The Hague: The Baloch National Movement (BNM) launched a three-day awareness campaign across five cities in the Netherlands, including Eindhoven, Utrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Zwolle, to mark 17 years since the enforced disappearance of Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch and to highlight what the organization described as ongoing human rights violations and state oppression in occupied Balochistan.
The campaign aimed to draw public and international attention to the plight of Balochistan, the Baloch national freedom movement, and the severe hardships inflicted upon the Baloch nation by what BNM described as the occupying Pakistani state. BNM members distributed informative pamphlets and engaged directly with local citizens across the five cities to expose what they called the ground realities in Balochistan.
The campaign prominently highlighted the 17-year enforced disappearance of Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch, who has been missing since being taken into custody by the Pakistan Army. His family has relentlessly struggled for his safe recovery over the course of nearly two decades.
BNM representatives also drew attention to recent events surrounding Dr. Deen Mohammad’s family, noting that his daughter, prominent Baloch human rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch, recently faced renewed harassment when personnel affiliated with the Pakistan Army raided their home in an attempt to terrorize the family.
The campaign also shed light on what BNM described as Pakistan’s judicial crackdown against human rights defenders in Balochistan. Particular attention was given to the life imprisonment sentences handed down to BYC leaders Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Baloch on what the organization called fabricated charges through secretive proceedings described as “faceless trials.” BNM representatives also highlighted the cases of BSO Chairman Balach Qadir and other activists whose lives they said are being endangered through the weaponization of courts as a tool of oppression.
During the campaign, BNM representatives reiterated urgent appeals to the European Union and the United Nations, emphasizing that the Baloch constitute a distinct nation with a culture entirely separate from that of the broader Indian subcontinent, and that Balochistan was never a part of united India.
They stated that Pakistan forcibly annexed Balochistan in 1948 and has since handed control of the region to its army to sustain the occupation, resulting in what they described as unspeakable human rights violations against the Baloch people.
BNM representatives further stated that without the independence of Balochistan, the restoration of human rights, social development, and the establishment of regional peace are impossible, and urged the international community to fulfill its humanitarian duty by supporting the Baloch right to sovereignty.
