Mar 24, 2010

Balochistan: More than 3000 people killed in Pakistan in 2009, the Human Rights Commission on Pakist


Sample ImageTarget killing and kidnapping include the murder of three Baloch Nationalist leaders, as a result of the violence more than 40,000 Balochs are still internally displaced today.
Below is an article published by CCTV.com

ISLAMABAD, March 22 (Xinhua) -- At least 3,021 people were killed and 7,334 others injured in 2,586 incidents of terrorism that took place in various parts of Pakistan in 2009, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said Monday. In its annual report confided to Xinhua, the full text of which is expected to be released on Tuesday, the HRCP states that among the killed, 647 were women who were victim of honor killing. About one-third (1,296 people) of the total killed were perished in 108 incidents of suicide attacks. The report also shed light on other incidents of violence such as target killing and kidnapping. In April 2009, the murder of three Baloch nationalist leaders sparked a massive wave of protests all over Balochistan, the volatile and mine-rich province of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan. At least 16 people were killed and many others injured in different incidents of shooting during the protest, the report stated. Some 164 incidents of target killings took place in Balochistan, in which 118 citizens and 158 security officials were killed while 83 citizens and seven security officials were injured. In the eastern province of Punjab, 224 cases of kidnap for ransom took place during 2009. At least 163 persons were kidnapped in the southeastern province of Sindh, 241 in Balochistan and 592 in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) during the year. In various incidents of violence, 747 people were killed in Pakistan's largest southern city of Karachi, and out of them, 291 were victims of target killing. HRCP report suggested that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly from Pakistan's tribal areas, swelled in the wake of military operations in Swat, South Waziristan, Bajaur, Orakzai and adjacent areas in the country. At the end of 2009, there were 1.25 million IDPs including 500,000 children, the report stated. Nearly 40,000 IDPs of Balochistan returned to their homes in 2009, while more than 40,000 were still displaced. Only 50,000 Afghan refugees were repatriated to Afghanistan in 2009 as the process slowed down, owing to bad security situation in the country. There still were 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The movement of ordinary citizens residing in the insurgency- stricken areas of Swat, Malakand and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan was seriously affected, HRCP stated. As several conflict-affected areas were declared out-of-bounds for aid workers, many NGOs kept their workers away from these regions. Since 1987, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has developed to become a broad-spectrum, countrywide human rights body. HRCP publishes its reports on human rights' status in Pakistan every year.