Quetta, May 25 (IANS) Human rights organisation Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) strongly condemned the disturbing pattern of press conferences conducted by Pakistani authorities in recent years in Balochistan.
The rights body alleged that detainees– particularly women– are presented as having confessed to criminal activities, warning that such practices raise grave concerns over violations of domestic and international human rights standards.
In its thematic report titled “Staged Press Conferences and Confessional Narratives in Balochistan: Conflating Baloch Women’s and BYC’s Peaceful Struggle to Terrorism and Extremism to Justify State Violence”, the rights body described the alleged treatment of detainees as “dehumanisation and blatant targeting of Baloch women”.
The BYC accused Pakistani state authorities of attempting to normalise enforced disappearances, preventive detention, custodial torture, and the media trial of Baloch women in order to build official narratives and propaganda.
“Women in such cases face additional social stigma and broader family consequences. Detention conditions also raise concerns about gender-sensitive protection. The authorities breach the customary norms, religious values and human dignity of Baloch women by presenting those victims before cameras who never show their faces on media. It is deeply disrespectful to women and amounts to targeting Baloch honour and dignity,” the BYC stated.
As per the findings, the documented cases reveal a pattern in which individuals are detained without transparent legal procedures, held incommunicado, and later presented in public forums where “confessional statements” are disseminated.
“These practices raise serious concerns about due process, the presumption of innocence, and the evidentiary integrity of such statements. Additionally, such staged press conferences are then used as a pretext to malign, criminalise and target political leaders, human rights defenders and civil activists,” the BYC noted.
According to the report, these patterns indicated that such practices may be aimed at spreading fear, misinformation, and propaganda against Baloch women leaders and activists in an apparent attempt to discourage participation in peaceful resistance. It added that the targeting of members of the BYC and other activists reflects the “shrinking space for dissent and political expression” in Balochistan.
The BYC called on United Nations human rights bodies and special procedures to raise their voices against such repressive practices by Pakistani authorities in Balochistan. It further urged international human rights organisations and advocacy groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to bring global attention to the targeting of women in Balochistan, alleging that Pakistani authorities were concealing and distorting facts through “coercion, media trials, forced confessions and staged press conferences”.
–IANS
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