Subject:
Why Are You Silent? Demand Justice for Unlawfully Detained, Tortured and Disappeared Baloch Women – Hold the Pakistani State Accountable
To:
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Human Rights Council, UN Women, Asia Pacif- ic Forum, Front Line Defenders, International Commission of Jurists, Human Rights Foundation, Global Fund for Women, Equality Now, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
And to:
Aurat March, Women Democratic Front (WDF), Shirkat Gah, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan), and all civil society groups, lawyers’ collectives, feminist parties and women’s rights defenders in Pakistan and beyond.
We write this letter as a plea for justice and an indictment of your silence
Balochistan is a region, rich in natural resources and coastal trade benefits. Pakistani military occupied Balochistan in 1948 forcefully. Balochistan, despite of being a feeder to Pakistani state, suffers inhumane behavior and human rights violation by Pakistani military establishment. Since
then, Balochistan has been facing extreme military violence such as resource extraction, depriving from basic facilities, military operations, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, criminalization and collective punishment.
In recent years, Pakistan has crossed the redline of human rights violation, religious, humanitarian and even violating its own law. Pakistani military establishment started torturing, detaining and abducting young Baloch women, which is a grave concern for human rights defenders. This
new trend started since 2006, Zarina Marri, a Baloch schoolteacher, has been held incommunicado by the Pakistani military. Reports from whistleblowers and human rights observers indicate that she has suffered physical, psychological, and sexual torture in custody—used as a tool of
repression, humiliation, and control.
This is not an isolated case. It is part of a sustained, deliberate campaign of state terror waged by the Pakistani military establishment against Baloch women and activists. Most recently, the arbitrary arrests and harassment of Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Bebow Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch,
and Mahjabeen Baloch for peacefully demanding justice and human rights expose a system built on the brutal suppression of dissent.
We (Baloch) have knocked every door of justice but only received condemnation from you not practical action against barbaric practice of Pakistani state against Baloch people. And yet, despite years of escalating abuse, where is your outrage? Where is your intervention? Where are the investigations, the condemnations, the demands for accountability?
Human rights and feminist groups have never hesitated to condemn state violence in Palestine, Iran, India, Myanmar, and elsewhere. But when it comes to Balochistan, your silence is loud, and your inaction is complicity.
We, as global citizens and advocates for truth and justice, demand the following:
● Immediate criminal investigation into the case of Zarina Marri and other detained
Baloch women subjected to state violence.
● International legal action against Pakistani state actors complicit in war crimes,
enforced disappearances, and sexual torture of men and women.
● Protective intervention and release of Baloch women activists, including Dr. Mahrang,
Bebow, Gulzadi, and Mahjabeen, who have been unlawfully detained.
- An independent fact-finding mission by the United Nations and global human rights
observers to investigate crimes in Balochistan. - An end to the systemic weaponization of rape, surveillance, and intimidation used by
Pakistani forces against women in occupied regions.
We call on every feminist voice, every human rights defender, every organization that claims to stand for justice—do not turn away. If your silence continues, then you are not neutral. You are complicit. This is your moment to act. History will judge not only the perpetrators, but also those who stood by and said nothing. The Paank (Human Rights Department), of Baloch National Movement is committed to provide every possible evidence in this regard. We urge all concerned organizations, groups, and parties to stand with Baloch victims and raise your voice practically against the repression of Pakistani state.
Sincerely,
Paank (Human Rights’ Department) of Baloch National Movement
Contact Information:
Hr@paank.org