State Atrocities against Baloch Civilians Continue Under Pretence of Elections

Press Release

Toronto, April 22: Baloch Human Rights Council (Canada) has expressed serious concerns related to the rising tide of Pakistan state atrocities against civilians across Balochistan. BHRC noted that not a day goes by when Baloch activists belonging to various nationalist and pro-independence organisations are not picked up, subjected to torture, target-killed, and their mutilated bodies dumped in different locations in Balochistan and Karachi.

B L A claims responsibility for attacks on Pakistani security forces and election candidates

12 Pakistani soldiers including high ranking officer killed in Kahan – Dera Bugti bordering area.Two Baloch freedom fighters have also been martyred in the battle against occupying forces. 

Occupied Balochistan: The convoy of BNP-Awami leader, Asadullah Baloch was attacked with a remote controlled roadside IED in Panjgor on Monday.

The former provincial minister was travelling back to his home when he came under attack, which partially destroyed three vehicles of his convoy but he and all others escaped the attack unhurt.

COMMENT: A grim situation gets grimmer —Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The state desperately wants to change the prevailing cultural and historical Baloch ethos of tolerance and secularism in Balochistan through religious organisations

Balochistan, already ravaged by the establishment’s dirty war, political repression and economic deprivation, has suffered a devastating blow from an eight-magnitude earthquake. Mashkail town was hit the hardest as 80 percent of it was flattened. Nearly 40,000 people are affected; locals say 80 are dead and hundreds wounded while officials say 12 dead and 25 injured. With already barely existing infrastructure destroyed, people left at the mercy of the elements protested against totally inadequate relief by burning tyres on Friday. Mashkail’s remoteness is not solely to blame for the near absence of facilities and relief; most of Balochistan, thanks to systematic deprivation, discrimination and dispossession, survives in the most destitute category. Balochistan has always suffered immeasurably and the grim picture becomes grimmer when natural disasters strike, which exacerbates alienation and discontent.