Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement chairman Sohail Ahmed Abro has told the Balochistan conference in Geneva that Balochistan was a free and sovereign state for centuries and was occupied by the Pakistan Army on 27 March 1948, as happened with Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and other parts of the subcontinent.
He was speaking at the 12th Balochistan International Conference, organised by the Baloch National Movement. He has represented Sindh at United Nations Human Rights Council programmes in Geneva.
Sohail Abro said Balochistan is a land of sorrow, although it possesses uranium, minerals, the Saindak Project, the Reko Diq Project, the Dadhar Project, the Dalbandin Project, coal mines, gas and a vast coastline. Pakistani imperialism is concerned not with the people of Balochistan but with its minerals and land.
He said more than 30,000 Baloch are forcibly disappeared, and their genocide continues. Over the years more than 8,000 Baloch have been killed. Recently the Pakistan Air Force carried out bombardment in Surab.
He said Sindhis, Baloch, Pashtuns, Kashmiris, Gilgiti-Baltis and Saraikis are all oppressed nations under the occupation of Punjab and Pakistan.
Because all have the same enemy, he proposed international coordination, a joint strategy, a joint struggle and joint collaboration among all oppressed nations, “so that we can achieve our destinations of Sindhudesh, Azad Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Pashtoonistan, Azad Gilgit-Baltistan and Saraikistan in a timely manner.”
On this occasion he requested the United Nations to hold and arrange referendums on the right to self-determination and freedom in Balochistan as well as in Sindh, Pakhtunkhwa, Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Saraiki Waseb, “so that we may emerge as sovereign countries and become members of the United Nations.”
He ended his speech with a saying of Sain G. M. Syed: “Freedom is our right, freedom is possible, and one day we will achieve freedom.”