Extremists threatening Balochistan minorities: Mehran Marri

GENEVA: Members of diverse religious minorities including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and Muslim minorities like Shias and others have peacefully been coexisting in Balochistan for centuries but all of them now face threats by extremist groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, and others, Baloch representative to the UN Mehran Marri has said.
He was speaking at a side event organised on Balochistan by the Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organisation (UNPO) here on the occasion of the 28th regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Mehran Baloch said that Balochistan’s peaceful Zikri community has recently received threats from militant groups and large number of its followers have left the province for other parts of Pakistan. He quoted the UN charter as stating: “persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life” but said that the same right has been snatched away from some of the most helpless communities. He said that members of religious minorities are being urged by the extremist groups to convert to Islam or die. He alleged that several madrassahs in the province were providing sanctuary to extremists who target Hazara Shias and others on daily basis but the government authorities do nothing to stop hate-mongers using these sanctuaries to target the diverse communities of the province.
Mehran Marri told the audience that it is important to understand the geopolitical complexities of South Asia and the importance of Balochistan in the milieu of the global events. He said that Balochistan is rich in resources and occupies an increasingly vital geo-strategic position but its issues are ignored at all levels and no attention is paid to its problems by the governments who come into power making big promises. He alleged that the human rights situation in Balochistan is hugely deteriorating but the government has failed to ensure the safety of its citizens.
International Advocacy Director of Amnesty International in Washington T Kumar has said that forced disappearances have gone up alarmingly in many countries of the world, especially South Asian countries.
He said that Indian and Pakistani governments ignore this very serious issue but he appealed to authorities in both countries to take notice of the continuing serious allegations of disappearances of political activists. He said there was evidence available that Baloch activists were picked and disappeared by the government forces and in India many states, including the occupied Kashmir, faced the same problem.
Other speakers included Noordin Mengal, Baloch human rights activist; Paulo Casaca, South Asia Democratic Forum and former MEP; Jean Lambert, Green member of the European Parliament; Athar Hussain, Director of the Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics; Burzine Waghmar, a professor at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); Russ Hiebert, Conservative member of the Canadian Parliament; Peter Chalk, Senior political scientist at RAND Cooperation, USA; and many others.
Speakers said that Nawaz Sharif’s government had made lots of promises before he came into power but has not done anything significant to address the core issues of the province. They said that reports were constantly coming out of the province indicating that the overall situation has worsened and there has been no improvement in the life of ordinary people. They called on the government to utilise the resources of the province on the welfare of the people so that change in their lives could be visibly seen.