Baloch Activist Urges UN Action Over Escalating Human Rights Abuses in Balochistan

At the UN Human Rights Council session, Baloch activist Sabiha Baloch highlighted ongoing human rights abuses in Balochistan, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. She called for a UN-led investigation, emphasizing the misuse of counter-terrorism laws to suppress dissent.

Baloch activist Sabiha Baloch, speaking at the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, voiced grave concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Balochistan. Representing the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, she underscored increasing state-linked abuses in the region, emphasizing that despite significant development projects, human rights violations persist.

Sabiha highlighted enforced disappearances as a pressing issue, with individuals taken under mysterious conditions and families left in the dark about their fates. She pointed out reports of extrajudicial killings and the discovery of disfigured bodies, indicating these as part of a systemic pattern rather than isolated incidents. Sabiha also called attention to the curtailing of civil liberties, with professionals and civil society members frequently facing intimidation, arrests, and prosecution under strict counter-terrorism laws. These actions, she argued, are methods to stifle dissent and restrict peaceful advocacy.

Emphasizing the plight of detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee leaders, including Mahrang Baloch, Sabiha described the prolonged detentions as alarming. In her appeal to the United Nations, she demanded an independent investigation into the human rights situation in Balochistan. The region grapples with a disturbing trend of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and a lack of accountability, which continue to threaten peace and trust in state institutions.

(With inputs from agencies.)