Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC)

Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada (BHRC)

Report by Imtiaz Baloch, Spokesperson, BHRC Canada

On Friday April 17, The BHRC (Canada) the Toronto Chapter ask all Peace loving and Human rights organization of Toronto area to join hands with BHRC Canada to denounce the continuing killings taking place in Balochistan.Gathering to condemn the killings in Balochistan, Pakistan.DATE: FIRDAY APRIL 17, 2009, PLACE: 200 FRONT STREET WEST TORONTO IN FRONT OF CBC BUILDING. TIME: 4 PM Similar protests are being held in Vancouver, Calgary and other parts of Canada.

The following press release was sent to Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper, The Governor General Micheal Jean, all Canadian Parliamentarians and Senate.

BALOCH HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL (CANADA)

Baloch Human Rights Council (Canada) strongly condemns the brutal and barbaric act of kidnapping, torture, and cold-blooded murder of three Baloch leaders by the Pakistani intelligence agencies on April 3, 2009. Baloch National Movement (BNM) Chairman Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Central Executive Committee member (BNM) Lala Munir, and Sher Mohammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) were found dead in the hills, 40 kilometers away from Turbat, capitol city of Makaran.

The three Baloch nationalist leaders were picked up by 12-14 masked, armed Pakistani Military Intelligence men from the chamber of the Advocate Kachkol Ali in Turbat and were taken to an undisclosed location where they were brutally tortured and shot in the head before dumping their bodies in the hills for scavengers. The bodies of the three leaders were carried by Pakistan Army helicopters from a secret location and dropped from the air. According to a report, the dead bodies were at least six days old, which indicates the fact that they were murdered the day of their forced disappearance.

It is notable that Mr. Ghulam Mohammad Baloch was also a member of the 10-member committee constituted to ascertain the identities of Balochistan's missing persons as well as to negotiate the release of UNHCR's Quetta director John Solecki. The timing of Mr. Baloch's murder by the state agencies, a day before John Solecki's release, is indicative of Pakistan government's dubious character in undermining Mr. Solecki's secure release from captivity.

Both the UN and the US Embassy in Islamabad have strongly condemned the gruesome murders of the three Baloch leaders and have called for immediate investigation into their deaths. The UN, which expressed its sympathies to the families of the deceased, called on Pakistani authorities to ensure that the committee continues its important work. The US Embassy said the role by one of the three leaders killed, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, in efforts to secure Mr. Solecki's release had been greatly appreciated. "We call on Pakistani authorities to thoroughly investigate these deaths and to bring those responsible to justice," the embassy said.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has blamed the authorities and has held them responsible for the torture and execution style murder of the three Baloch leaders. In a statement, HRCP called on the authorities for an investigation into the kidnapping, torture, and murder of the leaders; and to bring those responsible to justice.

BHRC calls on the Pakistani authorities to stop gross human rights violations, including forced disappearances, torture, and extra judicial killings of Baloch political activists and leaders in Balochistan. We demand the immediate release of all political detainees, and disappeared persons including 141 Baloch women, languishing in the Gestapo-like military intelligence torture cells.

BHRC calls on the Canadian Government, Legislative Assembly, political leaders, human rights organizations, judiciary and lawyers bodies, journalists, writers, and women rights organizations to help the Baloch people in their just struggle for peace, political and economic rights, democratic freedoms, and sovereignty over their land and natural resources in the light of the UN charter of rights.

Canada can play a positive humanitarian role in ending the conflict and violence in Balochistan by asserting diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. Balochistanâ€TMs geopolitical status and its role in bringing peace in the region are significantly important for the Canadian forces stationed in Afghanistan. The secular and democratic Balochistan is the key to resolving violence and terrorism in the region perpetrated by religious extremists and their handlers, namely the Pakistani intelligence agencies responsible for the gross human rights violations against the Baloch people.

Baloch Human Rights Council (Canada) is affiliated with the London-based Baloch Human rights Council formed in August 2008 in London, UK. BHRC is a non-profit organization that strives for the political, economic, and cultural rights of the indigenous people of western Balochistan (in Iran) and eastern Balochistan (in Pakistan).