Letter to global bodies on killing of Baloch activists

New Delhi: Usanas Foundation is a Udaipur-based geopolitical and security affairs think-tank. On 24 December 2020, Usanas Foundation sent a letter to key players in the arena of human rights. This includes United Nations, UN Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, the European Union, UN office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and UNESCO.

The letter has been written in the light of the recent “mysterious death” of Karima Baloch, a Balochistan human rights activist in Toronto, Canada, on the 22 December 2020. The letter focuses on the targeted killings of innocent Baloch and Pashtun activists and leaders within and outside Pakistan.

The letter throws light upon the unending harassment and torture the Baloch and Pashtun people have been subjected to at the hands of the Pakistani military and intelligence organizations. The persecutions have been executed in the form of “forced disappearances”, illegal detention & targeted killings by the establishment.

Below is the list of missing and killed activists of the year: 1. December 20, 2020: Former Chairperson of Baloch Students Organisation–Azad, Karima Baloch was found dead in Toronto, Canada; 2. April 23, 2020: Activist Sajid Hussain was found dead in Sweden; 3. May 2020: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) politician and activist Arif Wazir.

“In this letter, we encouraged an investigation into the culling of Balochi voices on foreign soil by the Pakistani establishment and to serve justice to these persecuted people of Pakistan and hold the Pakistan establishment accountable for its crimes. The host nations, providing asylum to these activists and leaders must also take responsibility for their security.”