Quetta: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has strongly criticized the Deputy Commissioner of Quetta, accusing him of acting in an authoritarian manner and imposing severe restrictions on citizens’ fundamental rights.
In a statement, the BYC said that an awareness seminar was held inside a walled premises in Quetta on the occasion of International Human Rights Day. The committee emphasized that the event neither caused any road blockages nor disrupted state affairs. Despite this, four members of the same family were summoned to Sariab police station late at night on suspicion of attending the seminar and were subsequently forcibly disappeared.
The committee further stated that when a petition was filed in court the following morning for the recovery of the missing individuals, instead of presenting them before the court, authorities informed the judge that the detainees were being held under the 3 MPO (Maintenance of Public Order) at the Deputy Commissioner’s office. According to BYC, no legal documents were provided to justify the detention.
The BYC claimed that this situation reflects the presence of an undeclared military rule in Balochistan, and from judges to deputy commissioners, civilian institutions are acting in coordination with the military and intelligence agencies. The statement described officials as functioning like “plainclothes enforcers” rather than independent civil authorities.
The committee stressed that organizing or attending an event on International Human Rights Day is a basic constitutional and human right. It said that forcibly disappearing four family members and later detaining them under the 3 MPO without legal grounds demonstrates that Balochistan is being governed in a colonial manner.
The BYC further said that as state repression becomes more overt, it is increasingly evident that the real perpetrators are state institutions and their affiliates, while those imprisoned or held in detention belong largely to marginalized and oppressed communities. The statement warned that unless people resist such practices collectively, society as a whole will continue to suffer under what it termed a fascist environment.
The BYC spokesperson appealed to international human rights organizations to take concrete and effective action against what it described as systematic state repression in Balochistan, adding that silence in such circumstances only serves to strengthen oppression.
