QUETTA: The General Secretary of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), Dil Murad Baloch, has strongly criticized Pakistan’s newly introduced law, stating that it does not end enforced disappearances but instead represents their open and formal acknowledgment.
In a statement shared on social media platform X, Dil Murad Baloch said that for years the Pakistani state had continued enforced disappearances of Baloch people under denial, ambiguity and silence, but has now given the practice what he termed a “so-called legal cover.”
He criticized provisions allowing up to 90 days of detention and the establishment of so-called rehabilitation and de-radicalization centers, stating that these measures indicate the state is now openly admitting to detaining people, with the only change being that such actions will now be carried out in the name of law.
Dil Murad Baloch described the proposed rehabilitation and de-radicalization centers as modern-day concentration camps, saying that Baloch people would be collectively labeled as suspects and subjected to systematic abuse. He claimed that these centers lack guarantees of fair trials, transparency, independent courts, judges, or identifiable witnesses.
According to the BNM leader, the law sends a message to the Baloch people that their demands for basic human rights and dignity are being criminalized. He said that the state views raising one’s voice for fundamental rights as a crime, punishable through detention in what he described as institutionalized torture facilities.
