Human rights advocates are rallying for a day of reckoning. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has proclaimed January 25 as ‘Baloch Genocide Remembrance Day,’ planning a global array of events to unmask Pakistan’s purported atrocities against the Baloch nation. Protests, seminars, and multimedia campaigns will echo from Balochistan to international stages.
Detailing the onslaught in an X post, BYC argues genocide manifests subtly: eroding culture through enforced poverty, health crises, hazardous environments, and mental anguish, alongside overt killings, vanishings, and airstrikes. Economic strangulation in mineral-rich areas exacerbates the plight, with diseases rampant due to denied services.
The date honors the 2014 Totak horror—100+ Baloch abducted, tortured by death squads tied to Pakistani intelligence, their mangled remains in mass graves. Proclaimed at 2024’s landmark Saryab Shahwani rally, it encapsulates myriad such tragedies. More graves dot Balochistan, each a testament to unpunished crimes, leaving kin in perpetual torment.
BYC stresses symbolism: ‘These bodies bear a single marker—Baloch.’ Annual remembrances revive familial despair. In Dalbandin last year, thousands gathered in a resource-exploited zone, proclaiming resilience amid genocide for profit. State-sponsored squads drive ongoing extrajudicial terror.
With calls for worldwide engagement, BYC aims to educate and unite. This surge in activism spotlights Balochistan’s crisis, where death squads enable impunity. January 25 may catalyze diplomatic pressure, urging probes into disappearances and urging justice for a people fighting existential erasure.