LAHORE, Aug 7: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) slammed on Wednesday the execution-style killing of 13 labourers in Balochistan, reportedly hailing from Punjab who were returning home to celebrate Eid.

In a statement, the HRCP said: “The HRCP is appalled by the cold-blooded killing of 13 labourers by insurgents in Mach area of Balochistan.

An insurgent group that is reported to have claimed responsibility for the attack has sought to justify the heinous act by claiming that the men worked for the security forces.

However, the local police reports contradict that claim. And quite apart from all that, it has been established that the 13 men who had been forced out of passenger buses and abducted by insurgents were all unarmed.

Their subsequent execution-style killing is as horrific as it is condemnable and demonstrates further brutalization and desperation in the insurgents’ ranks.

While HRCP has repeatedly reiterated its calls for respect for human rights in Balochistan, those calls are certainly not addressed only to the security forces in the conflict-hit parts of the province. The HRCP believes that those claiming to struggle for realization of their rights must also show respect for the fundamental rights of others and at all cost desist from committing grave human rights violations.

Those indulging in premeditated killing must understand that such acts erode whatever sympathy the people have for their cause inside the country or outside. The HRCP hopes and expects that all right respecting people, in Balochistan, elsewhere in Pakistan and beyond, will slam the brutal murders.

The HRCP calls upon the government to take all reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure protection of the right to life of all people in Balochistan, irrespective of their ethnicity.

It also calls for perpetrators of the labourers’ killing in Mach to be brought to justice. It urges the authorities once again to redouble efforts to restore peace and the writ of the state in Balochistan through political means and only rely on the use of force as a last resort.