BRP raises issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan at UN

Baloch Republican Party (BRP) raised the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Monday.

Speaking at the at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Abdul Nawaz Bugti, representative of Baloch Republican Party, said that Pakistan continues to violate the basic human rights standards in Balochistan including social, civil, political, economic and cultural rights of the Baloch people.

He accused Pakistan of persecuting the Baloch people on the basis of their national identity and political opinion.

Highlighting that massive human rights abuses against civilians, political and human rights activists are committed on a daily basis in the region, Bugti said the security forces and intelligence agencies routinely abduct and torture Baloch activists to suppress their political struggle for rights, including the right to self-determination, which is ensured to all people according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He added that Pakistan was challenging the authority and sanctity of this council by denying this basic human right and by committing gross violations of international human rights standards, such as right to protection from enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings.

"Military operations targeting civil populace have been intensified recently which resulted in civilian casualties, mostly women and children. My organization has documented 671 cases of enforced disappearances & 170 cases of extrajudicial custodial killings during such operations across Balochistan within only past 3 months,"he said.

Bugti further said that if these inhuman violations by Pakistani forces in Balochistan continue to be ignored by the council then the HRC is sadly allowing another human tragedy to unfold under its watch.