BYC rejects CTD allegations, calls accusations "suppression, not counter-terrorism": Sammi Deen Baloch

Quetta (Balochistan) [Pakistan], January 10 (ANI): Baloch activist Sammi Deen Baloch has strongly rejected the Counter Terrorism Department's (CTD) allegations against the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), saying the accusations have been circulated in the media without evidence or judicial scrutiny. In her post on X, she stated that BYC is a peaceful, rights-based political movement rooted in human dignity and public mobilisation, and currently holds significant public support in Balochistan.
She said the organisation works openly and publicly, focusing on documenting enforced disappearances, organising peaceful protests, and advocating for families who have been denied arrests, charges, trials, or even confirmation about the fate of their loved ones.
Sammi said the claim that BYC functions as a platform for terrorist recruitment has been made without proof and follows a pattern where demands for accountability are reframed as threats. According to her, when victims organise, they are portrayed as suspects, which she described as suppression rather than counter-terrorism.
She argued that if any individual has committed a crime, the law already exists to arrest and prosecute them, but instead, the state has chosen to make allegations through media narratives, endangering an entire peaceful movement.
Highlighting the suffering of Baloch youth, she said they have grown up facing enforced disappearances, killings, and an uncertain future. She warned that terms such as "rehabilitation" and "internment" are not neutral, and have often been used to justify detention without charge, oversight, or consent. According to her, rebranding unlawful confinement does not make it lawful. She stressed that when a state begins labelling human rights activism as terrorism, it is no longer solving a security issue but exposing a governance failure and an inability to tolerate scrutiny or dissent.
Sammi reaffirmed that BYC will continue its peaceful and public organising, continue documenting enforced disappearances, and continue speaking for families whom the state would prefer to remain silent. She concluded by saying the real question now is not whether citizens are being criminalised, but why demanding to know the whereabouts of the disappeared has itself been turned into a crime. (ANI)