Activist urges UN to prevent ongoing 'genocide' in Balochistan by Pakistan
Sep 28, 2020
Geneva [Switzerland], September 29 : Accusing Pakistan of conducting the worst forms of violence and persecution against the people of Balochistan, Chairperson Baloch People's Congress, Naela Quadri Baloch, has urged United Nations to intervene to prevent the ongoing "genocide" in the region.
Speaking at a side event on the occasion of 45th UN Human Rights Council Session, Naela Quadri on Friday said: "So this is the situation (in Balochistan), you can call it a genocide. It's not just limited to the human rights violation."
"From the last two days in the conference, Baloch people have presented the situation of genocide in Balochistan and how Balochistan is bleeding," she said.
Quadri was speaking at the 'Human Rights Situation in Pakistan... Balochistan is Bleeding'. The event was organised by Center for Gender Justice and Women Empowerment, Baloch Voice Association, Baloch Peoples Congress, Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) Connect Lobbying Associates Brussels, African Culture Association.
"We appeal that the United Nations should intervene. It is a cry, it's an appeal and call for intervention. So I'm appealing to particular United Nations Office on genocide prevention and responsibility to protect. The responsibility to protect embodies a political commitment to end the worst forms of violence and persecution under international humanitarian and human rights law and the reality faced by the population at risk of genocide, walk-run, ethnic cleansing," she said.
Balochistan is a resource-rich but least developed province of Pakistan where a movement for freedom is ongoing for the past several decades. Many Baloch believe that the region was independent before 1947 and was forcibly occupied by Pakistan.
Pakistan Army has launched several operations in Balochistan and has supported criminals, which locals call "death squads".
A large number of political activists, intellectuals, women and children in Pakistan's Balochistan province are victims of enforced disappearances by the security agencies.
Many of them are languishing in detention centres whereas mutilated bodies of some of these abducted Baloch are found in isolated places.
