Mr. Habib Jalib Baloch, former senator from the Pakistani province of Balochistan and secretary general of UNPO Member organization the Balochistan National Party (BNP), was killed by two gunmen near his home in Quetta on 14 July 2010. Jalib, a former Supreme Court lawyer, was sitting at his brother’s shop when he was approached by two persons on a motorbike and gunned down. While the identities of the gunmen were not immediately clear, a manhunt has been launched and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has ordered a judicial inquiry into the killing.

The killing has drawn condemnation from across Pakistan and set off widespread demonstrations in the province. The BNP has called for 40 days of mourning over the murder of its leader, along with three days of strike.

Mr. Jalib was an active leader of the Baloch movement. He was elected chairman of the Baloch Students Organization (BSO) in the 1970s, and later went on to found the Balochistan Progressive Alliance (which merged with the Balochistan National Movement). He served twice as the secretary general of the BNP. A special report on the killing by newspaper The Baloch Hal highlighted Mr. Jalib’s faith in “peaceful, constitutional change,” and asserted that the people of Balochistan will be unable to view his murder in isolation from the killing of nationalist politicians, the forced disappearance of many youth, and the “denial of the people’s right to be the masters in their land and to the control of their natural resources.”

Writing in the same publication, UNPO Balochistan associate Sen. Sanaullah Baloch described Mr. Jalib as a widely-respected and committed defender of human rights with a clear sense of Baloch nationalism, and stated that his murder and a number of similar actions against Baloch leaders since 2006 are “a fraction of systematic and slow-motion ‘genocide’ in Balochistan, a process that has been taking place since 1948.”

Balochistan, a province situated in southwestern Pakistan, has experienced severe repression at the hands of the Pakistani military. Human Rights Watch (2007) reports that hundreds of political activists have been arbitrarily detained and disappeared in Balochistan, and torture of political opponents by security forces has become routine. The Balochistan National Party, a UNPO Member organization comprised of political, intellectual and cultural leaders from Balochistan, has brought together a diverse range of societal groups on a platform of national self-determination for the people of Balochistan.

UNPO General Secretary, Mr. Marino Busdachin condemned the assassination, which he described as “not only tragic for his family, friends and Baloch supporters within the region and worldwide, but also cowardly in its intent to silence a voice that spoke up for a marginalized and disenfranchised people”.