London: Expatriate Pakistanis have pleaded the United Kingdom to intervene in what they say are gross human rights violations in Baluchistan province by President Pervez Musharraf’s military-led regime.
The protest holding placard, shouted slogans in front of 10, Downing Street alleging that Pakistan was being plundered and dozens of political activists who tried to raise their voice were brutally eliminated.
Pakistan’s top rights group has also slammed Musharraf’s regime over the “war-like situation” prevailing in the region.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) last month rejected government claims that it was not using regular armed forces in a crackdown in the southwestern province launched after rocket attacks by tribal militants.
The group said it had “received evidence that action by armed forces had led to deaths and injuries among civilians” and that “populations had also been subjected to indiscriminate bombing”.
The HRCP report said up to 85 percent the 22,000-26,000 inhabitants of Dera Bugti had fled their homes after the town was repeatedly hit by shelling by paramilitary forces.
“They (Pakistan government) are taking away all the wealth, they are concentrating only on their strategic issues and infrastructure and the benefits are not reaching the common people, they do not care about this, it is the same people they are killing. See for example, the bombardment of Baluchistan where hundreds of civilian people are there, they treat them as second class and third class citizens and they just don’t care about their development. What development can you expect from them, they want to keep them (Baloch people) as backward as they can so that it becomes easy for them to rule. The situation is really very bad there,” Lakhu Luhana, a senior leader of the World Sindhi Congress, said.
The HRCP team has also found widespread instances of ‘disappearance’, of torture inflicted on people held in custody, and on those fleeing from their houses.
“The Pakistani military authorities is not listening to anybody because they are above the law but we are really worried about their lives, because we know that they are being tortured and some of them might have already been murdered. Its a very sad situation and this level of disappearance has never happened. This is one of the worst situations in Pakistan as so many political activists are disappearing literally every day,” said Luhana.
Former chief of HRCP Asma Jahangir and leaders of the Baloch movement gave a petition to a representative of Prime Minister Tony Blair seeking his government’s action in the matter and cited the total unaccountability of security forces and decision makers in Pakistan.
The Pakistani military launched a major crackdown against militants in Baluchistan after a rocket attack on December 14 during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf to the town of Kohlu.
Baloch nationalists say almost 200 people have been killed. The government has not commented on casualties but analysts say the militants’ figure could be exaggerated.
The crackdown has coincided with the announcement of plans to privatise two gas distribution firms in Baluchistan, which is home to Pakistan’s main gas fields.
Balochs complain of a lack of political representation and resent their resources being used to benefit Pakistan’s other regions, most notably the populous Punjab province.
Many of the tribals in the area have taken up militancy and have been fighting for more autonomy and control over Baluchistan oil and gas resources for decades but they intensified their campaign over the past year.
