Solidarity Statement:
WDF strongly condemns the illegal abduction of three young Baloch men from Lyari, Karachi. We demand their immediate release and unequivocally condemn the heinous practice of enforced disappearances prevalent in the country.
WDF recognizes the importance of the Baloch National gathering called by Baloch Yakjehti Committee, and expresses its solidarity with the Baloch Raj Muchi. We demand that their right to freedom of movement and assembly should not be violated unconstitutionally.
Baloch people are also facing forced expulsion from their own ancestral lands by projects such as the Malir Expressway and Bahria Town. These state-backed projects are elitist, unsustainable exclude the Baloch people, and will accelerate the ecological disaster of Balochistan. Simultaneously the common people are being barricaded out of these developments in the case of Gwadar. They have been excluded from economic and educational opportunities, and their culture, language and script are at risk of obliteration.
The BYC has stated that this gathering is to bring an end to the gross violations of social, economic, political, cultural and civil rights of Baloch peoples, and that oppression can not continue.
For more than one whole decade, feminist activists like Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch, have gone from court to commission, given no hope and treated inhumanely. We not only commend their struggle and vouch to stand with them in their struggle for their loved ones, but we also deem their presence and voice to be inherently integral to the people’s struggle for justice.
WDF also expresses solidarity with the families of missing persons and condemns the unsatisfactory and negligent judicial process given to them. We demand our judiciary to take note and reinstate the constitution in practical terms, and ensure the recovery of all missing persons. We also condemn the increased militarisation and securitisation of Balochistan and demand an end to the surveillance apparatus. We strongly condemn the overall repressive nature of state control in Balochistan and demand an end to enforced disappearances, extra judicial killings and exploitation of Baloch resources.
Artwork: PRSF/WDF comrade Fatima Shehzad