Decision to wind up Baloch Women Camp in Islamabad hailed

Liaquat Ali

ISLAMABAD: Hailing the decision of the organizers to wind up the protest camp of Baloch women in Islamabad from today (January 24, Farhatullah Babar president human rights cell of the PPP said the step was a positive development.

“The decision by the organizers to wind up the 60-days long protest camp in Islamabad of Baloch women and children against enforced disappearances, extra judicial killings and death squads in the province is wise and welcomed for having achieved the purpose for which it was set up,”

He added: @When hundreds of peaceful and unarmed Baloch women set out on the long march from Turbat on November 23 last year they did not expect to secure imminent release of all those disappeared nor hoped to bring to justice the criminals behind the crime. These protesting women only wanted that their voice reverberated throughout the country and abroad. Despite curbs on sections of mainstream media, that objective has been more than achieved thanks to the social media, the rights defenders and public spirited citizens.”

Babar said the Baloch women march has demonstrated that with determination and rightness of the cause even unarmed and peaceful women from distant Turbat can defy all odds and resist state oppression. This new normal will lend impetus to the struggle of all oppressed people against tyranny and oppression.

He said the 1500 KM long march, the 60 days of dharna and the state complete indifference to it has also brought into focus once again how the powers that be contemptuously disregard the genuine concerns of the people. Such disregard for the foremost issue of Balochistan will only further widen the gulf between the state and the citizens in that province.

He said the Supreme Court in its verdict on Dec 10, 2013 in the case of disappearance of 35 persons from Malakand Internment Centre has identified the people behind it. Yet the Commission of Enforced Disappearance has utterly failed in prosecuting a single perpetrator of the crime.

The institutionalization of the impunity of the crime is frightening and must be ended, he added.