Quetta, Jan 20 (IANS) The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has announced that it would observe 'Baloch Genocide Remembrance Day' on January 25. The human rights organisation also urged the Baloch community across the world to hold protests, seminars, press briefings, video messages, panel discussions, participate in TV programmes, podcasts, webinars, cultural and artistic events to mark the day.
In a statement released on X, BYC stated that programmes will be held across Balochistan and around the world on January 25 to mark Baloch Genocide Remembrance Day. It alleged that Baloch people's genocide began from the very first day they were targetted due to their identity.
The rights group stated, "Genocide is not limited to direct mass killings alone. It can also be a slow, systematic, and silent process in which a people's identity, existence, and way of life are gradually erased. When a nation is targetted because of who they are, they are not only killed through executions and enforced disappearances, but also through deliberate neglect, disease, unsafe living conditions, economic deprivation, and psychological terror."
The BYC alleged that this genocide is conducted through targetted killings, enforced disappearances, drone attacks, denial of healthcare, economic exploitation, the spread of cancer and other fatal illnesses, and widespread psychological torture.
"In January 2024, at a historic gathering at Saryab Shahwani Stadium, January 25 was formally designated as Baloch Genocide Remembrance Day. The purpose of this day is to inform the world about the ongoing genocide of the Baloch people and to highlight the urgent need for collective struggle for the survival of the Baloch nation," read the BYC statement.
"January 25 commemorates the tragic incident of January 25, 2014, when more than 100 mutilated bodies of forcibly disappeared Baloch youth were recovered from an abandoned secret camp linked to Pakistani intelligence-backed militias (death squads) in the Totak area of Balochistan. This horrific discovery became a permanent wound in the national memory of the Baloch people," it added.
The rights group said that the incident even today haunts Baloch people. It stated that the mass graves of Totak remain a symbol of this tragedy while families wait for identification of their loved ones. It said that several other mass graves were discovered beyond Totak in Balochistan.
In the statement, BYC stated, "That is why January 25 symbolically represents all these acts of genocide. The bodies recovered from mass graves share only one identity: they are Baloch. And every year, these same bodies renew the pain of waiting for hundreds of families. After this declaration, last year the Baloch nation organized a massive gathering in Dalbandin, in a resource-rich region of Balochistan, and sent a clear message to the world: the Baloch nation is being subjected to genocide for the exploitation of its land and resources, but we stand united against it."
Balochistan has been reeling under the endless atrocities at the hands of Pakistani authorities, who facilitate death squads in the region to carry out enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and illegal detentions of Baloch people.
--IANS
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