Establishment Accused Of Promoting Islamists In Balochistan
OXFORD: Two Baloch leaders have charged that Pakistan’s security establishment was using the Islam card against Balochistan’s national movement in order to crush the low-level Baloch insurgency.
Baloch representative at the United Nations Mehran Baloch, Noordin Mengal and Ali Dayan Hasan of the Human Rights Watch took part in a debate organised by the Oxford University Pakistan Society to discuss the current security and rights situation in Balochistan province.
Ali Dayan asserted that HRW had diligently raised the human rights situation at every forum to win rights for Baloch people and for everyone to know that Pakistani security forces were involved in execution-style operation against Baloch nationalists but he also blamed nationalist militant parties for targeting civilians randomly, most of them non-Baloch settlers in the province.
He alleged that Balochistan is in the grip of a “tsunami of human rights violations by Pakistan” where the number of “enforced disappearances” is highest in the world today. Mehran, whose sister-in-law was recently killed in Karachi said even women are not spared. Noordin Mengal said there is rarely, if ever, a terrorist incident which isn’t linked to Pakistan. He expressed concern that Islamist militants are entering Balochistan under the banner of charitable work to foment and foster hate and sectarianism of the worst kind. Meanwhile, in another development Baloch diaspora leaders gathered in Sweden for a full day of seminars on Balochistan.
Organised by Swedish Liberal Party and Mohammad Zainudini Baloch, Khan of Kalat Suleman Dawood, Hyrbyar Marri and Angela Harvy of Amnesty International addressed the meetings.
