BALOCHISTAN: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has accused the Pakistani state of pursuing what it described as a deliberate and systematic campaign of genocide against the Baloch people, urging the international community to take immediate notice of alleged grave human rights violations, as reported by The Balochistan Post.
According to The Balochistan Post, the right to life is universal and any attempt to deny an entire nation this right based on ethnicity, language or identity falls under the international definition of genocide, according to a pamphlet released by the group. The BYC said genocide should be understood not as isolated incidents but as a structured policy aimed at eliminating a people wholly or partially, in line with definitions outlined by the United Nations. The organisation claimed that acts amounting to “full genocide” include mass executions, extreme physical and mental abuse, economic strangulation, famine, lack of access to healthcare, forced sterilisation and the removal of children from their communities. It added that “partial genocide” is reflected in the targeting of students, scholars, activists and women, as well as enforced disappearances and the suppression of language and cultural identity.
The pamphlet argued that the existence of armed conflict in Balochistan does not give Pakistan any legal or moral justification to carry out such actions. It pointed to alleged daily incidents of killings, bodies recovered after abductions, reports of mass graves and custodial torture as evidence of large-scale violence. Beyond physical violence, the BYC accused the authorities of using economic measures as weapons, such as raids on homes, harassment at checkpoints, barriers to employment, limits on border trade, land seizures and forced displacement have deepened poverty and food insecurity across the province, as highlighted by The Balochistan Post.
