The Baloch American Congress (BAC) has expressed serious concern over reports of indiscriminate killing of Baloch children and women in Balochistan by Pakistan’s security forces and has appealed to the U.S. Department of State to sanction the culprit agencies.
In a statement Wednesday, Dr Tara Chand, president of the Baloch American Congress (BAC) said, “Reports from Balochistan say that on October 10 five-year-old girl Shar Khatoon and her seven-year-old brother Allah Baksh, children of Wahid Baloch, were allegedly killed in mortar shelling of the Frontier Corps and a third child Miskan, son of Wazir Baloch, was critically wounded. Earlier on October 2, ten-year-old Ramiz Khalil was killed and his younger brother eight-year-old Reyan Khalil was wounded in police indiscriminate firing on a home, while a woman Taj Bibi was killed by the Frontiers Corps on September 21. The three incidents took place in less than three weeks in just one Kech district and are all a clear violation of the Geneva conventions.”
He said to add insult to injury the administration told the grieving mother sitting next to the coffins to shut up and have forcefully stopped the victim family from proceeding to provincial capital Quetta to register their protest.
Dr Tara Chand said Pakistan security forces namely Pakistan army’s XII corps, Frontier Corps, Inter Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence have been carrying out unconscionable crimes against humanity in Balochistan with impunity including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, burning of homes, livestock and crops for more than two decades that have left Baloch people blood and tears.
“Trigger-happy Pakistan forces are now target shooting Baloch children and women unprovoked. This genocidal practice must be stopped.”
Dr Tara Chand, who was a former government minister in Balochistan, appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to take the lead in ending Pakistan’s state atrocities on the people of Balochistan by applying the Leahy Law without delay.