S Korea: Baloch party hold protest against enforced disappearances

Baloch Republican Party (BRP) has organised a protest in Busan city of South Korea to highlight the grim issue of enforced disappearances in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

The protestors raised slogans against Pakistan Army and spy agency the ISI for abductions, torture, and killings of Baloch political activists and intellectuals.

While addressing the gathering during the protest, BRP South Korea President, Ameer Baloch, said that not a single home was spared of abductions, every "house has a beloved missing person or someone killed by the army"

He assured that BRP will continue highlighting enforced disappearances and human rights violations in Balochistan by the Pakistan army, to every possible forum.

He urged the international community to take notice of army aggressions in Balochistan and take action to stop the genocide of Baloch people.

Baloch Republican Party Central spokesman, Sher Mohammad Bugti, in a statement said that military operations were taking the heat in Balochistan and people from every walk of life were being abducted by state forces.

"Dozens of houses of Baloch civilians have set ablaze after being looted of valuables by the Pakistan army in military operations in Kech and Dera Bugti that continued for a week," he said.

Human rights activists from various Baloch organisations have been continuing their campaigns around the world to highlight the worsening human rights situation in Pakistan.

For long, Pakistan's establishment has been criticised over its practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by international bodies and local human rights organisations that dare to speak out on the issue.

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakistani government, about 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered since 2014. Most of them are still unresolved.

Independent local and international human rights organisations put the numbers much higher. Around 20,000 have reportedly been abducted only from Balochistan, out of which more than 2,500 have turned up dead as bullet-riddled dead bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture.

Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple interviews about the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those involved responsible.