AIR to launch website, app for Baluchi audience

APP WILL STRENGTHEN THE RADIO SERVICE, RUN BY THE EXTERNAL SERVICES DIVISION OF ALL INDIA RADIO

NEW DELHI: India is determined to keep the heat on Pakistan on the Balochistan issue in all possible ways.

Four decades after it started a Baluchi language service, public broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) is aiming to widen its reach by launching an app and an interactive website to reach the people who speak the language across the world. The move comes days after New Delhi took up the issue for the first time at the United Nations Human Rights Council as India and Pakistan continue their war of words.

The website and the app launched on Friday are an attempt to connect with Baluchi-speaking diaspora. The initiative is in line with India’s concerted effort to focus attention on human rights violations in Balochistan.

In retaliation to Pakistan’s interference in J&K, India has announced it would raise the issue of human rights violations in Balochistan at various international fora. New Delhi also said it would keep at it so long as the human rights violations and repressions continue in Balochistan.

“Till the time Balochistan faces repression, and human rights violations continue there, India will raise the issue,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Sources in the information and broadcasting ministry said the app and the website will strengthen the radio service, which includes news, views and general entertainment programmes run by the external services division of AIR.

“The existing service, which started in May 1974, was available only to Baluchi speaking listeners in India, but the app and the website will allow audiences across the globe to access content put out by the Indian broadcaster,” a source said.