The Baloch National Movement (BNM) South Korea Zone staged a protest against the ‘Gwadar Fencing’ project. Protesters held banners and placards highlighting the negative effects of the fencing initiative.
On Sunday evening, BNM organized a protest campaign in front of Busan Station in Busan City, South Korea.
The BNM protesters stated that fencing in Gwadar district will threaten the livelihood and security of the residents.The motive behind the protest was to draw attention to the forced disappearances and other human rights violations in Balochistan.
The protesters asserted that the fencing project violated the rights of residents and was in the interest of foreign partners. Addressing the participants, Agha Faiz, one of the speakers at the protest, said, “Today we gathered here on the call of BNM to oppose the Pakistani state’s attempt to imprison the residents of Gwadar through the fencing project.”
He added, “we belong to the Baloch Nation, which is occupied by the state of Pakistan. The Pakistani army kills and dumps people after illegal detention daily. We reject the slavery of the so-called Islamic state of Pakistan.”
Addressing the demonstration, protesters said that the fencing of Gwadar is a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which they termed a colonial project aimed at handing over Gwadar to China.
Participants claimed that since the launch of CPEC, the residents of Gwadar have been facing fear and violence to displace them from their native land. Already, the district is surrounded by Pakistani military cantonments, check posts, and army camps. Now the whole city is being fenced, which is a serious violation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, they added.
Furthermore, hundreds of pamphlets were distributed during the protest. These pamphlets highlighted the effects of the fencing on the local Baloch population and reported the increase in fear due to high security control over the local people.