UN must treat all victims of state terrorism equally: Hyrbyair Marri

LONDON: Baloch patriot leader and head of Free Balochistan Movement in a statement said that the UN must treat all people and victims of state terrorism equally and raise voice for all oppressed, occupied and unrepresented nations. “Prioritizing some and ignoring others raises questions about UN’s basic foundation and the purpose.”

Mr Marri expressed these views after the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions with a team of experts decided to visit Turkey for an “independent international inquiry” into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The UN team will later report back to UN Human Rights Council in June this year.

He said that the Pakistani and Iranian forces have been committing gross Human Rights violations in Balochistan for over 70 years. The UN has not passed a single resolution or ever sent an independent team of experts to investigate the Pakistani and Iranian state crimes against Baloch people.

He added, “Pakistani forces have killed more than two dozen Baloch journalists just in the past 10 years. They were not even killed in mysterious circumstances like Mr Khashoggi, in fact, the Baloch journalists were abducted in presence of several eye-witnesses from their offices, homes or while travelling. They were kept in custody for months and years and later tortured to death. Their dead bodies have been found dumped in different locations. Some of the Baloch journalists murdered by Pakistan forces include Abdul Hameed Hayatan a.k.a. Lala Hamid Baloch, Ilyas Nazar, Javed Naseer Rind, Haji Abdul Razzaq Baloch and Siddique Eido.”

The head of Free Balochistan Movement said that in 2008 Iranian authorities executed Baloch blogger Yaqoob Mehrnahad Baloch for the sole crime of being a Baloch and for asking for Baloch rights and justice. Sakhi Reki, another Baloch blogger and a colleague of Mr Mehrnahad is still in the custody of Iranian forces since 2009.