Dusseldorf / London: Free Balochistan Movement Germany and UK branches staged protests in Dusseldorf, Germany and London, the UK on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
The Free Balochistan Movement said in a detailed statement to the media that the purpose of the protest was to provide awareness to the people of Europe, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, about the ongoing repression by Pakistan and Iran in Balochistan.
Protesters in Germany arranged an act during their demonstration in which Balochistan was depicted as the ‘wounded mother of Baloch nation’ tied in ropes displaying wounds from torture inflicted on her by Pakistan and Iran. It was also an effort to expose the incidents of violence and bloodshed in Balochistan by both occupying states.
The sketch act ‘explaining the problems of Balochistan’ included placards and banners exposing torture, enforced disappearances, mutilated bodies, the killing of victims of enforced disappearances in fake encounters, military aggression, mass executions, mass graves, human rights abuses the media blackout in Balochistan.
Throughout the protest, the participants read aloud an article in the German language to convey their message to the German people about the Baloch struggle for freedom and Iran and Pakistan’s violent inhuman means to suppress the Baloch voice for freedom. Also, during the demonstration, hundreds of pamphlets were distributed to commuters about the forcible occupation of Balochistan and the atrocities of Iranian and Pakistani forces against the Baloch people.
Baloch activists Mahgong Baloch, Banuk Samaa Baloch, Behzat Baloch, Khudadad Baloch and Muhammad Bakhsh Raaji Baloch addressed the media in several different languages including English, German, Balochi, Persian and Arabic so that the message of Balochistan could be conveyed to a wider audience.
In London, FBM activists staged a protest in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence at 10 Downing Street. Activists of the Baloch Republican Party as well as several Arab activists in the Iranian-occupied Al-Ahwaz took part in the protest to express their support and solidarity with the Baloch people.
The protester held placards and banners with slogans against the occupation of Balochistan, Iranian and Pakistani state violence against Baloch people and urged the world to help stop Baloch Genocide by foreign invaders.
FBM activists give out leaflets to passersby about Pakistani and Iranian state torture against Baloch people since the occupation of Balochistan. The speakers shed light on the history of Balochistan, the occupation of Balochistan by the British and subsequent division of Baloch into three parts.
The speakers further said that at present the Baloch nation is engaged in its struggle for national liberation but Pakistan and Iran are crossing all the boundaries of atrocities on the Baloch nation to frighten them away from their freedom movement.
Free Balochistan Movement UK Chapter Organiser, Rasheed Baloch said, ‘Despite all this oppression and atrocities, the Baloch are continuing their struggle with perseverance, which has been going on for decades. It is, however, a matter of great disappointment and concern that civilized world doesn’t speak up against such crimes of occupying states and this silence of the world is encouraging Pakistan and Iran to continue and escalate their atrocities.’
The speakers praised the response of the world democracies to the Russian aggression on Ukraine, but strongly criticized the role of the West in Balochistan, stressing that on the one hand the West and Europe were not only imposing economic sanctions on Russia but the other hand they were silent about Pakistan and Iran’s crimes against humanity in Balochistan.