The human rights situation in Balochistan is “horrific.” This was stated by U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez Tuesday who kicked off events related to the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture by being the keynote speaker at the Lutheran Church Of Reformation in Washington DC.”An urgent action request was sent to the Pakistan government last month,” Mendez said, adding that a response from Islamabad was still awaited.Mendez statement came on the same day a reknowned baloch intellectual Professor Saba Dashtyari was gunned down in Quetta. A death squad assocaited with Pakistan military called Ansarul Islam claimed credit for killing the pro-independence professor and linguist.Mendez said he had met with Baloch human rights defenders in Geneva and Washington DC. Mendez, who is a visiting professor at the American University, said he has a student from Balochistan who keeps me updated on the happenings there.In a missive on this occasion, the pro-indepdence American Friends of Balochistan informed Mendez extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture have become routine in Balochistan where Pakistani soldiers have thrown the Geneva Conventions and their country’s constitution to the wind.Since July last year 200 Baloch freedom and civil rights activists were forcibly disappeared, tortured, killed execution style and their bodies dumped on the way side in what the Amnesty International called a kill-and-dump policy. As many as 1,300 Baloch activists are still victims of enforced disappearances and are being tortured at military torture cells.Upwards of 8,000 Baloch activists were forcibly disappeared and were brutally tortured during the last five or so years. Torture and extra-judicial killings are also taking place in Sindh.”We urge you to visit the families of victims of torture in Balochistan and Sindh,” the A.F.B. requested.Mendez said the urgent action request to Pakistan on Balochistan was sent jointly by his office and the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, headed by Jeremy Sarkin, and heads of other U.N. related offices.Since July last year, Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence have targetted 200 Balochistan freedom activists for extra judicial slayings. These victims were first forcibly disapperaed and totrued before their extra-judicial killing. Their bodies were dumped in the wayside or wilderness.Continue reading on Examiner.com Balochistan human rights situation is horrific, says U.N. special rapporteur – Baltimore Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-baltimore/balochistan-human-rights-situation-is-horrific-says-u-n-special-rapporteur#ixzz1OLF0lWfB
