Dr Sabiha Baloch, a senior leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), has urged people across Balochistan to “rise up” and speak out against what she described as an “ongoing genocide in the region.”
In a video statement released on Friday, Dr Baloch said the curfew imposed by Pakistani authorities in Zehri has now continued for more than twenty-five days, leaving residents facing hunger and disease. She said several women and children have been killed in aerial strikes carried out by state forces during this period.
Dr Baloch accused the state of intensifying its policies of enforced disappearances and targeted killings. She said that in Awaran, residents are being summoned daily to military camps and their bodies are later found dumped, while in Makuran, five people were killed this month by “state-backed death squads.”
“These actions are meant to suppress and silence the Baloch nation,” she said, adding that leaders of the BYC have been imprisoned and that members of the organization are being placed on the Fourth Schedule of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act to curb their activism.
Dr Baloch appealed to the Baloch public to “rise up and speak out against the ongoing genocide,” warning that silence would only allow further atrocities. “This is not a time for silence but for resistance,” she said. “Speaking out against oppression is a national duty.”
Pakistani authorities have not yet responded to her remarks.