Quetta, Sep 18 (IANS) At least three people, including two women, were killed and five others, including a four-year-old, were injured after Pakistani forces carried out aerial bombing targetting residential homes in the Zehri region of Balochistan, a leading Baloch human rights organisation said on Thursday.
Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) mentioned that the Pakistani military carried out an air and drone strike in the Terasani (Qazib) area of Zehri in Khuzdar district late Wednesday night, killing three civilians and injuring five others.
“The use of jet fighters and drones against civilian populations is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. This is not an isolated case: reports indicate that in the last two months alone, Zehri has witnessed at least three separate incidents of aerial bombardment and drone strikes by Pakistani forces,” read a statement issued by the BYC.
Citing local residents, the rights body stated that drones continue to hover over the area, creating an atmosphere of fear and psychological trauma, with several families forced to live under constant threat of attack.
According to the BYC, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media division of the Pakistani military, attempted to justify the killings by labelling the victims as “insurgents” which the rights body described as “a common narrative” used to cover up state-perpetrated atrocities against the Baloch people.
“This incident is part of the ongoing policy of collective punishment against civilian populations in Balochistan. For months, the entire district of Khuzdar, including Zehri, has been under a complete internet shutdown. This deliberate communication blackout prevents the outside world from learning about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Balochistan,” the BYC asserted.
“The lack of independent media access allows the Pakistani state to commit atrocities with impunity, silencing the voices of survivors and the families of victims. This systematic targetting of civilians amounts to a war crime and forms part of the larger Baloch genocide — a campaign of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and now aerial bombardments, unfolding under an information blackout,” it added.
Condemning the attack as an act of “state terrorism” carried out by the Pakistani security forces, another human rights body, Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ), stated that the victims were not insurgents but were ordinary civilians.
“The attack is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. It follows a pattern of collective punishment through enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and now aerial bombardments. With Khuzdar under a deliberate internet blackout, the world is kept blind to these crimes,” said the rights body.
Asserting that the use of fighter jets and drones against unarmed civilians is a “war crime”, the BVJ called on the United Nations and Amnesty International to break the silence and investigate the atrocities by the Pakistani forces.
–IANS
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