Pakistan-China strategic military and economic designs will regional peace and stability, a group of Baloch activists said Thursday as they put China on the mat at a rally in Geneva. The Baloch Voice Association (NGO), which is headed by Baloch dissident Munir Mengal, organized the protest rally in front of the Palace of Nations in Geneva, to raise voice against the Pakistani state atrocities in France-sized Balochistan.
Veteran Kashmir secular leader Sardar Shaukat Kashmiri, who is president of the United Kashmir Peoples National Party and Nasir Aziz Khan were among those who attended the Baloch rally.
Baloch political activists and human rights defenders from Europe participated in the protest rally. The protesters were holding banners, posters, and play cards to expose the Pakistani military aggression against the Baloch people. They chanted slogans asking of the UN and other international organizations to support the Baloch people’s just cause to regain their sovereignty on their land Balochistan. They said UN and its bodies and member states should pressure Pakistan to end the inhuman military operations, and aerial bombardments on the Baloch people.
“We are are seeking justice for our people. Pakistan has to stop the systematic elimination, and aggressive policy against the Baloch people,” Munir Mengal, president of Baloch Voice Association said. “Pakistan has to end the forced annexation and occupation of Baloch people’s land in the interest of regional peace and security,” he added.
the rally came at a time when Pakistan is busy with military operations against Baloch freedom activists to pave way for Chinese president Xi Jinping’s Maritime Silk Road. “Baloch people do not accept and will never allow that their land and resources be used for regional expansionism,” Mehrab Sarjov a blogger and activist said on the occasion. “Pakistan will never come out from its Islamic fanaticism mode, while the Baloch people will never accept mullah, military and Dragon alliance,” Sarjov emphasized. Sarjov has been active in informing the US congressmen about the state of affairs in Balochistan for quite some years now.
The protesters called upon Islamabad to stop its policy of enforced and involuntary disappearances in Balochistan and asked the UN to send a fact finding mission to ascertain the fate of 20,000 Baloch missing persons, who are either dead or still languishing in Pakistan’s torture centers. They said with the advent of the month of fasting Ramadhan thousands of Baloch families are in trauma as there is no word from the state about the fate of their loves ones who are victims of enforced disappearances.
The protest, which started at 3 pm and lasted two hours, attracted the attention of a number of passers-by.
In the past, Munir Mengal organized a successful conference on Balochistan in Bangkok which was attended by senior activists and thinkers from the US and India. Those who attended from Pakistan included journalist Irshad Mastoi, who was killed last year in Balochistan. Before fleeing to Paris, Mengal was himself reportedly in the captivity of the ISI where he was subjected to extreme torture. Mengal’s was a rare and unique case as he managed to escape to the safety of the West from a Pakistani torture chamber.
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