Himanta Biswa Sarma slams Pakistan over Balochistan 'extrajudicial killings'

The “systematic extrajudicial killings” in Balochistan remain one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan’s human rights record, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma alleged on May 2.

Organisations such as the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) estimate that over 20,000 people have disappeared in the Pakistan province, with hundreds of bodies recovered under suspicious and brutal circumstances, Sarma said.

''The systematic extrajudicial killings in Balochistan — commonly known as the ‘kill and dump policy’ — remain one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan’s human rights record.

''For years, the Baloch people have endured a ruthless campaign of enforced disappearances, where students, activists, teachers, and intellectuals are abducted by state agencies, subjected to torture, and later found dead in remote ravines or discarded along desolate roads,'' the CM said in a post on X.

Sarma alleged that this ''inhumane practice has become the very face of state-sponsored terror in Balochistan — where families, instead of hope, receive the battered and mutilated bodies of their loved ones''.

It was against this ''grim backdrop that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, during his 2016 Independence Day address, broke the silence long maintained by the global community'', he claimed.

''Referring to the ‘rivers of red’ flowing through Balochistan, he (the PM) gave voice to a people denied justice and dignity, affirming that India stands firmly with the oppressed and the silenced. His words carried not only moral clarity, but also international weight — bringing overdue attention to a crisis Pakistan has tried to keep hidden,'' Sarma said.

''Many show signs of severe torture, pointing to a systematic policy of silencing dissent through fear and violence. This is no longer a regional or political issue — it is a humanitarian emergency,'' the chief minister asserted.

Sarma has been regularly posting against Pakistan on social media since the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 in which 26 tourists were killed.