Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

The people of Balochistan are facing a “ruthless campaign” of “state-sponsored terrorism” from the Pakistani authorities, the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said on Friday. In a detailed statement posted on ‘X’, Mr. Sarma recollected the suppression of the Baloch nationalist movement and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi “gave voice” to the people of Balochistan by extending support to the Baloch liberation movement in 2016.

“Systematic extrajudicial killings in Balochistan — commonly known as ‘kill and dump’ — 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 were abducted by state agencies, subjected to torture, and later found dead in remote ravines or discarded along desolate roads,” said Chief Minister Sarma.

The Assam Chief Minister’s remarks on Balochistan are the latest addition to official-level verbal exchanges between India and Pakistan since the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam that India blamed on Pakistan-based terrorists. Prime Minister Modi had taken up the cause of the Baloch in his Independence Day speech in 2016 after a spike in terror attacks targeting Indian military installations. The year witnessed several terror attacks in Kashmir, including Pathankot (2 January 2016), and Uri (18 September 2016). The Prime Minister had said the people of Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir had “expressed their good wishes” to him.

Mr. Sarma recalled the PM’s gesture in 2016 and said, “It was in 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. Referring to the ‘rivers of red’ flowing through Balochistan, he gave voice to a people denied justice and dignity, affirming that India stands firmly with the oppressed and the silenced.”

Chief Minister Sarma has in recent months been protesting remarks perceived to be against India’s security interests. Earlier in March, he criticised remarks by the Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh, Prof. Mohammed Yunus, who described the northeastern states of India as “landlocked” and called on China to extend its market to the region. Mr. Sarma had termed these remarks as “offensive.”