Quetta, June 11 (IANS) Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) chief Allah Nazar Baloch has said that the resistance of people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) against Pakistani and Punjabi domination demonstrates that “oppressed nations cannot be subjugated by force,” local media reported on Thursday.

In a statement, the BLF leader mentioned that Pakistan could no longer impose their decisions on the people of PoK, adding that the struggle of Kashmiris was an expression of their demand for basic rights and freedom. He said that Punjab’s authority and domination continued in PoK, adding that the decisions regarding the region were being taken by the secretary-level officials in Islamabad instead of people of the region, The Balochistan Post reported.

Allah Nazar Baloch stressed that resistance to Punjab’s domination was the right of oppressed nations and expressed support for PoK’s struggle for the right to sovereignty and freedom. He said that the struggle for freedom was the duty of oppressed regions.

“We morally and politically support the freedom struggle of Kashmiris, Pashtuns and Sindhis,” The Balochistan Post quoted him as saying.

BLF chief’s remarks come after several reports indicated that dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured as deadly clashes took place between the law enforcement personnel and protesters in the Rawalakot city of PoK.

The clashes were reported days after the Pakistani authorities declared Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) a proscribed group under anti-terrorism laws. The JAAC had previously also held protests in PoK over economic issues and political rights.

Videos which went viral on social media showed the brutality unleashed by Pakistani police personnel against citizens of the occupied territory and received wide condemnation from human rights activists all over the world.

UK-based Pakistani-origin human rights lawyer Sabine Kayani had also criticised the Pakistani authorities’ handling of the unrest in POK.

In a post on X, she stated that peaceful protesters were seeking “bread, electricity, dignity” but got “live fire, clouds of tear gas” that choked the streets in return.

“They (people of PoK) demanded bread, electricity, dignity, and those rights stolen from their rivers and their future. They marched against the crippling electricity bills generated by their own dams, against subsidies vanishing into far-off pockets, and against a system that treats them as mere tenants on their ancestral land. The response came in the form of live fire and clouds of tear gas that choked the streets. Funerals turned into scenes of further violence, with reports of elders, women, and young men listed as martyrs—shot down as they buried their dead. Pakistan’s army, under the command of General Asim Munir, stands accused of turning grief into a massacre,” Kayani stated.

–IANS

akl/as