Baloch Liberation Front Chief Slams Arundhati Roy For Praising Pakistani Army, Lists Its Human Right Violations

The Baloch Liberation Front Chief Dr Allah Nazar Baloch has slammed controversial author-activist Arundhati Roy for praising the Pakistani Army in a video targeting the Indian establishment.

In the 2011 video which recently began recirculating on social media, Roy accused India of being a “colonial state waging war against its people. In the same breath she claimed that Pakistan has never deployed its army against its people.

Dr Baloch who is fighting for the independence of Balochistan thus criticised Roy for disregarding the brutality of the Pakistani military and listed out the crimes it committed against people in Balochistan.

In the statement released by Daily Sangar, Dr Baloch said that he used to think Roy was a human rights activist who would one day speak up about the serious human rights violations being committed in Balochistan. A disappointed Dr Baloch added that instead of doing so, Roy decided to remain ignorant about the ground realities.

He pointed out how Pakistani army invaded Balochistan and began a genocide of the Baloch people which continues to this day. He listed the brutality of the Pakistani army leading up to the 1971 war, when lakhs of Bengali women were raped.

Speaking further Dr Baloch reminded Roy of the military rule imposed time and again in Pakistan and the excesses against the Pashtun people where “millions are under siege in the military-sponsored camps”.

He thus expressed bafflement over Roy’s statement about Pakistan army not being used against its own people.

“Her statement not only makes her commitment to human rights questionable but also shows the complete disregard of Pakistan's history. If a person like Arundhati Roy shuts her eyes on Pakistan’s conduct and forms her self-righteous opinion, then surely she is oblivious of her responsibilities”, said Baloch.