The Hague: The Baloch National Movement (BNM) organised a protest rally in The Hague, Netherlands, outside the Dutch Parliament, highlighting severe human rights violations in Balochistan by the Pakistani authorities.
The demonstration held to mark the International Human Rights Day featured placards and banners drawing attention to ongoing Pakistani state repression in Balochistan, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and widespread violations of fundamental human rights.
The protestors appealed to the international community to take serious note of the deteriorating human rights situation in Balochistan.
Addressing the protest, BNM Netherlands Chapter President Moheem Abdul Rahim, Zahra Baloch, Saif Baloch, Mahra, and Sattar from the Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement said that severe human rights violations have continued in Balochistan for decades.
Expressing concerns, the speakers said that thousands of Baloch political workers, students, teachers, and ordinary civilians have been forcibly disappeared, leaving families in anguish as they search for their loved ones for years without receiving justice.
They claimed that repression in Balochistan is no longer limited to men, stating that women have also become victims of Pakistani security forces. The speakers cited recent cases of enforced disappearances across the province, including Mah Jabeen Baloch from Shaal, 15-year-old Nasrina from Hub, and a sister alongside her brother from Dalbandin.
“The speakers further noted that the mothers and sisters of the disappeared have staged months-long sit-ins in Shaal, Karachi, and Islamabad. They endured extreme heat, cold, and rain while holding pictures of their loved ones, yet their pain remains unaddressed. Meanwhile, those who raise their voices against human rights abuses and enforced disappearances are themselves arrested or disappeared. Activists such as Mahrang Baloch and BYC members have been detained and falsely charged for highlighting violations,” BNM stated.
The speakers lamented that the international community remains a silent spectator amid what they described as the growing atrocities in Balochistan.
Asserting that Balochistan continues to be excluded from the global agenda of Human Rights Day, the speakers highlighted drone attacks, raids on villages, and military actions that have forced people into despair, even suicide. Despite these grave violations, they said, the United Nations remains indifferent and silent.
Concluding their address, the activists stressed that “ignoring the human rights crisis in Balochistan any further is a violation of basic principles of humanity. International organisations and democratic governments have a responsibility to listen to the cries of Balochistan’s wounded people and uphold the demands of justice.”
(IANS)
