Balochistan National Party chief Akhtar Mengal said in an interview with a local news channel that: “Balohistan has always been treated like a colony –not as a unit – and in a colony, the media, freedom of expression and enfranchisement are always restricted.” He said that the people of Balochistan don’t arm themselves out of sheer fondness, but the “atrocities” and “sense of deprivation” have forced them to pick weapons and resort to the mountains. He said that Balochistan’s “deprivations” are not new, but have been in place for more than 70 years.
The BNP-Mengal chief said that we have been pleading for mercy – crying out loud that our voices are being “suppressed.” We’ve been also warning the rest of the provinces that the fate Balochistan got – the restriction of the “media, freedom of expression and enfranchisement” – also awaits them, and this is exactly what is happening right now.
He said that journalists are being disappeared from different areas of the country, and political opposition is being silenced.
Mengal said that there is a long history behind the Baloch insurgency: the “sense of deprivation” and “atrocities” forced the people of Balochsitan to abandon their families and resort to mountains.
Mengal said that he also met with the Army chief of Pakistan to discuss the issue of missing persons. He said that 450 persons have been recovered from the list of missing person he presented in Pakistani parliament. But in the meantime, 1500 other persons were disappeared. Until the issue of missing persons is resolved, the political and economic predicaments of Balochistan cannot be cured, he said.