KARACHI, July 10: Baloch nationalist parties and social organizations staged a rally here on Monday to condemn the ongoing military operation in the Bugti and Marri areas of Balochistan, and urged the international human rights organisations to take notice of ‘massive human rights violation’ by the armed forces.

They claimed that in the latest aerial bombardment, a large number of people, including women and children, had perished.

Carrying banners and placards, the protesters chanted slogans against the government and asked the international community to help stop killing of Baloch people.

The demonstrators, a large number of them youth, women and children, gathered outside the Karachi Press Club where they were joined in by the family members of the arrested or missing Baloch activists. The protesters alleged that the missing people had been ‘kidnapped ‘ by government agencies from different parts of Balochistan and other provinces.

The rally, which was organised by the Baloch Prisoners Release Committee, was also joined in by activists of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Baloch National Movement, Baloch Rights Council, Baloch Students Organisation, Baloch Unity Conference and National Party.

Addressing the protesters, leaders of these parties and organisations condemned the bombardment in Kohlu and Kahan, as well as the alleged attempts on the lives of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and certain other leaders, saying that the government had crossed all limits in unleashing atrocities on the people of Balochistan.

Pointing out that innocent people were being picked up and tortured by government agencies, they accused the government of committing ‘genocide of Baloch people’ in their own province through the armed forces.

Describing the current situation as grim, they urged all political forces in the country, as well as international organisations to help stop the military operation which had already left hundreds of people dead and forced a large number of Baloch families to flee their ancestral land.

Khuda Bakhsh Baloch and Zahid Barakzai of the BPRC, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch of BNP, Shehzad Zafar Jan of JWP, Jawad Baloch of BSO and Abdul Wahab Baloch of BRC were among those who spoke at the rally.