The Baloch National Movement (BNM) has slammed the Pakistan army of sex crimes, blaring out that garrisons from Rawalpindi were targeting Baloch women with rape and torture. In a June 17 statement, the movement raised the alarm that for the past several days, the Pak army was on a rampage, brutalising ordinary men, women and children during operations in the Keelkor area of Panjgur in Balochistan.

According to the Baloch News, during this military assault on people, the Pakistani army brutally raped about a dozen women. A girl’s father was shot dead for resisting. This incident of cruelty and violence took place in the village of Naksali Keelkor.

The occupying forces have forced the majority of the population of Keelkor, including Shaheed Murad Mohammad Bazaar, to flee to Aidi, Janchop and Nakshali reports Sangar publications which calls itself a Media group of Occupied Balochistan. 

According to this paper, Amir Murad, an 11-year-old boy, was raped by the Pakistani army a few weeks ago in the Hoshap area adjacent to Keelkor. Last month, women were also sexually assaulted in Mashkay, and their families threatened, and asked to remain silent. There are many such incidents but the victims and their families are terrified to talk due to systematic intimidation by the Pakistani army. The statement by the BNM further stated that in Awaran last month, Noorjan committed suicide after being asked to present his daughter at a military camp.

In another incident, Gwahram son of Nadil was abducted by the Pakistani army on June 11 and four days later, on June 15, his family was called and asked to take Gwahram's body.  

"In the last two days, the home of a Baloch activist with women and children has been under siege by Pakistan’s FC forces,” says one Baloch community member. 

According to the Baloch activists of BNM, the Pakistani army’s operations are in the areas of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. Several military camps and cantonments have been set up in and around Keelkor. “Enforced disappearances, military operations and violence are commonplace. Now they have created rape bases. Incidents of keeping local women and children as sex slaves in these bases have begun to a daily routine.”

Many activists are asserting that since 2003, more than 23,000 activists, students, lawyers, women, journalists, writers and human rights defenders have disappeared following hits by the Pakistani death squads.

In January, the same publication revealed that a Pakistan Army General has admitted China's role in "crushing" the Baloch freedom movement in Pakistan, saying Beijing has given him a six-month task to end the freedom struggle by Baloch people.

"China has deployed me here to crush the Baloch movement and has given me a six-month task,” said Ayman Bilal, Major general of the Pakistani Army adding, ‘"China has paid me a salary and a large sum of money and officially posted me here for their regional interests and to thwart Iran's conspiracies against CPEC, as it is a kind of investment in regional interests," he said.

 Ayman Bilal, a Major General, who is the Inspector General of Frontier Corps (FC), Balochistan South boasted about his role during a jirga (a traditional assembly of leaders) at the FC headquarters in Turbat in January. 

Also Read: Pak General blames China for crushing Baloch freedom movement to save CPEC

According to Pakistani sources, Islamabad is trying hard for fast-tracking CPEC projects by launching a crackdown on human rights activists of Gilgit-Baltistan and Baloch nationalists. For that, the Pakistani army has raised a few special formations. The reports said that Pakistan has constituted three divisions in the army to guard the CPEC. Apart from Pakistani soldiers, Chinese intelligence personnel have also been stationed in Pakistan for guarding CPEC, flagship of Beijing’s ultra-ambitious, pan-Eurasian, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Chinese and Pakistani security forces have already launched an all-out attack on Baloch nationalist groups, including the Baloch Liberation Army and the Baloch Republican Army. 

"Many villages have been destroyed and the Pakistan army has done aerial bombardment on the route of the CPEC project. Thousands of families are forced to migrate and live-in different areas. Many people have been killed and detained in torture cells. These brutalities are continued on a daily basis in Balochistan," said the BNM a statement.