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In yet another alarming instance of state intimidation, Pakistani security forces reportedly raided the home of prominent Baloch woman leader Dr. Sabiha Baloch on Saturday evening, in what human rights defenders are calling a targeted effort to suppress peaceful dissent, The Balochistan Post reported.
Dr. Sabiha Baloch, a senior member of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and former chairperson of the Baloch Students Action Committee (BSAC), confirmed that personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) stormed her family home in her native village around 7 p.m. on July 16 without any legal warrant or prior notice. According to her account, the forces searched the house, harassed family members, and issued threats throughout the operation, The Balochistan Post reported. In a strongly worded statement, Dr. Sabiha described the raid as part of a "systematic campaign of collective punishment" and urged international human rights bodies to intervene before the situation worsens further. Dr. Sabiha also revealed that her father was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces three months ago and remains missing, with the family receiving no official information on his fate. She alleged that she is under constant pressure to denounce the BYC publicly and surrender herself to authorities -- an attempt to coerce silence from a leading Baloch activist, The Balochistan Post reported. "My father's only 'crime' is being my father, and my crime is raising my voice against enforced disappearances," she said. She condemned the raid as a direct attempt to silence human rights defenders. "By branding us as terrorists, the state seeks to erase our struggle. But we are not criminals. We are the voices of justice and peace," she stated. Calling on Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN, the EU, Civicus, and others, Dr. Sabiha demanded that global powers speak out against what she called Pakistan's "intensifying crackdown" on peaceful Baloch activism, The Balochistan Post reported. She concluded: "To crush this struggle is to steal our children's dreams of peace. We will never allow that." (ANI)
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