After my father’s assassination, I’m constantly receiving threats: Tayyaba Baloch

QUETTA: Human rights activist Tayyaba Baloch has said that even after the murder of her father, she is still being threatened by state elements and she made it clear that “Pakistan [state] will be responsible for causing any loss of life or property to me or my family.”

Tayyaba Baloch was speaking at a press conference in Turbat Press Club along with her sisters and head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Mr. Ghani Parwaz.

She said Pressure must be exerted to ensure compliance and freedom of expression, “the political voices of Balochistan have been silenced and the families of the people involved in the struggle are being subjected to collective punishment. When I raised my voice, I was also punished in such a way that it is difficult to forget and endure.“

“I have been working as a human rights activist since 2018. You are all well aware that Balochistan is suffering from a human tragedy. This human tragedy is not a natural or accidental but systematic genocide of the Baloch people by the state.  

“I was watching everything that was happening on my land, in front of my eyes. I joined the BHRO instead of a political organization to work for the victims of state barbarism and be the voice of the missing persons whose mother and sister run and scream in the streets.

As a woman, the state may not have harmed me but decided to punish my family for my human rights activities. My family became the target of the collective punishment of the army and its local tool, the Death Squad. They started putting pressure on my martyred father and my other relatives to stop Tayyaba’s activism.

My family was so compelled that one day my father said to me, “Tayba, stop now.”

I was aware of my family’s compulsions and the pressures of the state but I was also aware of my duty as a daughter of the enslaved Baloch nation. I could not see the tears of the bereaved families of Balochistan. I chose the path on which my conscience and my soul were satisfied.

I had to cut off contact with my family, for many months I did not even get a chance to see my family so that my activities would not cause them to suffer at the hands of the state. But my this did not work, the state intensified the pressure on my family to stop Tayyaba’s activities at any cost or be ready to face the consequences.

As my activities continued, the state snatched my father from me, my father was my world, he was the only hope for me and my sisters, but the state, like Hayat Baloch and thousands of other Baloch, shot him dead. His murder might have affected the rest of the world but our world was destroyed. Perhaps because of the regular horrible tragedies, my father’s murder was considered a daily routine, but for us, it was an extraordinary event.

I was speaking out against human rights abuses at the hands of the state. I was raising my voice for the children who have only seen the picture of their father in the hands of their mother or sister, who do not even remember their fathers but now they are young enough to protest in the streets. My conscience did not allow me to leave them alone.

I was raising my voice for the old mothers whose young sons were abducted before their eyes but the state is in denial. These activities were unbearable for the state of Pakistan and they punished me in such a way that it is difficult to forget and endure it for the rest of one’s life.

She also revealed that the state did not spare my family even after the murder of my father, after the murder of my father opened fire on my uncle’s house, this firing was carried out by the state through its tool Death Squads, these are the same people who threaten my father on behalf of the state.

I used to live mostly in Shaal (Quetta) but my sisters are in the catch, even though my father is not missing as he was murdered but my sisters sit at the door after sunset waiting for Baba to return home. This reminds us of the severity of the pain and agony of thousands of Baloch sisters whose brothers are in the illegal custody of Pakistani forces.

She said that the threats did not stop after the murder of her father and the state continues to threaten her. “Women have been sent to my house to deliver me their threats to stop speaking about my father’s murder.”

She added that the purpose of her press conference was to appeal to you people, human rights organizations, international organizations to make the state abide by international law so that Pakistan listens to the pleas of political and human rights activists and gives them a chance to express their conscience and release all missing persons.

She reiterated, “if I or any member of my family is harmed, the state of Pakistan will be held responsible.”

Tayyaba Baloch’s father Hanif Chamrook was shot dead by the Pakistan army’s Death Squad personnel at 10 pm last Thursday while he was sitting in front of his music club.