California [US], May 15 : Mariam Solaimankhil, a member of Afghanistan's Parliament in exile, has sharply criticised Pakistan's military establishment for abuses, including enforced disappearances, exploitation of natural resources, and the suppression of peaceful activists.
She described the situation not as counterinsurgency, as Pakistan claims, but as "forced colonisation, forced occupation."
While speaking to ANI, Solaimankhil said, "I think everyone is sick of a military dictatorship that they're living under. In Balochistan, we have peaceful nonviolent activists like Dr. Mahang Baloch, who's in prison, but people like Osama bin Laden and the leaders of Lashkar e Taiba are allowed to roam freely within the country."
She added, "In Balochistan, it's been decades of forced disappearances, murders, organ harvesting, the looting of their natural resources, gold, copper, oil are being looted, but the people are still starving and they're still poor, while the ISI generals specifically are living a lavish lifestyle off of these people's blood. Then they come in and they say, 'we're doing counterinsurgency projects in Balochistan or in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This isn't counterinsurgency. What you're doing is forced colonisation; forced occupation."
In Pakistan, enforced disappearances and abductions are widespread human rights violations, particularly in regions like Balochistan. Individuals, often activists, students, and political dissenters, are forcibly taken by security forces without arrest warrants, legal processes, or trials. These acts of abduction are conducted in secrecy, with families left in the dark about the whereabouts and well-being of their loved ones. The victims are subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, and sometimes extrajudicial killing, all under the guise of countering terrorism or maintaining national security.
Meanwhile, Solaimankhil also praised India for its humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. Highlighting the bonds between the two nations, she pointed out that during times of conflict, the Afghan people have stood with India.
"I think India has always been a true friend to Afghanistan. They haven't supported any warlords. They haven't supported any proxy regimes. They've supported the Afghan people, the Afghan nation from schools to food to dams to health. It's beautiful, and I think that we saw the solidarity of the Afghans come out whenever this war between Pakistan and India came to. Wholeheartedly, the Afghan people stood up and said we're standing with India, we see through the lies, we will not stand with Pakistan... The Afghan people are true brothers and sisters to the Indian people," she told ANI.
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