China is Pakistan's strategic partner in killing Balochis: BNM

New York: The Baloch National Movement (BNM) has said that Beijing is supporting Pakistan in the mass killing of the Balochi people courtesy the China Pakistan Corridor Project (CPEC).

"China is Pakistan's strategic partner in the economic plundering and mass murder of Baloch civilians particularly in the coastal belt of the Makran region of Balochistan. The deep sea port of Gwadar has been sold to China for military buildup and expansion into the Arabian Sea," read a statement issued regarding the joint protest of Baloch and Sindhi activists held outside the United Nations to condemn the Pakistani atrocities and the 'ongoing military operations' in Sindh and Balochistan.

The statement further said, "The 47 billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a death trap for the Baloch people in the name of development. An estimated 300,000 Baloch tribal and coastal population has been forced out of their ancestral lands and fishing villages to make room for the Chinese and their security establishment."

Highlighting the rampant human rights violations in the region, the statement said, "Since 2003, more than 20,000 Baloch political activists have gone missing, illegally abducted by the Pakistani state security forces and their death squads. The victims of enforced disappearances are being tortured and executed in custody in thousands and their lifeless, mutilated, bullet-riddled bodies are then dumped in the fields."

"The Pakistan army soldiers and helicopter gunships attack civilian settlements and villages on regular basis across Balochistan and entire populations are forced to migrate leaving behind a trail of burned down houses and bodies of executed youth," it added.

The protestors appealed to the United States and the international community to support their demands for freedom, peace, and justice.

They also condemned the recent terror attack on an Indian Army base camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir and alleged that Pakistan is responsible for the incident as well as for the Pathankot air base attack that happened earlier this year in January.

"We condemn the barbaric terror attack on the Uri camp in Jammu and Kashmir in which 17 soldiers of the 12th Brigade of the Indian Army lost their lives. The recent attack and the earlier one at the Pathankot Indian Air Force Base in January 2016 are part of Pakistan's policy of aggression, employing terrorist methods and outfits to escalate war in the region," it said.

They also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, "The Baloch people have welcomed and are grateful for the support extended by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at such a critical juncture when our nation is struggling to be free from the illegal military occupation of Pakistan since 1948.