QUETTA, BALOCHSITAN: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has said that the practice of collective punishment and what it called Baloch genocide is continuing with intensity in Balochistan.
According to the BYC Statement, the state’s public threats, issued through the media, against orchard owners in Mastung and threats to cut down orchards cultivated through their labour, clearly indicate an announcement of a sharp escalation in state repression and the policy of collective punishment in Balochistan.
The organisation said that whenever a citizen raises their voice against these injustices and human rights violations, an attempt is made to silence them by targeting them with state power, merely for speaking out and stating the truth.
In this regard, it said the arrest of senior citizen and retired police surgeon Dr Ayesha Faiz at the hands of CTD is yet another example of the fact that a ban has effectively been imposed on speaking out on political and social matters in Balochistan.
The BYC further said that it categorically rejects this policy of collective punishment, the cutting down of orchards, the threatening of citizens, and the silencing of peaceful voices through force. It said it makes clear that there will be resistance, in every form, against what it called state brutality and repression in Balochistan.
