The President of the World Baloch Women’s Forum, Naela Quadri Baloch, has urged India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the ongoing brutalities in the Balochistan region perpetrated by Pakistan’s security forces.

Below is an article published by TheDispatch:

A Baloch woman activist has urged [Indian] Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfill his government’s earlier promise of making the world aware of Pakistan’s brutalities in Balochistan.

Professor Naela Quadri Baloch, the President of World Baloch Women’s Forum, made the request while congratulating Modi for securing a massive mandate to lead India for a second term. “Halfway into its first term, his government had promised to raise our plight at the international level. While in practical terms this did not translate into any significant change in India’s approach to the Baloch issue, Pakistan used the stray statements issued by India to demonise our seven-decades-old struggle for independence as an India-sponsored movement,” Naela said.

“The Baloch people hope that the Modi government will fulfil its earlier promise of making the world aware of Pakistan’s brutalities in occupied Balochistan,” she added.

The Indian leader made a reference to the Baloch freedom struggle during his 2016 Independence Day speech. He said that people in the Pakistani state of Balochistan had reached out to him. “We would also like to appeal to India and other countries to support Baloch organisations working to educate our children and to promote Baloch language, things that we can only dream of within Pakistan-occupied Balochistan where the garrison state is actively destroying our culture, our language and the education, i.e., the future of our children,” she stated.

“We do not expect anything more from India or for that matter any other country in the world,” Naela further said, adding, “Our struggle for independence will, however, continue irrespective of whether the international community fulfils its minimal moral responsibility toward our people.”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons