“The voices of the oppressed cannot be suppressed forever, we will paint our message in the skies if we have to! Low flying Banner trailing plane during #PAKvAFG world cup clash calls to End Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan,” WBO tweeted.The voices of the oppressed cannot be suppressed forever, we will paint our message in the skies if we have to!. #Balochistan— WBO (@WorldBalochOrg) 29 June 2019
Low flying Banner trailing plane during #PAKvAFG world cup clash calls to #EndEnforcedDisappearances in Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/Y17VmFdDCq
Balochistan snatched the limelight
during the World Cup 2019 match held between Afghanistan and Pakistan on
Saturday in Leeds, as two aeroplanes flew rounds of Headingley Cricket Grounds
trailing banners that read “Help End Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan”
and “Justice for Balochistan”.
Human rights campaigners from the
World Baloch Organisation (WBO) and the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) describe
the banner as a reminder of the situation in Pakistan namely the plight of the
Baloch, Sindhi, Pashtun, Mohajir and religious minorities in the country.
The manifest distress
of the Balochis is brought to the world at large, by WBO, BRP and the like at
such international events. Posters, billboards, banners and newspapers ads
appear to as to focus global attention as the horrors by the Pak regime.
Despite Pakistan being
a signatory of international conventions against enforced disappearances,
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has remained busy abducting people and
following “Kill and Dump” policy to terrorize the locals.
Imran Khan before swearing-in as Prime Minister of Pakistan had acknowledged the ‘missing persons’ problem and assured his full support for resolving the issue once he came to power. But one of the billboards in England serves to remind us that despite a large number of ‘disappearances’ coming to light even now, not a single person has been held accountable contrary to the high falutin promises by Imran Khan.
Even as Balochistan has been
starved of development and 5000 cases of enforced disappearances have been
reported since 2014 (while unofficial reports put the numbers much higher, at
around 20,000). Keeping human beings in secret detention or killing them and
dumping their bodies on roadsides with their bodies bearing testimony to
the horrific brutality carried out by the military-intelligence are a common
sight in Balochistan.
End impunity for
Enforced Disappearance
Pakistan has a history of getting agitated whenever Baloch activists have raised their voice for justice just as was seen outside the Lord’s Cricket Ground when Pakistani fans were seen tearing up ‘provoking’ banners and even took to violence against Afghanistan fans after the plane flew flashing banners to help in 'ending the disappearance of Balochistan from Pakistan' (ICC reports) passed overhead. But this widespread enforced disappearances which have brought disrepute to the country must be discontinued at once and if Pakistan is to command respect before the comity of nations.
Pakistan has a history of getting agitated whenever Baloch activists have raised their voice for justice just as was seen outside the Lord’s Cricket Ground when Pakistani fans were seen tearing up ‘provoking’ banners and even took to violence against Afghanistan fans after the plane flew flashing banners to help in 'ending the disappearance of Balochistan from Pakistan' (ICC reports) passed overhead. But this widespread enforced disappearances which have brought disrepute to the country must be discontinued at once and if Pakistan is to command respect before the comity of nations.
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