Addressing a conference in Pakistan’s cultural capital on Sunday, prominent Baloch leader and activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch boldly condemned the ongoing human rights abuses and Army oppression against the Baloch community in collaboration with the country’s institutions and security forces operating in the restive Pak-occupied-Balochistan province.
In his fiery speech, Dr. Baloch said that the Pakistan Army is deliberately attempting to undermine the Baloch national struggle by portraying it as “anti-Punjab” in order to alienate sympathies from the oppressed Baloch people.
“We have always called out the wrong, although a single institution is perpetrating oppression, violence and gross human rights violations in Balochistan, it has had the support of the judiciary and parliament,” she asserted.
The Baloch leader claimed women raising their voices against human rights abuses are being systematically harassed, with “death squads” threatening families and even forcibly disappearing female relatives of those involved in the armed resistance.
She painted the true grim picture of the suffering endured by Baloch women, stating it was impossible for anyone in Lahore or other parts of Pakistan to comprehend the “pain and suffering” they are subjected to. Recounting horrific tales, Dr. Baloch said mothers’ sons are often returned to them with disfigured faces as a result of torture, making identification difficult.
Declaring Balochistan has suffered two decades of “horrors of oppression”, she stated Baloch women were the “biggest victims”, facing mental and physical “collective humiliation” while waiting for their missing loved ones due to the Army’s policy of enforced disappearances.
“Today’s Balochistan, in the form of violence, oppression, humiliation and missing persons, is going through the worst phase of genocide, in which the judiciary and parliament have become complicit by remaining silent,” she said.
Dr. Baloch said that Pak Army of targeting anyone speaking out against oppression in the province, including teachers, journalists and activists. She said that the resource-rich lands of Balochistan were being turned into “killing fields”.
The leader vowed the Baloch struggle for rights would continue regardless of Army’s efforts to isolate it. “Resolving the Balochistan issue will not be possible until enforced disappearances are declared a crime,” she stated.