Rights body raises alarm over escalating atrocities by Pakistani authorities in Balochistan
Quetta, Sep 12 (IANS) Human rights body Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) accused Pakistani authorities of pursuing a systematic campaign of militarisation and repression in Balochistan, where violence and displacement have become part of civilians’ everyday lives.
It said that the discovery of mutilated bodies of Baloch civilians abandoned along roadsides reflects the “ brutality and inhumanity” of the violence.
“What is happening in Balochistan is not a series of isolated incidents. It is a systematic policy of militarisation, destroyed livelihoods, displacement, and violence against civilian life, applied together deliberately. Mutilated bodies are left on roadsides, demonstrating the brutality and inhumanity of the violence. Violence has become part of everyday life, with people forced to continue their daily routines around dead bodies as though they have become unnoticeable,” the BYC stated.
Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating situation in Balochistan’s Mastung district, the rights body said that orchards which provide livelihoods to thousands of people in the region now face destruction under what it described as a state policy, threatening both land and livelihoods.
“Trees are being cut at a time when the world is struggling to protect forests and land in the face of the climate crisis,” it added.
Alleging that Pakistani authorities are moving towards the outright displacement of local communities in the Shor Parod area of Mastung, the BYC said, “This is not simply relocation; it is the loss of an entire system of survival: land, water, livestock, livelihoods, and generations of connection to the land.”
Calling the incidents part of a wider pattern of violence against civilians in Balochistan, the rights body said that the Shadi-Kaur area in Gwadar district offers a stark example of where such policies lead, villages emptied, fields abandoned and communities displaced from their homes.
The BYC noted that the Khadkocha area of Mastung and adjoining areas are now witnessing a similar reality, with drones hovering over civilian areas and people being killed or injured while working in their own orchards.
It said such incidents cannot be brushed aside as “collateral damage”, but must be seen as the human cost of a policy imposed on the people of Balochistan by Pakistani authorities.
“Fear, economic destruction, displacement, and aerial violence are not separate problems in Balochistan. They are components of one strategy, executed in sequence, to make the land unlivable for the people who belong to it. The state calls this counterterrorism. What it produces is the erasure of Baloch presence from Baloch land, while the vocabulary of security makes that erasure appear procedural rather than political,” the BYC stated.
Calling on the global community to take note of atrocities by Pakistani authorities, it said, “We urge the world not to look away from Balochistan. It is happening now. Silence and inaction are not neutral; they allow this violence to remain unseen.”
–IANS
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