Baloch Martyrs' Day: Protest in Paris against enforced disappearances by Pak Army
Nov 15, 2021
Paris [France], November 15 : Holding placards and Baloch flags, members of the Baloch community held a demonstration in Paris to commemorate Baloch Martyrs' Day.
The demonstration at Place de la Republique was organised by the Baloch Republican Party on Friday.
Some of the placards read: 'Stop enforced disappearance in Balochistan' and 'Stop execution of Baloch people'.
The protestors also displayed photos of people who have been reportedly abducted by Pakistan soldiers over the years.
Every year, on November 13, Baloch Martyrs' Day is observed to remember those Baloch activists who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Balochistan.
While thousands of Balochs have been abducted and disappeared since its illegal occupation, hundreds of others have been eliminated in the line of Pakistan's "kill and dump" policy. Thousands still remain unaccounted for.
Due to the silence and numbness of the civilized world and Human rights organizations and lack of the media or other means in Balochistan, this issue has been suppressed until this day.
Enforced disappearance has been used as a tool by the Pakistani state to silence the oppressed people of Balochistan since the very first day of its occupation.
While countless abductees have been killed, many of them are still facing inhuman torture in army secret cells.
Balochistan is a resource-rich but least developed province of Pakistan where a movement for freedom has been ongoing for the past several decades. Many Balochs believe that the region was independent before 1947 and was forcibly occupied by Pakistan.
While successive governments have promised to criminalise enforced disappearance, none has taken concrete steps and the practice continues with impunity.
Recently, fighting between the Pakistan security forces and Baloch insurgents have intensified in the region.
In its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights, the US State Department has highlighted significant human rights issues in Pakistan, including unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government and forced disappearance of Pashtun, Sindhi and Baloch human rights activists.
