Human Rights Violations in Balochistan and Sindh Condemned at International Conference

A conference by the Baloch Human Rights Council and World Sindhi Congress condemned human rights violations in Balochistan and Sindh. Scholars and activists decried enforced disappearances, killings, and exploitation by Pakistan and China. They urged the UN to investigate and demanded accountability.

An international conference organized by the Baloch Human Rights Council and the World Sindhi Congress has raised serious concerns over ongoing human rights violations in Balochistan and Sindh by Pakistan. Scholars, human rights activists, journalists, and political leaders gathered to condemn the widespread enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings targeting Baloch and Sindhi socio-political activists. The conference called for a UN fact-finding mission to investigate these atrocities.

The event also criticized the collaboration between China and Pakistan in exploiting the natural resources of Balochistan and Sindh. Attendees expressed alarm over the fencing of Gwadar and a proposed agreement that could grant China effective control over Gwadar town and its international airport, potentially turning it into a colonial enclave. They condemned systematic land encroachment and acquisition by the Pakistani military under the pretext of national security. Moreover, grave concerns were raised about the forced conversions of minor girls from Sindhi-Hindu families in Sindh.

The conference concluded that numerous actions by the Pakistani state in Balochistan and Sindh constitute cultural genocide against the Baloch and Sindhi peoples. The declaration urged the international community and the United Nations to meet their legal and moral obligations by intervening to protect the rights of the Baloch and Sindhi nations. It demanded an immediate end to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of socio-political workers and human rights defenders, insisting that all perpetrators of human rights violations be prosecuted in the International Court of Justice.

Participants also called for an end to resource exploitation by China and Pakistan in Balochistan and Sindh. Expressing dismay over the international community and the United Nations' silence on crimes against humanity and genocide in these regions, the conference demanded a UN fact-finding mission to assess the human rights and humanitarian crises affecting the people of Balochistan and Sindh. It affirmed that the Baloch and Sindhi struggle for self-determination is in line with UN declarations on colonized nations, calling for immediate recognition and acknowledgment of this struggle. (ANI)

(With inputs from agencies.)