An excerpt from, "Human Rights in Balochistan: A Case Study in Failure and Invisibility" By Hamid Yazdan Panah, The World Post, March 25, 2016:
Last month a shocking story gained little traction in the mainstream press, despite its horrific implications and brutal reality. A report from Iran emerged which detailed how every male from a village in the province of Sistan Balochistan had been executed. The Baloch, an ethnic minority in both Pakistan and Iran, continue to face systematic repression in both of these countries, yet remain largely ignored in both the East and the West. Simply having their voices heard remains a major struggle for this stateless population faced with poverty, violence and discrimination.
The Baloch are a distinct ethnic group who reside in the lands between southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran and a very small section of southwestern Afghanistan. Yet many fear that they have become invisible in their plight. Their struggle is reduced to a footnote in a region locked in turmoil. Their stories are overshadowed by the refugee crisis, bloody civil wars, and an attempt to silence them in the countries they now reside.
The executions in question took place in the village of Roushanabad, in southeastern Tehran, with the entire male population being arrested and sentenced to death on drug charges. Incidentally, Sistan Balochistan is Iran’s poorest province, and home to the ethnic Baloch who remain disenfranchised in Iran both as an ethnic minority and as Sunni muslims.
The majority of those executed in the province faced drug charges, and often receive convictions without access to counsel or proper due process. Iran’s use of the death penalty in such cases is illegal under international law, yet the practice not only continues, but is actually funded by the United Nations and European countries.An excerpt from, "Balochistan: 'Hundreds of people abducted and murdered by Pakistan army' activists warn" By Ludovica Iaccino, International Business Times, March 11, 2015:
Baloch activists are urging rights groups and the international community to pay attention to the situation of people living in the Balochistan province, western Pakistan.Title: Pak Using American Weapons To Brutally Suppress Balochis - Dana Rohrabacher. Source: DLX Area 1. Date Published: January 28, 2016. Description:
According to some members of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) – a democratic and secular organisation that aims to repel Pakistani occupation and regain sovereignty in Balochistan –Balcoh people are persecuted, abducted and systematically killed by Pakistani security agencies and the Pakistani Army.
Ashraf Sherjan, president of the BRP Germany Chapter, has warned that Balochs are haunted by what he calls "Pakistani kill-and-dump-policy intelligence agencies and armed forces."
Speaking to IBTimes UK, he said: "Since Balochistan was forcefully occupied by Pakistan, Baloch people have been living as guests of death.
"It has never been considered, even outside Pakistan, that Balochistan belongs to the Baloch people who are now hunted. Baloch leaders are being deliberately assassinated by the occupying state of Pakistan for demanding rights to their own land."
Dana Rohrabacher blasts Pakistan for brutally suppressing Balochis just as they did with Bengalis in 1971 and criticizes US for supplying weapons to Pakistan. Clip from the House Foreign Relations Committee's hearing of US Ambassador to Pakistan and State Department Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson on 16 December, 2015 on "The Future of US-Pakistan Relations". Full video of the hearing - https://youtu.be/iQpCn83PV6k
