. Baloch’s own brother, Nasir Baloch, who has previously suffered from enforced disappearance and has no ties to political activism.

She said that including peaceful individuals and the family members of activists on this watch list is part of a broader campaign to subjugate and oppress the Baloch population.

Dr. Baloch further emphasised that the Balochistan government is transforming the region into a mass internment camp, drawing a parallel to conditions in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, to control and repress public opinion.

Dr. Mahrang Baloch has called on civil society, media, international human rights organisations, and political stakeholders to denounce the egregious misuse of the law and to support the resistance against these oppressive measures.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the spokesperson for the BYC has stated that the Pakistani state has put the lives of hundreds of individuals in Balochistan at risk by including them in the Fourth Schedule.

The BYC in its statement added,  “The affected individuals include professors, teachers, writers, doctors, journalists, and activists in political, social, and human rights fields from across Balochistan. These individuals are being harassed and coerced by officials from state intelligence agencies, who contact them under the guise of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and summon them to intelligence offices. The Pakistani state has unfairly linked these individuals to armed groups, causing mental distress to them and their families.”

According to BYC in addition to the Fourth Schedule, the state is using tactics such as enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and military brutality to instil fear among the people of Balochistan, keeping them under constant mental pressure. These violent strategies aim to transform Balochistan into a controlled camp, where people cannot even breathe without the state’s permission.

In conclusion of its statement the BYC emphasised, “To achieve this agenda in Balochistan, the Pakistani state is legitimising all its oppressive and inhumane actions through laws and the so-called provincial assembly, with the most recent example being the inclusion of hundreds of individuals in the Fourth Schedule.

“We want to make it clear to the state and all its institutions that we will confront every act of oppression and tyranny in Balochistan through the power of the people and will thwart these inhumane plans and policies. We also call on human rights organizations to take immediate notice of these new violent measures and the increasing human rights violations in Balochistan.”