Bashir Ahmad Baloch
Historically, Balochistan has been a sovereign state for nearly three hundred years. It also attracted foreign invasions from Asia and the Middle East due to its strategic importance. Wary of any encroachment in their lives and freedoms, the people of Balochistan offered fierce resistance to the invaders.
Balochistan’s sovereignty was compromised with the arrival of the British in the region, in the early 19th century, who over time strengthened their influence in the region and subsequently divided and merged Balochistan into three different states.
As a consequence, today, the major part of Balochistan is being controlled by Pakistan and Iran. In both countries, the once free and proud Baloch are compelled to live a life without what all regard as necessities of life. Lack of quality education, employment, potable water, health care, infrastructure, and freedom of speech describes the lives of Baloch.
Although Balochistan is considered one of the richest of lands in mineral and sea resources, its people are excluded from its benefits as the major ethnic groups in Iran and Pakistan have been exploiting these resources for decades to meet their politico-economic needs.
To make things worst, Pakistan has been among one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world where ethnic minorities like Baloch are suffering some of the most severe and systematic abuses of human rights for decades in the wake of their struggle for a sovereign state to safeguard their existence as a national entity.
Nearly every family in Balochistan has witnessed grave brutalities by the Pakistani establishment in one way or the other, as ongoing military operations have engulfed the entire Balochistan. The Pakistani army is conducting deadly military operations across Balochistan intending to counter the Baloch national struggle but it has failed to subdue the aspirations of the Baloch. The army avoids confronting Baloch freedom fighters and instead wreaks vengeance on civilians.
The Pakistani authorities in recent times have opted to employ different and more repressive measures to bring an end to the nationalist resistance of the Baloch people. The enforced disappearances of Baloch civilians, political and human rights activists are common in Balochistan and continue with impunity. Many of the Baloch victims of enforced disappearances were subjected to extreme torture and extra-judicial murder as part of Pakistan’s infamous “Kill and Dump Policy”.
According to estimates provided by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) and international rights organization Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC), at least 20,000 people have been forcibly disappeared since 2000, and around 7000 were extra-judicially killed by Pakistani security forces.
The state military is openly involved in conducting collective punishment against the family members of Baloch activists, burning their houses and forcibly abducting women and children, and unlawfully keeping them in torture cells for an indefinite period.
The Pak-China projects such as the CPEC have contributed to further economic exclusion of the Baloch and in increased brutalities to pave way for the implementation of CPEC projects. The naval base in the strategic port city of Gwadar has added fuel to the fire. The state authorities have geared up to fence Gwadar which has validated the concerns of Baloch peoples of being displaced from Gwadar, as Pakistan has adopted an even more colonial approach in Balochistan.
Like any repressive state, Pakistan is actively monitoring its opposition abroad. The situation has become horrible for Baloch activists who are exiled in the western world in recent years after the prominent Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain was killed in mysterious circumstances in Sweden and Karima Baloch in Canada. It is extremely concerning for Baloch people that they are not safe anywhere. It clearly shows that the Pakistani establishment can also target Baloch activists who are living in Europe and Canada.
In given grievous conditions, Baloch people are right to ask the civilized world and the champions of human rights like the United Nations and the European Union to stand up to Pakistan’s atrocities in Balochistan.
The world must not as a political necessity, overlook the Pakistani military’s barbarism in Balochistan, bearing in mind that the Baloch is fighting for a sovereign and secular country which is in the better interests of the civilized world and can contribute to promoting international peace and security.
The writer is a political and human rights activist living in exile in Germany. He is affiliated with the Baloch Voice Association as its coordinator in Germany. He has been raising human rights issues facing the Baloch with various international bodies including the UN, EU, and Deutsche Welle.
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