A Balochistan leader has urged U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to play a role in ending the execution of victims of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
According to the NNI agency Senator Malik Baloch, president of the National Party -- one of the largest Baloch-based parties with 70,000 members -- met Clinton along with other Pakistani leaders including national assembly speaker Fehmida Mirza, opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar and Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali.
"The fact that Balochistan is facing gross violations of human rights where political activists are disappeared by Pakistan security agencies and then a few days later the victim bodies are found is secret from none. I urged Secretary Clinton the U.S. and other powers must play a role to stop this atrocity," Baloch was cited by NNI as saying.
Pakistan has killed nearly 250 Baloch activists, including quite a few teenagers, in what Amnesty International called kill-and-dump policy in Balochistan since July 2010.
Baloch, who is a commoner from Balochistan where tribal chiefs and their sons are said to be envious of common people achieving political prominence, said he also urged Clinton to revive the social development projects that including opening 200 schools and building six dams in Balochistan that were shelved by the U.S. because of the aid cut
He urged the U.S. leader to help strengthen democracy and democratic institutions in Pakistan.
In the past, Pakistan observers accuse the U.S. had played a dirty role of supporting military dictators right from Field Marshal Ayub Khan to ousted dictator and coup leader General Pervez Musharraf, who was called "America's favorite dictator."
Balochistan, which forms nearly half of the land size of Pakistan but has less than eight percent of the South Asian country's population, has come on the political radar of U.S. defense establishment because of its strategic importance and natural resources.
The U.S. is keen to open its consulate in Balochistan but Islamabad suspects the U.S. might aid separatist militants waging a bloody campaign for an independent Balochistan and has blocked permission.















Comments