Modi’s photos, Indian flags spotted as protests continue in Balochistan
BALOCGHISTAN : Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about atrocities being carried out on the people of Balochistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), Baloch ‘freedom fighters’ on Wednesday held a protest in support of PM Modi’s statement. On Wednesday, several freedom fighters raised the Indian national flag and held a demonstration in support of Indian PM Modi’s stand on human rights violations in Balochistan.
The protestors were seen carrying pictures of Narendra Modi and deceased Baloch martyr and freedom fighter Akbar Bugti. The masked protesters carried placards reading ‘Stop Baloch Genocide’ and were also seen trampling the Pakistani flag.Protests have been continuing in the region for the past four days in Sui, Dera Bugti, Jafarabad and Nasirabad among other locations in Balochistan.
Last week, Balochistan chief minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and commander of southern command Lieutenant General Aamir Riaz said that they would welcome Baloch leaders’ return to the country, according to a report published in Dawn. The invite was extended at the national flag-hoisting ceremony at the Quaid-i-Azam Residency in Ziarat, a district in Balochistan, on the occasion of the 70th Independence Day celebrations of Pakistan on Sunday.
Zehri also invited the self-exiled Baloch leaders to come back to Pakistan. On August 15, in a first for any Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi referred to human rights abuses in Balochistan+ and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“The world is watching. People of Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have thanked me a lot in the past few days. I am grateful to them,” Modi said, referring to his comments last week on excesses in Pakistan’s Balochistan and PoK. He said the way people from these Pakistani regions “wished me well, gives me great joy”.
