QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) said it strongly condemns the use of state force against the popular rights movement in Kashmir, including direct firing, the arrest of political activists, and the targeting of civilians.
BYC said it considers these measures part of a broader state policy aimed at suppressing public voices and political resistance through force. Responding to popular demands with bullets, arrests, and repression, rather than through political process, BYC said, reflects the reality that the Pakistani state prioritizes the use of force over tolerating dissent.
BYC said the popular movement continuing in Kashmir for the past 52 days is a clear expression of the fact that oppressed peoples do not abandon their struggle for their fundamental rights, resources, identity, and political agency. However, BYC said, instead of listening to these demands and seeking a political solution, the state has chosen the path of force, resulting in attempts to suppress the popular movement through direct firing, violence, arrests, and sieges.
According to BYC, several civilians have lost their lives as a result of state firing, while a large number of people have been injured. BYC said this situation reveals that the state has lost both the capacity and the willingness to find a political solution to popular demands and that it is for this reason that it has resorted to repression and force, out of fear of organized public consciousness, collective resistance, and political awareness.
BYC said it believes that the current situation in Kashmir is a continuation of the same policies adopted in Balochistan, Pashtunkhwa, Sindh, and other oppressed regions, where demands for rights, resources, and political agency are met with force rather than being recognized as political issues. A state built on the occupation of oppressed nations’ resources and on silencing them through repression, BYC said, makes the gun, violence and state force its primary instruments of governance, rather than dialogue and justice.
BYC called on international human rights organizations, relevant United Nations bodies, and the global community to take serious notice of the use of force against popular rights movements in Pakistan, extrajudicial actions, unlawful arrests, restrictions on civil liberties and violations of the fundamental right to protest. BYC said it demands that an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into these incidents be ensured, that Pakistan be held accountable in international forums, and that effective diplomatic and legal pressure be exerted on Pakistan so that it upholds its international human rights obligations, ends its use of force, and ensures respect for the fundamental rights of all citizens particularly the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and political participation.
