Pakistan forcibly occupied Balochistan and violated its territorial integrity: Hyrbyair Marri

LONDON: In a media statement, the Baloch national leader Mr. Hyrbyair Marri said that Pakistan has committed obvious aggression by attacking the Baloch national state on March 27th, 1948, and violated Balochistan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, thereby depriving the Baloch of their political and economic freedom. This aggression has jeopardized the security of the region as well.

Mr. Hyrbyair said that the military aggression of the Pakistani army towards the Baloch nation is still continuing in the form of suppression, barbaric cruelty and human rights violations.

He said that Pakistan’s army, with their vicious mentality, is perpetrating war crimes in Balochistan by deploying ground and air power of mass destruction against the unarmed Baloch people (with extensive aerial bombardment). They are killing innocent people, destroying houses, and looting the valuables of households, as well as target killing political activists and Journalists.

In addition, Pakistan is also committing extensive crimes against humanity by abducting innocent people en masse with no legal backing and subjecting them to extra-judicial killing in the military torture cells, he added. In fact, the Pakistani state sponsored crimes against humanity are so extensive in Balochistan, that its armed forces have now started abduction-like-arrests of Baloch women and children (in the form of collective punishment under the grave condition of media blackout).

“Pakistani war crimes in Balochistan are not only against humanity but also are a clear breach of international laws and in utter contravene to Geneva Convention with blanket impunity. In fact, Pakistan has arrogantly flaunted and disgraced the well-established international laws,” he said.

The Baloch leader further added that despite knowing Pakistani state crimes and contraventions against humanity in Balochistan, the international community, (including neighboring countries the Arab and Gulf States and the United Nations) seem to have abandoned Baloch in the lurch which shows that they ignored Baloch question at all.

Expressing his views about the silence of Arab states on the Balochistan issue, Mr. Marri said that it is not that the Arab countries are not aware of the problems in Balochistan or that they are unfamiliar with Balochistan. (Because every year they [Arab dignitaries] visit Balochistan for hunting the endangered Houbara bustard, and so they are familiar with all four corners of Balochistan). So, it is hard to believe that they are not familiar with Pakistani state brutalities against people of Balochistan and the persecution of the Baloch people. The Silence of these region’s and countries is encouraging Pakistan to continue its atrocities against Baloch people with impunity.

When there are human rights violations against the Rohingya, Palestinian, and Kashmiri Muslims, the Arab states usually magnify those human rights violations and pass resolutions from the platform of OIC. They also raise their voice at UN and other international forums but the Gulf States keep silent when Pakistan commits worst form of human rights violations and war crimes in Balochistan including enforced disappearances, killing political activists in custody, and burying them in mass graves, allowing its military death squads and religious proxies to carry out target killing of Baloch political activists and abduction of Baloch women and children. What do the reconciliatory behavior and silence of these countries about Pakistan’s war crimes mean?

He said that agreements among nations are not based on shared religious affinity; rather they are made between nations because a nation as the owner of any land better understands the social trends of its county. Baloch is a self-contained nation who knows how to honor a favor. We, Baloch, can never forget the favor of well-wishers who support the struggle of the national liberation movement. We appreciate the efforts and view point of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US Congress member Dana Rohrabacher, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and other well-wishers of the Baloch struggle for freedom of Balochistan and peace and stability in the region.

Baloch pro-freedom leader Hyrbyair Marri said in his statement that Pakistan and China have made an alliance to rob Balochistan’s resources. “Now these two countries are trying to lure other nations to become their partners-in-stealing Balochistan’s natural resources. Gwadar port is a project of death and destruction for Baloch nation where according to a survey by a Pakistani institute the number of Chinese will surpass the number of Baloch people in Balochistan in the next 20 years.

Mr. Marri in his statement also appealed to other nations to refrain from becoming part of China and Pakistan’s exploitative policies in Balochistan. “All the nations in that region should support the Baloch people on the diplomatic, political and moral basis to stop China and Pakistan nexus from robbing and stealing Balochistan’s national resources.

“This destructive project of CPEC is not only a threat to the Baloch national existence but the construction of Gwadar Naval base and China’s naval presence there also poses a grave danger to other nations in the region. Hence other nations should support the Baloch to preserve their national identity which is at stake because of this destructive project,” he added.

The Baloch leader said that independent Balochistan would not only decrease Pakistan’s interference in neighboring countries but a free Balochistan can become a strong economic center for peace and development, and would contribute to the economic development of all neighboring countries. He said, “We Baloch throughout our history always protected religious minorities in Balochistan in the time of need. We always treated them equally. We have also stood with our neighboring nations in times of foreign aggression and intervention.”