Awami Workers Party (AWP) held a demonstration at Aabpara Chowk on Tuesday against the involvement of state agencies in the torture, kidnappings and killings of Baloch youth and the massacre of Hazara community.
The participants showed concern over the worsening situation in Balochistan and blamed the state agencies and the military for sponsoring ‘death squads’ and allowing radical sectarian outfits like Lashkar e Jhangvi to operate with impunity.
The situation in Balochistan appears to be getting worse since the May 2013 elections. The attacks against the Hazara community have continued in Quetta, despite the heavy presence of security forces in the city. The ‘kill and dump’ policy of security agencies continues as the military has increased its operations against the Baloch separatists. Twelve dead bodies of Baloch youth were dumped in the first week after Election Day and five more were found the day Dr Abdul Malik took oath as Chief Minister (CM). While much has been made of the middle class credentials of the new CM, the voter turnout was historically low and the civilian government does not appear to have the mandate or ability to deal with the situation.
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar of AWP pointed out that the CM and the Prime Minister were both keen on visiting China to develop the Kashgar-Gawadar economic corridor, but were not doing anything for the people of Balochistan who had been suffering due to the state’s policy of using brutal violence, through sponsored groups. “The state and military agencies is the real culprit and are calling all the shots. They are both complicity and negligent of their duty to provide security to the people,” he added.
Alia Amirali of National Student Federation (NSF) expressed solidarity with the students and the youth of Balochistan and called for lifting the ban on student groups and organisations. She also reminded the participants that in the recent past, the so-called ‘civil society’ of Islamabad had been calling for military take-over. She said, “We cannot expect the military to be part of the solution as this mess has been created by their policy of continuing the colonisation of Balochistan and sponsoring radical Islamist groups.”
Shehak Sulaymani, the convener of AWP Rawalpindi said that there was a deliberate policy to create ethnic divisions among the Baloch, Pushtun, and Hazara community. Others called for an end to the military operations against the Baloch, a clamp down on sectarian outfits like Lashkar e Jhangvi, and grant of full control over provincial resources to its people.
Other speakers included AWP Women’s Secretary Farzana Bari, AWP Islamabad Convenor Nazish Zahoor and AWP Information Secretary Nisar Shah.
The demonstration was attended by AWP members, student activists of National Student Federation (NSF), Hazara Student Federation (HSF), and Jammu and Kashmir NSF, trade unionists of railway, PTCL, and local activists from the different katchi abadis of Islamabad.
