An American Baloch organization has appealed to human rights defenders worldwide to come to the rescue of a young book publisher and partake in a Twitter campaign to save the lives of more than 5,000 victims of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
“The Pakistan military and I.S.I. are repeating the actions of Hitler, Goebbels and Stalin by forcibly disappearing a young Baloch publisher of books,” Dr. Tara Chand, president of the Baloch American Congress, said in a Press statement Saturday.
Dr. Tara Chand, a former government minister who now lives in exile in the U.S., said Faheem Baloch was at his book shop in Karachi on August 26, 2022, when he forcibly disappeared by the intelligence sleuths. “He was only asked the question ‘Did you send books to Germany?’ and when he answered ‘Yes,’ he was taken away.”
He said the action of the Pakistani intelligence was akin to what Hitler and Goebbels did with book lovers in Germany and what Joseph Stalin in Russia.
He said scores of Baloch scholars, intellectuals, poets, writers, journalists, poets, book authors and simple book lovers have been targeted by the Pakistan army and I.S.I. in blood-soaked Balochistan.
He expressed regrets that during his recent visit to Pakistan, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres kept his lips sealed on the crimes against humanity being perpetrated on the Baloch people by the Pakistan military.
“I call upon all book lovers and defenders of democracy in the U.S. to participate in the Twitter campaign starting at 8 am Saturday 9/21/2022 and run until midnight.
“The plight of the Baloch cannot be left to the sweet will of Islamabad as in Pakistan it is the Rawalpindi military generals who call the shots to this day.”
He said if civilian leaders like Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other parties in the provincial governments are not able to stop the military atrocities against the common people, then they should take the high road and resign immediately.
Dr. Tara Chand appealed to people to make the Twitter campaign a resounding success, so the Rawalpindi army generals understand the world is watching them.