By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A Baloch rights group on Tuesday rejected as “baseless” allegations by the military that it is a foreign-funded proxy movement, accusing the country’s powerful military of trying to undermine its peaceful campaign against alleged human rights abuses and resource exploitation.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which led protests in Gwadar last month over arrests and deadly clashes with security forces, said the military’s claims were an attempt to deflect attention from the “Baloch genocide” and human rights violations.
The group emphasized that its movement is driven by local principles and ideology, not external funding, and called for an independent inquiry into the allegations.
“The military’s press conference against a grassroots political and human rights movement is, in itself, an admission that the state military is directly involved in Baloch genocide and human rights violations,” the BYC said in a statement. “Our stance from day one has been that the state military and intelligence agencies are directly perpetrating Baloch genocide.”
The dispute follows a July 28 protest in Gwadar over arrests and deadly clashes with security forces. The BYC signed an agreement with the provincial government on August 2 to end protests, but demonstrations continue amid distrust and fresh recriminations.
A day earlier, the military accused the BYC of being a “proxy” for “terrorist organizations and criminal mafias”.
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), had alleged that the BYC was tasked with defaming law enforcement agencies and making development projects controversial.
“Being proxies is a tradition of the military, not ours… Being an external proxy or externally funded is not part of our political traditions,” the group retaliated against the military statement.
The BYC called for the military to set up an inquiry committee through a neutral third party or human rights organization to investigate the allegations against the group.
“If any of your allegations are proven, we will present ourselves in any court in Pakistan or the world. However, if the allegations are not proven, the Pakistani military should admit to its role in the Baloch genocide and present itself for punishment.”
“The military’s press conference supports our stance and is an admission of guilt. Today, when thousands of people have taken to the streets against Baloch genocide and human rights violations, demanding an end to these atrocities, instead of stopping the human rights abuses and genocide, the state is conducting press conferences against a peaceful movement.”
The BYC criticized the military’s historical approach of labeling genuine political movements as foreign-funded to suppress dissent. “The military fails to understand that it is not 1970, where false propaganda and deceit can keep the public and the international community in the dark,” the group added.
The group highlighted that their movement against “Baloch genocide” is a purely peaceful public political movement. “It is this public strength, power, and peaceful struggle that the state finds hard to digest. Therefore, on one hand, there is an attempt to crush this public struggle using full force, and on the other hand, an attempt is being made to create a false narrative through military press conferences.”
The group made it clear that it would not retreat from its public struggle or succumb to pressure but would further organize and intensify its campaign against the “genocide” of the Baloch people. “We will organize and intensify our struggle against Baloch genocide further and will end the Baloch genocide from Baloch land through the power of the people.”
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