KARACHI - Baloch Students Organisation-Azad acting chairperson Karima Baloch appealed to human rights organisations, media and the international community to raise their voice for the release of BSO chairman Zahid Baloch, who according to her was arrested by the FC personnel in Balochistan.
Addressing a news conference at the Press Club here Sunday, Karima Baloch said her organisation would contact the United Nations and other international human rights organisation for the release of Zahid Baloch. She said their organisation has peacefully protested against the arrest of Zahid Baloch, and inhuman torture being meted on him is against the Geneva Accord and other international treaties.
"Our simple demand is to bring our chairman Zahid Baloch to the surface and he be tried in the courts.
The BSO chairman must be treated as a political worker according to the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisons," said Karima Baloch.
"We have launched a peaceful protest movement against the arrest of our chairman. One of our leaders Latif Johar has staged hunger strike unto death in front of Karachi Press Club for the last 34 days. His condition is rapidly deteriorating, but no attention is being paid to our demands and the protest by the Baloch people. Our peaceful struggle would continue and in case our leader Latif Johar dies at the hunger strike camp, we have many others in queue to continue his mission. We would held the government, its agencies and the United Nations responsible for the death of Johar," she added.
She regretted that the national media has ignored the protest of Baloch students for the release of Zahid Baloch. “Our colleagues at the hunger strike camp are being threatened by the agencies, and many times they have tried to uproot the camp and on many occasions police have shelled on us,” she alleged. She also criticised the human rights organisations for lack of support to Baloch students and said they have also ignored the protest and hunger strike by Johar.
The BSO has been raising voice for the promotion of education in Balochistan and against closure of the educational institutions and libraries in many parts of the province. If it is a terrorism to raise voices for the rights in a peaceful manner, she asked.
She also pointed out that the secrete agencies are managing to hold demonstrations in front of their hunger strike camp in the support of Army, in which Baloch people are threatened of dire consequences if they did not stop the peaceful protest.
"We had tried to organise seminars for the release of Baloch students leaders, but the agencies have always managed to get cancelled all such programmes with the support of their henpecked and fake organisations that hold their programmes to sabotage our programmes," she regretted.