A human rights body in Pakistan has accused authorities of pursuing a systematic campaign of militarisation and repression in Balochistan, where violence and displacement have become part of civilians’ everyday lives. The rights body said that the discovery of mutilated bodies of Baloch civilians abandoned along roadsides reflects the brutality and inhumanity of the violence.

Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating situation in Balochistan’s Mastung district, the rights body said that orchards which provide livelihoods to thousands of people in the region now face destruction under what it described as a state policy, threatening both land and livelihoods. It said such incidents cannot be brushed aside as collateral damage but must be seen as the human cost of a policy imposed on the people of Balochistan by Pakistani authorities.