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| `Silence Balochistan` is Pakistan policy | | 
By Farooq Ganderbali
The manner in which the Pakistani state brought all its might to shut down an innocuous talk by a Baloch human rights activist at the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) reveals the true nature of the state and its policies towards its own people. It is no secret that the Punjabi-dominated state has always harboured deep resentment against ethnic and religious minorities. But the Punjabi state, and the army, have been particularly aggressive about pushing Baloch people into extinction. It has been a half-century long project.
This was exhibited in a small but significant measure early April when the ISI asked LUMS to cancel a talk by Baloch human rights activist Abdul Qadeer Baloch, known as Mama Qadeer. He has been working on the issue of disappearances of Baloch people over the years. These disappearance were caused by Pakistan Army’s brutal campaign to subjugate and silence the proud people of Baloch since 1947. The cancellation was not even done subtly. A team of ISI men walked into LUMS a day before the talk and told the organisers that the talk had to be called off. The ISI goons brooked no argument; they said the directive was final.
The reason for this hatred and animosity could be traced back to the fact that in 1947 the Baloch people refused to join Pakistan and wanted an independent nation. They argued that they had nothing in common with the Punjabis and Sindhis who fought and gained Pakistan by dividing India. They had different history, culture and traditions and would rather live apart from Pakistan. In mid-1948, Pakistan Army walked into Balochistan and annexed it with force, creating the present insurgency. Since then Pakistan, both the civilians and the military, adopted a policy of repression and ``kill and dump`` became the key weapon.
Several thousand Baloch have been either brutally killed or made to disappear over the years. There is no exact count of the dead or the disappeared persons. The closest estimate made by a Baloch group is between 2000 to 20000 since 2000. There is no count of the victims before that. It could only be guessed that since Baloch have been subjected to brutality and military suppression since 1947, their number could be in five figures.
There has been an unprecedented spike in the killings since the Musharraf days. Two reasons could be cited. The General, full of himself after the US wooed him to fight the war against terror after the 2001 attacks, was bent up on cleaning up Balochistan of its indigenous people. He not only launched a massive military campaign against own people but also began settling Sindhis and Punjabis in and around Gwadar, a port developed by China. Musharraf had dreams of turning Gwadar into Dubai and the only people who came in his way were the Baloch people. The Baloch wanted their share of development. Not only were they subjected to extreme punishment for being ethnically different from Punjabis but their natural right to the resources of their land were denied to them. There is considerable gas reserves in the area and the gas extracted from there is transported to distant Karachi and Punjab towns, leaving the Baloch as one of the most underprivileged and poor citizens. The Baloch demand for a share in the gas revenue was always met with artillery guns and bombings.
The brutality has been so rampant that it does not make news any more. The media, which otherwise claims to be free, remains wedded to the army’s viewpoint that all Baloch were rebels, nuisance makers and are harming the country at the behest of foreign powers, read India.
Now the Chinese have promised $45 billion investment to link up Gwadar with Kashgar, an extraordinarily ambitious plan to outflank India and reach to the warm waters of Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. The only stumbling block are the Baloch people. They are determined not to let the land of forefathers go to foreigners and outsiders. They cite Karachi as a case. There is a logic. Karachi was once called the Pearl of the East, a sophisticated city of culture and learning and was therefore chosen as the capital of Pakistan when it came into existence. Since the Punjabi Mafia which rules Pakistan was not comfortable with the idea of a Sindhi city as the capital, they created a new capital in Islamabad in the heartland of Punjab and shifted there. Karachi then slowly fell into the hands of criminal syndicates and refugees and today it is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
The Baloch fear the same for Gwadar and other areas in Balochistan. Even their own city, Quetta became out of bounds for ordinary Baloch people after the Taliban leadership was housed there by Pakistan Army. But it is the Chinese investment and the grandiose plans of Dubai and Middle East that is at the heart of the merciless campaign launched by Pakistan Army hand in glove with the civilian leadership . In fact, Balochistan is one issue on which both agree and collaborate. The Chinese don’t want trouble and they want the Baloch either defeated or out of their way if the money were to flow. The Chinese perhaps, like the Americans, are not given to learning from history. The Baloch people, like the Pashtuns, have never been defeated totally. Second, If they were to ask their friend, Russians, they could let them know that their misadventure in Afghanistan, which cost them a nation, began with the principle objective of getting access to the waters of Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. The Arabian Sea, like the mountainous areas of Afghanistan, has been a graveyard of empires.
Returning to Balochistan, the killings and disappearances had risen so dramatically since 1999 even the Supreme Court of Pakistan was forced to take notice and action. The move, however, did not bring any relief to the Baloch people but made them suffer even more. It was however the court’s directions and the events that unfolded in Pakistan that attracted some attention in the global arena about the plight of Balochistan. In August 2014, the International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch asked the Pakistan's government "to stop the deplorable practice of state agencies abducting hundreds of people throughout the country without providing information about their fate or whereabouts." Early this year, in March, Amnesty International USA, accused the government of Pakistan of sponsoring a "systematic policy of enforced disappearances, torture, and executions on Baloch people." But these were mere words and there were no talk of sanctions.
This is what must be done. The UN should call for a special session on the atrocities on indigenous people in Balochistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. Like in some African countries, and Sri Lanka, the UN set up a special fact-finding committee or task force to investigate the Baloch case and recommend suitable actions. Till then, The international community must use diplomatic and political instruments to pressure Pakistan to engage the Baloch in a dialogue and stop all military and intelligence operations against them. The US must stop all weapons deals with Pakistan. So should other countries, including Russia.
(The author is a Freelance Journalist and columnist)
(Opinions expressed in write-ups/articles/Letters are the sole responsibility of the authors and they may not represent the Scoop News)
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