You are here

  • Home
  • UN experts demand Pakistan release Baloch rights activists

UN experts demand Pakistan release Baloch rights activists

UN experts demand Pakistan release Baloch rights activists
Activists from Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and civil society hold portraits of Mahrang Baloch and participate in a protest demanding her and other missing Baloch persons' release in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/6myyw

Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
Follow

UN experts demand Pakistan release Baloch rights activists

UN experts demand Pakistan release Baloch rights activists
  • Police launched pre-dawn raid on Saturday to arrest the activists who had been protesting detention of peers
  • On Sunday, protesters were charged with terrorism, sedition and murder, as per police charge sheet
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
Follow

GENEVA: More than a dozen United Nations experts demanded Wednesday that Pakistan immediately release detained Baloch rights defenders and halt its crackdown on peaceful protests.
Among those arrested in recent days was Mahrang Baloch, one of Pakistan’s most prominent human rights advocates, who has long campaigned for the Baloch ethnic group.
She and other activists took part in a sit-in protest on Friday outside the University of Balochistan in the provincial capital of Quetta.
They demanded the release of members of their support group, whom they allege had been detained by security agencies.
“We have been monitoring with growing concern reports of alleged arrests and enforced disappearances of Baloch activists over the past number of months,” the independent experts said in a statement.
Police launched a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, arresting Baloch and other activists, during which at least three protesters died. Both sides blamed each other for the deaths.
On Sunday, Baloch and other protesters were charged with terrorism, sedition and murder, according to the police charge sheet seen by AFP.
In their statement, the experts, including the UN special rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders, on minority issues and on counter-terrorism and human rights, decried “the use of excessive force as a first response to peaceful protests.”
Pakistan has been battling a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, where militants target state forces and foreign nationals in the mineral-rich southwestern province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Police actions against Baloch activists have intensified after Baloch separatists earlier this month launched a dramatic train siege that officials said ended in around 60 deaths, half of whom were separatists behind the assault.
“We understand the deeply traumatic impact of the March 11 terrorist attack, and we express our deepest sympathy to the victims,” said the experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
“Yet a response which relies on arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and violent crackdowns on freedom of assembly cannot alleviate that trauma.”
In addition to Mahrang Baloch’s case, the experts highlighted the arrest on Monday of another woman human rights defender, Sammi Deen Baloch, along with others in front of the Karachi Press Club as they protested against the crackdown.
“We urge the Pakistani authorities to immediately release them and to refrain from abusing counter-terrorism or public safety measures against human rights defenders,” the experts said.
Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry said it had “taken note of the press release issued by certain UN experts, which appears to be based on selective and unverified media reports.”
“Regrettably, these comments lack balance and proportionality, downplaying civilian casualties inflicted by terrorist attacks,” the foreign ministry statement added.
 

Topics: Baloch Yakjehti Committee Mahrang Baloch Sammi Deen Baloch United Nations

Related

Pakistan province detains Baloch rights activists for 30 days for posing threat to public safety video
Pakistan
Pakistan province detains Baloch rights activists for 30 days for posing threat to public safety
Update Baloch rights group says top leader arrested in police raid in southwestern Pakistan
Pakistan
Baloch rights group says top leader arrested in police raid in southwestern Pakistan

Pakistan rejects US congressman’s bill seeking sanctions on army chief

Pakistan rejects US congressman’s bill seeking sanctions on army chief
Updated 12 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan rejects US congressman’s bill seeking sanctions on army chief

Pakistan rejects US congressman’s bill seeking sanctions on army chief
  • Calling it a single legislator’s initiative, foreign office says the bill is misaligned with the positive bilateral ties
  • Congressman Joe Wilson sought sanction on the army chief this week for ‘undermining democracy’
Updated 12 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office on Thursday dismissed a bill in the US Congress seeking to sanction the country’s powerful army chief, calling it a single legislator’s initiative that did not align with the positive relations between the two countries.
US Congressman Joe Wilson announced earlier this week on Tuesday he had introduced a bill demanding sanctions against General Asim Munir for “undermining democracy” and “persecuting” political opponents, including jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Wilson shared a report by the American news website, The Hill, on his social media account, which said the legislation called for sanctions on the army chief within 180 days under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Violators of the act can be subjected to denial of entry to the United States and ineligibility for US visas.
Responding to the development, Foreign Office Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan said the initiative did not reflect the US administration’s position.
“We are aware of the bill being introduced in the House of Representatives,” he said. “This is an initiative of a single individual legislator. We believe that the timing and context of the bill does not align well with the current positive dynamics of Pakistan-US bilateral relations based on mutual respect, understanding and non-interference in each other’s affairs.”
He noted the bill would have to go through several committees in the House of Representatives and Senate before its passage.
“We hope that the US Congress will continue its supportive role in strengthening Pakistan-US ties and focus on avenues of mutual collaboration that benefit both our peoples and countries,” Khan continued.
“Pakistan remains committed to constitutionalism, rule of law, protection of human rights and freedom of expression because it considers democracy as a vehicle for prosperity and progress as a nation,” he added.
The spokesperson also said that Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi was currently visiting the US, where he had met with the chairman of the US Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on South Asia and Central Asia on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the co-chair of the Pakistan Caucus.
“During the talks, discussions focused on Pakistan-US bilateral cooperation and economic relations,” he said. “The special assistant briefed the US leadership on government policy, especially the economic priorities.”
Khan said that promoting bilateral relations, particularly in the areas of trade, economy and investment, was among the top priorities of the government.
“Regional and international issues were also discussed during these meetings,” he added.

Topics: US congressman Joe Wilson US Congress Imran Khan Army chief General Syed Asim Munir

Related

US congressman announces drafting bill against ‘wrongful’ imprisonment of Pakistan ex-PM Khan
Pakistan
US congressman announces drafting bill against ‘wrongful’ imprisonment of Pakistan ex-PM Khan
Pakistan dismisses UN experts’ statement calling for release of Baloch activists
Pakistan
Pakistan dismisses UN experts’ statement calling for release of Baloch activists

Pakistan says Syria needs ‘credible political transition,’ condemns Israeli incursions and airstrikes

Pakistan says Syria needs ‘credible political transition,’ condemns Israeli incursions and airstrikes
Updated 27 March 2025
Follow

Pakistan says Syria needs ‘credible political transition,’ condemns Israeli incursions and airstrikes

Pakistan says Syria needs ‘credible political transition,’ condemns Israeli incursions and airstrikes
  • After fall of Bashar Assad regime, Israel expanded occupation of Syrian Golan Heights by seizing demilitarized buffer zone
  • Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites and assets across Syria, including fighter jets, missile and air defense systems
Updated 27 March 2025
Muhammad Ibrahim

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday condemned Israel’s “continued and repeated” incursions and airstrikes in Syria, saying durable peace in the Middle Eastern state required a credible political transition and an inclusive government. 
Israel capitalized last December on the fall of the long regime of Bashar Assad to bolster its military foothold in Syria. It now controls a 400-square-km demilitarized buffer zone, supports the Druze minority and is opposed to the Syrian leadership.
Syria’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned Israeli strikes on the southwestern city of Daraa, which it said had killed and injured civilians. The strikes a day earlier killed at least three people and injured 19 others, the Syrian civil defense group, known as the White Helmets, said.
The Israeli army confirmed the strikes, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Syria’s military infrastructure since rebels toppled Assad. Israel said it targeted military headquarters and sites containing weapons and equipment.
“Israel’s continued and repeated incursions and airstrikes into the Syrian territory, continued violation of 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and its declared intent for an indefinite presence and full demilitarization of Syria are unacceptable, constitute latent violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and undermine international law and regional stability,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
“A durable peace in Syria hinges on a credible political transition, national unity and reconciliation and inclusive governance.”
The Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria, which was signed on May 31, 1974, provided for the continuation of the ceasefire already in effect and for the separation of opposing parties by a UN Peacekeeping Force.
After the fall of Assad, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces to oust Assad, was declared president for a transitional period in late January. Israel says it will not tolerate what it describes as an Islamist militant presence in southern Syria and has sent its troops into Syria’s border zone.
Syria’s leadership has said it does not intend to open a front against Israel.

Topics: Pakistan Syria Ties Hamas-Israel war Golan Heights

Indian fisherman hangs himself in Pakistan prison amid delayed repatriation

Indian fisherman hangs himself in Pakistan prison amid delayed repatriation
Updated 11 min 5 sec ago
Follow

Indian fisherman hangs himself in Pakistan prison amid delayed repatriation

Indian fisherman hangs himself in Pakistan prison amid delayed repatriation
  • Indian and Pakistani fishermen are frequently detained for straying into each other’s territorial waters
  • Jail authorities in Pakistan say Gaurav’s release was delayed due to procedural reasons on Indian side
Updated 11 min 5 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: An Indian fisherman has died by suicide in a Karachi prison, a senior Pakistani jail official said on Wednesday, as the incident highlighted the plight of detainees caught in the tangle of strained India-Pakistan relations.
Indian and Pakistani fishermen are routinely detained by both countries’ maritime agencies for allegedly entering each other’s territorial waters. The poorly defined maritime boundary in the Arabian Sea, coupled with the limited navigational capabilities of many fishing boats, frequently leads to unintentional crossings.
According to Pakistani prison authorities, Gaurav, son of Ram Anand, hanged himself in the prison’s washroom on Tuesday night.
“He went to the washroom under the pretext of urinating and hanged himself with his drawstring,” Qazi Nazeer Ahmed, Inspector General of Prison Police in Pakistan’s Sindh province, told Arab News.
Malir Prison, where Gaurav took his own life, has come under scrutiny in recent years over the deaths of several detainees due to health complications.
Last month, a prisoner named Babu Kana died due to health issues, while in 2023, two Indian fishermen — Balo Jetha and Soma Deva — died after their health deteriorated during incarceration.
Ahmed said Gaurav was apparently suffering from “severe depression,” which pushed him to take the extreme step of ending his life.
“His sentence was completed, but the process from the Indian side [for his release] was not finalized,” he continued. “Fellow prisoners reported that Gaurav’s behavior did not indicate he would commit suicide, but he was depressed.”
Arab News reached out to the Indian High Commission, where officials declined to comment immediately.
Arshad Shah, Superintendent of Malir Jail, said Gaurav had been remanded to the Karachi prison on February 17, 2022.
“The duty doctor examined him before pronouncing him dead,” he told Arab News, adding the body had been handed over to the Edhi Foundation for repatriation.
Human rights activists on both sides of the border have long called for a faster process for the release of fishermen, who commit no crime but mistakenly cross invisible boundaries at sea and end up in jail, while their families suffer back home.
“According to our records, 216 Indian fishermen are still languishing in Pakistani jails, while 81 Pakistani fishermen are imprisoned in India,” Jatin Desai, an Indian rights activist, said, adding hundreds of fishermen remained in prison on both sides of the border.
However, the IG prison maintained Indian nationals were treated well in jail, adding that Pakistani authorities did not delay their release once legal formalities were completed.
“This is why prisoners are regularly released and returned to their country,” he added. “We regret that Gaurav could not reunite with his family back in India.”

Topics: Indian fisherman Karachi jail

Pakistan’s Parsi community dwindles as young migrate

Pakistan’s Parsi community dwindles as young migrate
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
Follow

Pakistan’s Parsi community dwindles as young migrate

Pakistan’s Parsi community dwindles as young migrate
  • Once the Parsi community in Pakistan had as many as 15,000-20,000 people
  • Today, numbers hover around 900 people in Karachi, few dozen more elsewhere in Pakistan
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP

KARACHI: From a gated community for her Zoroastrian faith in Pakistan’s megacity Karachi, 22-year-old Elisha Amra has waved goodbye to many friends migrating abroad as the ancient Parsi community dwindles.
Soon the film student hopes to join them — becoming one more loss to Pakistan’s aging Zoroastrian Parsi people, a community who trace their roots back to Persian refugees from today’s Iran more than a millennium ago.
“My plan is to go abroad,” Amra said, saying she wants to study for a master’s degree in a country without the restrictions of a conservative Muslim-majority society.
“I want to be able to freely express myself,” she added.
Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zarathustra, was the predominant religion of the ancient Persian empire, until the rise of Islam with the Arab conquests of the seventh century.

 Dinshaw Behram Avari shows the portraits of his late father Behram Avari (C) along with deceased grandparents Dinshaw Avari (L) and Khorshed Avari (R), at the Beach Luxury Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan on February 28, 2025 

Once the Parsi community in Pakistan had as many as 15,000-20,000 people, said Dinshaw Behram Avari, the head of one of the most prominent Parsi families.
Today, numbers hover around 900 people in Karachi and a few dozen more elsewhere in Pakistan, according to community leaders, many staying together in compounds like where Amra lives.
She acknowledges her life is more comfortable than many in Pakistan — the Parsis are in general an affluent and highly educated community.
But says she wants to escape the daily challenges that beset the city of some 20 million people — ranging from power cuts, water shortages and patchy Internet to violent street crime.
“I’d rather have a life where I feel safe, and I feel happy and satisfied,” she said.
Zubin Patel, 27, a Parsi working in e-commerce in Karachi, has seen more than two dozen Parsi friends leave Karachi for abroad in the past three years.
“More than 20-25 of my friends were living in Karachi, they all started migrating,” he said.

That is not unique to Parsis — many young and skilled Pakistanis want to find jobs abroad to escape a country wracked with political uncertainty and security challenges, a struggling economy and woeful infrastructure.
The number of highly skilled Pakistanis who left for jobs abroad more than doubled according to the latest figures from the Pakistan Economic Survey — from 20,865 in 2022, to 45,687 in 2023.

The front elevation of the Mama Parsi Girls High School, which has the bust of Ardeshir Hormushji Mama, its Zoroastrian founder, engraved on its facade in Karachi, Pakistan on March 17, 2025 (AFP)

Parsis are struggling to adjust in a fast-changing world.
The religion, considered among the oldest in the world, forbids conversion and mixed marriages are frowned upon.
“There is a better chance to find a Zoroastrian partner in Canada, Australia, UK and America than in Pakistan,” said Avari, who heads of a chain of hotels.
He points out that Parsi population of Toronto is some 10 times greater than Karachi.
Avari, 57, said that a wave of Parsis left Pakistan during the hard-line military rule of Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, who enforced a program of Islamization.
Since then, militant violence has targeted religious minorities, and while Parsis say they have not been targeted, they remain wary.
He suggested the community’s high levels of education and Western outlook to life meant many eyed a future abroad, while for those who do stay, family size is shrinking.
“Couples are more interested today in looking after their career; they are not interested in family,” he said.
“When they do get married, they will have one child — and one child is not enough to make a positive impact on the population.”

 a man looks from a window above a bust of Edulji Dinshaw, one of the school's founders, carved on the exterior of the Mama Parsi Girls School's yellow limestone structure in Karachi, Pakistan on March 17, 2025. (AFP)

Parsi members were among the pioneers of the shipping and hospitality industries in Karachi, and the city’s colonial-era historic district is dotted with Parsi buildings including hospitals and schools.
But as the community declines, many buildings have crumbled, with as many as half the homes in elegant tree-lined streets of the century-old Sohrab Katrak Parsi Colony lying abandoned.
For many among the younger generation, the only pull left keeping them in Pakistan is their aging relatives.
Patel, the e-commerce worker, said he would leave if he could.
“It would be a difficult decision,” he said. “But if I have an opportunity which would give my parents ... a healthy lifestyle, then I’d obviously go for it.”
Amra, who visits her 76-year-old grandfather almost daily, worries that her parents will be alone when she leaves.
“You have to figure out a way, eventually, to either bring them to you or come back,” she said.

Topics: Pakistani Parsi Community immigration Zoroastrianism

Related

Pakistan observes national minority day, vows to protect their rights
Pakistan
Pakistan observes national minority day, vows to protect their rights
Pakistan will ‘soon’ set up commission for minority rights, says law minister
Pakistan
Pakistan will ‘soon’ set up commission for minority rights, says law minister

Gunmen kill five commuters traveling to Karachi in Pakistan’s volatile southwest

Gunmen kill five commuters traveling to Karachi in Pakistan’s volatile southwest
Updated 27 March 2025
SAADULLAH AKHTER 
Follow

Gunmen kill five commuters traveling to Karachi in Pakistan’s volatile southwest

Gunmen kill five commuters traveling to Karachi in Pakistan’s volatile southwest
  • The incident happened near Pasni, Balochistan, where armed men offboarded Punjabi passengers on a highway
  • No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though BLA usually launches such attacks
Updated 27 March 2025
SAADULLAH AKHTER 

QUETTA: At least five passengers belonging to Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province were forcibly offboarded from passenger buses heading to Karachi from Gwadar on Wednesday after gunmen checked their identity cards and killed them near Pakistan’s coastal town of Pasni, a senior government official confirmed.

This is not the first time commuters from Punjab have been targeted in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, which shares porous borders with Iran and Afghanistan and has experienced a low-scale insurgency by Baloch separatist groups against the Pakistani state.

Baloch nationalists have long accused the Pakistani government and the country’s most prosperous Punjab province of monopolizing profits from Balochistan’s abundant natural resources, saying it has led to their political marginalization and economic exploitation.

Pakistani administrations have denied these allegations, however, citing several development initiatives launched in the province to improve local living conditions.

“Armed men stopped buses at the coastal highway near Kalmat, Pasni, and forcibly removed six passengers after checking their ID cards,” Moheem Khan Gichki, Assistant Commissioner Pasni, told Arab News over the phone.

“Five Punjab-based travelers who were traveling to Karachi from Gwadar were killed in the attack and one sustained injuries,” he continued. “The attackers also set one trawler and one vehicle on fire before escaping from the area.”

The coastal town of Gwadar, located on the shore of the Arabian Sea, is the heart of Pakistan and China’s multibillion-dollar development project called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest killings of the Punjab-based commuters, though suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch separatist group Baloch Liberation Army, which has previously launched similar attacks on passenger buses on different highways of the volatile province.

In February, seven Punjab-based passengers were killed after the ethnic separatist group stopped Punjab-bound passenger buses in Barkhan district.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed sorrow in a statement issued by his office over the death of the commuters in the attack.

“Subversive elements are enemies of peace and development in Balochistan,” he said. “Cowardly attacks by such elements on innocent people clearly reflect their barbarity.”

Sharif also applauded the actions of the security forces and law enforcement agencies against anti-state groups while ordering an investigation into the incident to identify the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice.

Topics: Pakistan Karachi BLA

Latest updates

Israel parliament passes judicial reform law, opposition challenges
Israel parliament passes judicial reform law, opposition challenges
Algerian court sentences writer Boualem Sansal for five years
Algerian court sentences writer Boualem Sansal for five years
Global renewable energy capacity up 585 GW in 2024: IRENA
Global renewable energy capacity up 585 GW in 2024: IRENA
Inside NEOM’s inaugural Artists in Residence program 
Inside NEOM’s inaugural Artists in Residence program 
Italy pledges 68 million euros in aid for Syria
Italy pledges 68 million euros in aid for Syria

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.