QUETTA: Sher Mohammad Bugti, spokesperson for the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), has reacted to the Balochistan government’s decision to declare pro-independence figures as proclaimed offenders and to set bounties on their heads. He stated that the Pakistani state’s move to place a price on the head of BRP President and Baloch leader Nawab Brahamdagh Bugti, along with other Baloch political leaders, is a terrorist and aggressive act.
He said the decision demonstrates that the state, instead of tolerating dissent, is pursuing a policy of suppression, silencing opposition, and spreading fear.
According to him, attempting to crush political disagreement through reward lists and threats reflects weakness and panic. He warned that such measures would further worsen the situation in Balochistan.
He added that enforced disappearances, recovery of mutilated bodies, and extrajudicial actions in Balochistan have already taken the shape of a serious humanitarian crisis. In such an environment, placing bounties on individuals further institutionalizes what he described as open state repression.
Sher Mohammad Bugti further said that in the past, state institutions formed so-called “death squads” comprising criminal elements in various districts of Balochistan to target political activists and their families. He claimed that the state has now itself assumed the role of a “death squad” by openly announcing bounties on political leaders. He termed such actions equivalent to state terrorism.
He appealed to the international community and human rights organizations to take immediate notice of what he described as a dangerous development and to take effective measures to stop such practices.
