BYC says Pakistan using 'scripted lies' to whitewash enforced disappearances in Balochistan

Balochistan [Pakistan] January 10 The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has sharply criticised Pakistan's military establishment, accusing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of attempting to sanitise enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan.

In a detailed statement, the BYC described the ISPR's latest press briefing as a "calculated attempt" to validate decades of state repression, as reported by The Balochistan Post.

According to The Balochistan Post, the BYC, comments made by the ISPR Director General reaffirmed that Islamabad's policies in Balochistan remain unchanged, with state bodies continuing to employ "recycled narratives and selective terminology" to justify widespread human rights abuses.

The organisation said political activists and rights defenders were deliberately targeted during the briefing, despite their long-standing resistance in the face of arrests, intimidation, FIRs, and what they describe as persistent state aggression. The group stated that the press event offered no fresh insight, instead relying on what it called a "stale and predictable storyline" designed to divert attention from credible documentation of violations.

The BYC said repeated accusations against the organisation and its leader, Mahrang Baloch, were part of an intensified smear campaign, yet the ISPR chief "has not been able to substantiate even a single allegation."

The BYC also faulted the media's conduct during the briefing, claiming journalists refrained from asking meaningful questions because they were operating "under an atmosphere of fear," leaving journalism "effectively immobilised." A similar pattern, it noted, was visible in a recent press conference by the Balochistan Chief Secretary, whose remarks allegedly echoed ISPR's talking points verbatim, as highlighted by The Balochistan Post.

The statement questioned the state's logic: "If someone is genuinely a terrorist, why are they not arrested legally and presented before a judge? Why do their mutilated bodies surface years after disappearance if evidence truly exists?"

The BYC claimed that over 2,000 people have gone missing in Balochistan this year alone, and nearly every family has been affected. Human rights groups, lawyers, and civil society organisations have long held that enforced disappearances violate both Pakistan's Constitution and international law, as reported by The Balochistan Post.

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