Balochistan has undergone several periods of open armed conflict since the Pakistani armed forces intervened to end Qalat’s independence in 1948. Fighting resumed again in 2004. Since then, this region has been turned into one of the world’s most dangerous regions for journalists by you, the armed separatist groups and the militias created to defend the central Pakistani government.
Reporters Without Borders accuses you, the Baloch armed groups, of the following crimes:
- Imposing terror, creating information “black holes” in southwestern Pakistan and turning the city of Khuzdar into one of the world’s most dangerous places for the media.
- Constantly threatening news providers and their families in order to force them to censor themselves.
- Threatening news media and their reporters with reprisals if they give you “negative” coverage or if they refuse to report your activities and public statements.
- Carrying out bombings, the aims of which have included killing journalists who go to cover the targeted events.
- Killing many journalists, including Mehmood Ahmed Afridi of the newspaper Intikhab, Abdul Haq Baluch of ARY News TV, Abdul Qadir Hajizai of Vsh TV, and Faiz Muhammad Sasoli of the daily Aaj Kal and the Independent News agency.
You should be called to account for these gross violations of freedom of information, which contravene article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Here is another excerpt from the same people
“The Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and, especially, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are involved in many cases of surveillance, kidnapping, torture and murder of journalists. “