Outside UN, Baloch, Pashtun activists protest Pakistan over killings, forced disappearances in Balochistan

United Nations: Baloch and Pashtun activists held protests outside the UN complex against killings, imprisonment and forced disappearances of their people while Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was speaking at the General Assembly.

In separate protests on Friday, the supporters of the Baloch National Movement (BNM) and the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) demanded an end to attacks on and the suppression of Balochis and Pashtuns.

Sharif, meanwhile, was sanctimoniously flinging allegations against other countries.

The BNM's protest in New York coincided with its three-day conference in Geneva on the "human rights situation in Balochistan, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, collective punishment, restrictions on political freedoms".

The BNM also held a rally in Geneva, according to its website.

The BNM on Friday took out a protest rally in Geneva during the 63rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council, drawing the attention of the international community to the escalating human rights abuses committed by Pakistani authorities in Balochistan.

During the demonstration, the protesters carried placards that read: “They were civilians, not targets; UN act now to end collective punishment in Balochistan”, “End Enforced Disappearance”, “Balochistan was occupied by Pakistan”.

According to the BNM, a photo exhibition and protest were also held at the Broken Chair monument in Geneva, where participants raised international awareness about the worsening human rights situation in Balochistan.

The PTM representing Pashtuns, who straddle the arbitrary Durand Line separating Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in a resolution read at their protest, they were "deeply concerned by credible allegations of extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances" and the scattering of unexploded ordnance in their areas.

It also condemned the Pakistani attacks both by land and by air into Pashtun areas inside Afghanistan.

The PTM referred to Islamabad's past support for the Taliban and called for an independent investigation into Pakistani support for "armed groups", past and present.

Asserting its independence, the movement also deplored the denial of education and the right to work outside the home for women by the Taliban regime.

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