Friday, February 14th, 2025

Pakistan: Traders and locals sit on dharna in Kech, Balochistan; Businesses kept closed


For several days, families whose relatives are reportedly missing from various areas of Balochistan’s Kech district have been staging a sit-in protest demanding their safe return.

According to reports, traders and residents of the area have now voluntarily closed their shops and businesses, and have also decided to give up their daily earnings to show support to the grieving families.

Baloch Yakjehti Committee, an organisation advocating for the rights of the Baloch people, said on social media platform X: “The sit-in has reached a stalemate with a complete shutdown in Kech on the 15th day of the protest. In a powerful show of solidarity, traders and residents of Kech have voluntarily shut their businesses and stand with the elderly, men, women and children participating in the protest. Unity and resistance is the only thing that can guarantee our survival against such a barbaric state and its institutions.”

For many years the Baloch people have been actively protesting, driven by grievances such as autonomy, human rights, socio-economic inequalities and political injustice. The abduction of Baloch students is a disturbing issue that has attracted attention in Balochistan and around the world.

The Pakistani government views Baloch students, particularly activists advocating for Baloch rights, as a threat to national security. This perception has reportedly led to harassment, enforced disappearances, and repression of Baloch students and activists.

Human rights organisations and activists have widely documented cases in which Baloch activists are allegedly abducted, disappeared and later found dead in remote areas under mysterious circumstances, and accused state authorities or allied groups of extrajudicial killings.

Pakistan denies allegations of extrajudicial killings, including those of Baloch individuals.

The government argues that casualties during security operations are justified actions against insurgents and terrorists, and not deliberate killings. Pakistani officials claim that allegations of extrajudicial killings are often politically motivated or based on misinformation.

Despite Pakistan’s stance, the international community has differing views supported by documentary evidence.

Pakistan’s actions have raised significant international human rights concerns, and allegations of systematic discrimination and suppression of the views and rights of Baloch people within the country have been levelled.

The situation underscores the ongoing tensions and complexities in ethnic relations and civil liberties in Pakistan.



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