BALOCHISTAN IS A COUNTRY

Balochistan: Abused by Pakistan, looted by China

On 25 August, 39 people were killed when a Baloch outfit attacked police stations, railway lines and highways in a co-ordinated manner. 34 more were killed in retaliation by the Pakistani security forces.The 34 included Pakistani soldiers and police personnel and attackers. This happened in Pakistan’s south-western province of Balochistan.

The attacks continued through the night and into the next day. They were by far the most violent killings carried out in recent years by ethnic Baloch separatists, as the Pakistani State calls them. An armed group, called the Baloch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the killings, code named “Haruf”, meaning dark, windy storm.

That is the story so far. But that is far from the whole story. The Baloch have been systematically, clinically and brazenly exploited and discriminated against. Tortured by Pakistan’s “Punjabi” Army. Looted by China’s Communists. And hated by Iran’s clerics. Balochistan has become a land where anti-Punjabi, anti-Pakistan and anti-China sentiments converge.

Allegations are flying thick and fast. Pakistan claims that all the dead were civilians. But the B.L.A. says they were all Pakistani security personnel dressed in civilian clothes. Whether they were civilians or not is a moot point. But what is not disputed is that almost all the people who were killed were Punjabis — the name given to the people who hail from the Pakistani province of Punjab.
 
Some more things stand out. One, the timing of the attacks. And, two, the involvement of woman suicide-bombers. The attacks coincided with the death anniversary of a Baloch leader, Akbar Bugti. Bugti was killed by Pakistan’s security forces in 2006 when Gen. Pervez Musharraf was in power. Bugti’s killing fuelled the fifth and fiercest round of insurgency in Balochistan. And it continues to this day. The four previous insurgencies took place in 1948, 1958, 1968 and 1973.

The attacks also coincided with a visit to Pakistan by Gen. Li Qiaoming, the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Ground Forces. The Chinese General called on Pakistan’s President and Prime Minister and also held talks with Pakistan’s Army chief Gen. Asim Munir.  Pakistan conferred the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, one of its top honours, on the Chinese General.

The B.L.A. says a woman from the southern, port district of Gwadar was involved in a suicide-attack on a para-military base in Bela. The chief minister of Balochistan province is reported to have said that three people had been killed at the base.

The Punjabi Connection

The Baloch-versus-Punjabi ethnic fault line is a story that threatens to snowball into a wider conflict -– one that could have disastrous consequences for Pakistan. The Punjabis are the largest of the six, main, ethnic groups in Pakistan. They dominate the military and other arms of the Pakistani State.

The real estate in Balochistan is exploited by the rich, landed gentry from Lahore and other cities in the Punjab province. Simply put, the Punjabis are well-entrenched in Pakistani society. And, that is why the Baloch complain that their land has become a colony of the Punjabi elite.

Mehran Marri is a Baloch activist. He lives in the U.K. Marri voices a similar sentiment in an interview to a private Indian news agency, ANI. He says: “We, the Baloch, live a life of indignity and humiliation every day, at the hands of the Punjabis.” Marri says that Pakistan’s Punjabi elite supports Chinese activity in Balochistan.

He bets that Beijing will have to stop the China -– Pakistan Economic Corridor sooner rather than later because the project does more harm than good to the locals. “It’s like setting up a chocolate factory in Gaza and expecting it to work amidst war and terror,” he says.

The Baloch have other grievances, too. For one, Balochistan lags the rest of Pakistan insofar as education, employment and economic development are concerned. Baloch separatist groups, such as the B.L.A., say that they’ve been fighting for decades for a larger share in the regional wealth of mines and minerals denied by the Pakistani Government.

Then, there is the issue of enforced disappearances. The Counter Terrorist Department of the Government is accused of carrying out abductions and arbitrary killings. Locals say that the Department is notorious for its so-called death squads. They claim, that what is happening to them is a genocide under the guise of targeted killings.

A quick word about Balochistan and the Baloch people. People of Baloch ethnicity are present in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. They are Sunni Muslims. The Baloch society is organised along tribal lines. The Marri, Mengal and Bugti are the more prominent tribes. Balochistan borders Iran and Afghanistan.

It has a long, Arabian Sea coastline in the south, not far from the oil shipping lane in the Strait of Hormuz. Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan. It forms about 45 per cent of Pakistan’s total area. It is the richest province in terms of mineral wealth.

But, it is the least developed of the four provinces of Pakistan. And, it has the lowest per capita income in the country. The irony is that Balochistan contributes heavily to Pakistan’s G.D.P. but does not get a fair share of revenue. The province is home to key mining projects.

The Reko Diq Mine is famous for its gold and copper reserves. It is believed to have the world’s fifth-largest gold deposit. A Canada-based company called Barrick Gold operates the Reko Diq mine. Sui in Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest gas field but the gas it produces benefits the Punjab province.

Besides their dislike for the Punjabis, the Baloch have an animus towards China. Balochistan is home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine. China has invested 65 billion dollars in the China -– Pakistan Economic Corridor that passes through Balochistan and terminates at the Gwadar port. The Chinese have also monopolised fishing in the area.

Baloch groups have attacked Chinese interests and citizens in the province, and, elsewhere, in Pakistan. For instance, on 26 March 2024, a suicide-bomber killed at least five Chinese engineers working on a hydropower project in neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A B.L.A. fighter says that China entered Balochistan without the consent of the Baloch people and that the Chinese projects will fail miserably.

Besides China, there’s another country that makes the Baloch anxious — Iran. The Baloch are present in large numbers in an Iranian province called Sistan and Baluchestan. It suffers from neglect, too, much like the Balochistan province of Pakistan.

The ethnic Baloch population of Iran feels discriminated against by the majority Shia population. Iran fears that the Baloch are supported by elements in Pakistan. The Jaish ul-Adl, meaning Army of Justice, is a Baloch group active in the area.

What about the West?

The West has taken a particular stance on the issue. The U.S. State Department does not comment on the continued repression and persecution of the Baloch but its Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs posts a message on X. It reads: “The United States strongly condemns the multiple attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province which took many lives.

Any violence disrupting peace and stability is indefensible. We stand with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism and we send our deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones.” The U.S. has designated the Baloch Liberation Army as a terror group.

This lack of support or understanding does not deter the Baloch. They remain optimistic. Dawn newspaper of Pakistan quotes the late Baloch leader Akbar Bugti’s son Jamil as saying that he sees his father’s mission advancing, what with the daughters of Balochistan now stepping forward to strengthen their movement. And Mahrang Baloch is a good example of just that. 31 years old. Medical doctor. And, the face of Baloch struggle.

Mahrang Baloch heads the Baloch Yakjehti Committee. It is a human rights movement that was set up in 2020. Yakjehti means unity, or, solidarity. In July 2024, the B.Y.C. organised a national gathering called the Baloch Raji Muchi in Gwadar.

In December 2023, it organised a Baloch Long March, a 1,600-kilometre-long peaceful protest, from Turbat in Balochistan to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, to demand justice for the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of Baloch people.

400 Baloch protesters, half of them women and children, held a month-long sit-in outside the National Press Club of Islamabad, to demand justice for their missing and murdered family members.

Clearly, the Baloch seem to have had enough. They are in no mood to put up with mistreatment and humiliation any longer. “If the Baloch fight, they are called a terrorist. If the Baloch cry, they are called a coward. If the Baloch ask for something, they are called a beggar. Where do the Baloch go? What do they do?” asks Mehran Marri.

All of which raises certain questions to ponder.
— Where does the Baloch agitation go from here?
— Will the Baloch unrest gain enough critical mass to challenge the Pakistani State?
— Can the U.S. jettison Pakistan?
— Is Pakistan too big to fail, as some in China would like to believe?
— Will the West change its attitude towards the Baloch cause?
— How should India view developments in Balochistan?
— And, what if Pakistan implodes under the weight of its contradictions?

Asking questions is the easy part. Finding the answers will be much more difficult. I leave you with Marri’s parting shot.

“We have our dignity as well. We have our self-respect. Whether anyone supports us or not. The Baloch will stand up for themselves.”

Now, that is another point to ponder, isn’t it?

By – Ramesh Ramachandran (Senior Consulting Editor and presenter with D.D. India)

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A History Of Balochistan – OpEd

 

Gwadar city, Balochistan, Pakistan. Photo Credit: Shayhaq Baloch, Wikipedia Commons

 June 3, 2022  

By Patial RC

Balochistan with a mixed history has historically found itself squeezed between competing  powers due to its geographical location between modern-day Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Earlier it fought to maintain its autonomy against aggressive empires. During the British rule it was directly administered as the ‘Baluchistan Agency’ and a federation of sovereign princely states led by the Khanate of Kalat. Once the British left, Khan of Kalat declared the independence of Kalat state, including that of Las Bela, Kharan and Makkoran.

The Pakistani government was able to pressure the Khan of Kalat to accede to Pakistan by 27 March 1948. However, both Houses of the Kalat legislature rejected the move. The ruler’s own brother, Prince Abdul Karim, initiated a revolt against the coerced merger with Pakistan, resulting in the Pakistan Army’s occupation of Balochistan and since then pro-independence factions continue the Balochistan freedom struggle. 

Balochistan Struggle 

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan. The BLA, the armed wing of the Baloch movement, has carried out several violent attacks in Pakistan. It has about 6,000 cadre spread across Balochistan and in the bordering areas of Afghanistan. It is borne out of the tradition of armed militants who were earlier indirectly supported by the Marri, Bugti, Mengal and other clans. The US has designated the BLA as a terror organisation. 

BLA is opposed to Pakistan’s exploiting the resources of the  without giving the due share to the locals and the indigenous Baloch tribes. In recent years, the BLA has emerged as a movement with a network of supporters in both urban and rural areas of Balochistan. BLA rebels have claimed that they are aiming for both freedom from Pakistan and internal reform of the Baloch society. 

Geography

Balochistan is geographically the largest of the four provinces at 347,190 square km and totals 42 percent of the total land area of Pakistan. The population density is very low due to the mountainous terrain and scarcity of water.

The Sulaiman Mountains dominate the northeast  and the Bolan Pass is a natural route into Afghanistan towards Kandhar. Much of the province south of the Quetta  is sparse desert terrain with pockets of inhabitable towns mostly near rivers and streams. Quetta is situated in a river valley near the border with Afghanistan, with a road to Kandahar in the northwest.Iranian Balochistan is to the west, Afghanistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the north and Punjab and Sindh to the east. To the south is the Arabian Sea. The principal languages in the province are Baluchi, Pashto, Brahui, and Persian. The capital and largest city is Quetta.

The  Balochistan Economy

The economy of Balochistan is mainly based upon the production of natural gas, coal and other minerals like gold, copper, etc. Agricultural development could not take place due to the absence of  water. Wheat, rice, jowar are the major food crops, and fruits are the principal cash crops. In addition to this great majority of the population is involved in sheep grazing.

Despite being rich in natural resources the people of this region are living in extremely poor conditions. Much of the population is illiterate, malnourished living without electricity or clean drinking water.

The  Water Crisis

The people of Pakistan, particularly those in southern Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, are facing the worst kind of water crisis. Research suggests that 85 per cent of people in Balochistan have no access to clean water. The groundwater situation in Pakistan is also alarming, having tumbled down to frightening levels. Pakistan ranks 14 among the 17 countries that are deemed extremely high water-risk regions in the world. Experts say Pakistan may become the most water-stressed nation in the region by 2040.

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Exploitation

The political and economic outcomes of the CPEC are at cross roads with the local politics of total distrust and regionalism in Balochistan. The history of political exclusion and resource exploitation by the elite Punjabi military-bureaucracy nexus manifested in Balochs’ CPEC. The acquisition of Gwadar port, exclusion of Baloch firms and labour from Gwadar and associated CPEC projects and exclusion of native fishermen have heightened pre-existing feelings of regionalism in Balochistan, with Baloch nationalist forces either wholly rejecting the project or voicing for greater share in these projects.

Fish Resource Exploitation by Chinese

Most recently, Gwadar has seen protests against CPEC in the specific context of fish resource exploitation by Chinese trawlers. Many of the local fishermen vacated their fishing spots due to construction of Gwadar port in hope of better future. However, the federal government granted fishing permission to the Chinese fishermen ignited widespread unrest and further alienated the local population. This unrest culminated in a 28 day sit-in protest in 2021 led by Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) in which a large number of people, including women, and children, participated.

Gwadar Port

Pakistan has given China exclusive rights to run ‘Gwadar Port’ for the next four decades as it is under huge Chinese debt.China’s debt-trap diplomacy has not spared Pakistan, which ranks as its sole strategic ally.  China will take away 91 percent of the port’s revenues. It also plans to build near the port a Djibouti-style outpost for its navy. People of Baluchistan including women have been protesting against the sell out to China.

The Gwadar port project and associated networks of roads and railways have not resulted in integrating Balochistan with the rest of the country. Contrary to expectations, locals have not found jobs and despite commitments neither a hospital nor a vocational training center has been established. Instead, local fishing grounds have been taken over by the Chinese. The locals view development and economic activities carried out in Gwadar as exploitative which has led to anti-state feeling that  leads to violence.

In response to the Baloch people’s resistance against the  exploitation of it’s natural resources, the Pakistan Agencies have responded with mass-scale forced disappearances and  killings. Balochistan has come to be known as the Land of enforced disappearances which have increased in recent years. At the same time militants have increased the frequency of attacks aimed at undermining Chinese investment. Any blast taking place in Balochistan is a result of RAW conspiracy for the Pakistani establishment. Floods in the Punjab region of Pakistan are always a result of the Indian conspiracy which lets excess waters go without warning from upstream projects. Not withstanding the fact about decades of disappearances in Balochistan, Pakistan policies support proxy wars and enforced disappearances. What justice can a common citizen expect, and Balochistan lives with this malice of enforced disappearances…

Patial RC

Patial RC is a retired Infantry officer of the Indian Army and possesses unique experience of serving in active CI Ops across the country and in Sri Lanka. Patial RC is a regular writer on military and travel matters in military professional journals. The veteran is a keen mountaineer and a trekker.

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Pakistani Women Are Demanding Answers for Enforced Disappearances and Killings

Hundreds of Baloch women are demanding the return of their missing loved ones amid staunch government repression.

By

 

Esha Mitra , 

WAGINGNONVIOLENCE

Published

January 21, 2024

Baloch families carry photographs of their missing loved ones in a demonstration against government repression in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in Pakistan, on November 21, 2013.

ASIF HASSAN /AFP / GETTY IMAGES

Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence.

As hundreds took to the streets of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, on Jan. 12, a sea of mostly female protesters continued screaming “Balochistan wants justice,” even as they were met with a heavy police presence.

Meanwhile, back in the restive but beautiful southwestern province of Balochistan, thousands more swarmed the streets. Their protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in their province was just the latest mobilization for a movement that has grown exponentially over the past month.

Following the November killing of 22-year-old Balaach Mola Baksh, hundreds of women — along with some of their children — began a roughly thousand-mile march from his hometown of Turbat to Islamabad on Dec. 6. After arriving in Pakistan’s capital city, they set up camp in front of the National Press Club.

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For nearly a month, these protesters — comprised of some nearly 300 families whose loved ones are victims of enforced disappearances and killings — have been living in tents made of cloth and tarpaulin, even as temperatures approach freezing. With more protests cropping up around the country and human rights activists around the world starting to take notice, this women-led movement is showing its power in the face of staunch government repression.

‘They killed him’

“When I went to see his body the agency people told me to bury him, but I said ‘No, I want justice,’” explained Najma Baloch by phone from the sit-in protest in Islamabad. “This is not just my brother, this is the brother of all Baloch people.”

Balaach was taken by men in civilian clothes from his home in Turbat at 1 a.m. on Oct. 30. The family believes these men — who arrived in a convoy of eight cars — were from Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism Department, or CTD.

“When he returned home from work that evening we never could have imagined we would lose him a few hours later,” Najma said about her brother, who worked as an embroiderer in a handicraft shop.

“My mother said the tyrants took him,” Najma continued. But when they approached the police, they were told Balaach was not in their custody. “I said ‘Then where is he? Did the earth eat him up, or did the sky swallow him?’”

It wasn’t until nearly a month later, on Nov. 21, that Balaach appeared in court, where he was remanded to CTD custody for 10 days.

“When we saw him in court my mother and I hugged him,” Najma said. “We were so so happy for my mother it was like he was born again. Two days later they killed him.”

On Nov. 24, CTD issued a statement saying that Balaach had admitted to being involved in a “terrorist operation,” providing them with information that led CTD to his associates’ hideout. When they arrived, according to the statement, an “exchange of fire” took place and four dead bodies were recovered, one of which was Balaach.

“They said he died in an ambush, but we saw him in court — so how could he die in an encounter? It was a fake encounter … they killed him,” Najma said. “I am devastated beyond measure.”

Najma described Balaach as loving brother and son. “He always took care of our mother. He was still so young, and he was not involved in whatever they are saying. He was never involved with anyone bad, he was completely innocent.”

While the CTD denies allegations of kidnapping and murder, it also insists Balaach was only arrested on Nov. 20 — the day before he was presented in court — not on Oct. 29, when he was taken from his home. For activists, this is only further evidence that Balaach became one of thousands in Balochistan to suffer an enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killing.

A movement is born

When Najma’s family received Balaach’s dead body they refused to bury him for seven days, sitting in protest outside their home with his body. People all across Turbat joined the protest, and thus began the wave of protest Pakistan is now witnessing.

Hundreds of women like Najma are turning out to demand the return of their loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared for years — some for over a decade — and taken from their homes in the same way as Balaach. These women have continued to protest despite stringent opposition by police forces.

At the Jan. 12 gathering in Karachi, the police issued an incident report that accused protesters of rioting, causing public nuisance, unlawful assembly and inciting disharmony. If the protesters are charged with these offenses, they face a prison term of up to two years, or fines, or both.

Despite the intimidation, protesters remained until after dark, turning on their phone flashlights while chanting “We stand with Mahrang Baloch” — referring to one of the leaders of the movement against enforced disappearances. She was just 10 years old when her father was first taken by security forces in 2006. He was released three years later, only to be abducted again in seven months. Two years later his mutilated body was found.

While her face has become synonymous with the movement, Mahrang’s story is not unique. The Voice for Missing Baloch Persons says it has registered 8,000 cases of enforced disappearances since 2013 in accordance with the U.N.-advised method for recording such incidents.

“Enforced disappearances are used as a terror tool to intimidate common people,” Mahrang said, “to squash their political movements, to exploit the resources in Balochistan and to take Balochistan under Pakistani control in the manner of colonial rule.”

How Balochistan got here

Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan in 1948, giving the country one of its largest reserves of natural gas. In recent years, its Gwadar Port, situated on the Arabian Sea, has become a crucial link in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — allowing Pakistan to expand its trade corridors and China to bypass the U.S.-patrolled Malacca Strait and access the Middle East.

Despite Balochistan’s importance to Pakistan, many there say the territory should never have been annexed. Some separatist groups — the Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, and Baloch Liberation Front, of BLF — continue to fight for this cause.

According to veteran Baloch journalist and political analyst Malik Siraj Akbar, the government in Pakistan has always been afraid that Balochistan would become another Bangladesh, which was formerly East Pakistan and became its own country in 1971, following a bloody war of liberation. Akbar believes that it is this fear — the need to suppress any dissent and maintain control of Balochistan’s natural resources — that explains the state’s repressive policies.

“The military in Pakistan is the de facto powerhouse,” he said. “It controls everything,” especially since 9/11, when Pakistan received a lot of anti-terror funding, which allowed for the modernization of the military and keeping Balochistan “in check.”

In 2006 Pakistan’s security forces killed Akbar Bugti — a former chief minister and popular separatist leader of Balochistan. This is an event that Akbar describes as Balochistan’s 9/11. “It changed everything,” Akbar said. “When Bugti died people in Balochistan began wondering what would happen to them if someone like Bugti, a former chief minister, could be killed.” Following his death, separatist groups in Balochistan retaliated by attacking Pakistan’s infrastructure, and the Pakistani military responded by carrying out more enforced disappearances.

“This began the policy known as the ‘kill and dump policy’” Akbar explained, referring to the kind of disappearances and killings that Balaach and hundreds of others have suffered. Pakistan’s official position, however, is that this is simply a part of its crackdown on anti-state actors. Even current caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar — who is from Balochistan — has spoken out against the recent protests, calling the women and their families “fake heroes of human rights” and telling them to “go and join the BLF or BLA so the state knows where you stand.”

In just the last week, Balochistan has found itself in the crosshairs of air attacks between Iran and Pakistan. Amid the exchange, Iran launched what it called “preventative action” against the Sunni Muslim militant group Jaish al-Adl, while Pakistan struck alleged hideouts used by the BLF and BLA. All three targeted groups are ethnically Baloch, but — according to protesters — it was civilians, not terrorists, who were killed in the attacks.

As protest leader Sammi Deen Baloch noted, “The Baloch people are always the ones caught in the middle, it is their lives which are lost.”

A fight for generations

Like Mahrang, Sammi Deen — the general secretary of Voice for Missing Baloch Persons — also got involved in the movement as a result of her father being abducted. She has been marching to bring him home since 2009, when she was 10 years old.

“This is the same movement that has been going on for decades,” Sammi Deen explained. “It hasn’t just erupted suddenly.”

In 2010, she visited the capital city of Islamabad for the first time, participating in a march accompanied by seven other families whose loved ones were forcibly disappeared. They returned in 2011 with a few more families. Then, in 2013, they did a “long march” from the city of Quetta in Balochistan to Islamabad, traveling on foot for three months and 18 days.

As a result of consistent protests over the years, 300 families — according to Sammi Deen — now feel empowered to speak up for their loved ones. “In 2013 not many people were aware of the forcibly disappeared persons in Balochistan,” she explained. “But today we have a big tool in social media, which we can use to disseminate our voices to people all over the country and around the world.”

Both Mahrang and Sammi Deen agree that social media has been a big part of their activism. From the organized use of hashtags like #MarchAgainstBalochGenocide and #IStandWithBalochMarch to daily updates from the protest site, sharing their voices online has become a crucial way for the protesters to amass support across Pakistan.

“Traditional media channels don’t cover this,” Mahrang said, “so there is no way for people to know … but now common people in Pakistan are being forced to look at the role they play in the genocide of the Baloch people.”

For Mahrang and all the families protesting, this very much is a genocide — a targeted destruction of the Baloch people and their identity that has been taking place over decades. However, at a Jan. 1 press conference, Interim Prime Minister Kakar described “his fight” as not against any particular race or caste but against the various anti-state organizations in Balochistan.

Women take charge

Apart from social media, another unique characteristic of this movement against enforced disappearances is that it is being led by women like Mahrang and Sammi Deen.

“This movement is a culmination of two decades of women’s suffering, and they are the ones now leading it,” Mahrang said. “There are mothers, sisters, grandmothers, half-widows … and this shows people that we aren’t agents of any organization but simply common people of Balochistan bringing forward our pain and oppression.”

Another reason women have taken the lead, according to Sammi Deen, is to protect their male supporters and family members. “In Balochistan men are not safe in any way, whether it is activism or if they are just going to the market,” she said. “We never know if they will return home alive and safe.”

That being said, the women themselves have been far from safe when it comes to police crackdowns. On the evening of Dec. 20, when the march reached the outskirts of Islamabad, they found their entry blocked by police forces.

A petition filed on Jan. 3 by Sammi Deen to the high court in Islamabad described the interaction, saying “Police baton-charged the protesters and used water cannons against these marchers and their supporters.” Meanwhile, in his press conference, Kakar described the use of water canons as “standard practice of law enforcement across the world.”

Mahrang and 52 other women and children protesters were detained for over 24 hours and only released after the high court ordered it. Another 290 students, women and children were later detained for five days before being released. According to the petition, “the Baloch women and children were brutalized by the Islamabad police,” and an attempt was made to force them onto buses and send them back to Quetta in Balochistan. The Islamabad police rejected these claims on the social media platform X, saying there was “no ill-treatment of women or children.”

Once the protesters were at the sit-in at the National Press Club in Islamabad on Dec. 23, families of missing persons were threatened with arrests if they did not vacate the protest site, and the police repeatedly blocked the entry of food and blankets, which are essential in the Pakistani winter. They were also targeted by masked men in plain clothes, who stole their speaker while pointing loaded guns — all in the presence of the police and multiple surveillance cameras.

With surveillance cameras present nearly everywhere around the sit-in, the police — according to Mahrang — are clearly trying to intimidate the mostly female group of protesters. For their parts, Mahrang has been accused of sedition and Sammi Deen has been the target of a “vile and dirty propaganda campaign” using false photos depicting her with militant groups with whom she has no connection. This incident forced Sammi Deen to take off her niqab (the face covering worn by some Muslim women) which she had previously always worn in press conferences. Nevertheless, Sammi Deen, vows to not be silenced.

Changing tides and demands that pave a way forward

This March Against Baloch Genocide — as the protesters often refer to their movement — has received an unprecedented show of support in the form of solidarity protests in various parts of Balochistan, as well as other Pakistani provinces, and even in front of 10 Downing Street in London, where protesters held a five-day sit in.

According to Mahrang, this response is due to the protest making people feel heard for the first time in decades. “There has always been a negativity spread around that common people do not hold any power in front of the Pakistani establishment and we just have to follow them blindly,” she said.

According to Akbar, the political analyst, this is also because, for the first time, people’s faith in the military has faltered. “There’s a segment of the population that has begun to realize that the military is not so clean,” he said. “In the past people may not have believed all these allegations against the military. But now that they see that former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been so badly silenced that he can’t even contest in the next elections — despite being the country’s most popular leader — people are starting to question things.” Akbar also pointed to the role that social media has played in giving people outside Balochistan a window into their suffering.

According to Sammi Deen, one of the movement’s main objectives has been to collect data. In less than a month, while marching from Balochistan to Islamabad, they have gathered evidence of roughly 600 missing persons. “God forbid, if someone dies tomorrow in a fake encounter, we will at least know if he was [already] missing from before.”

In addition to collecting data, the movement is also working to bring the killers of men like Balaach to justice. On Dec. 9, after initial resistance, the police registered a complaint against four CTD personnel on the direction of a lower court. Then, two days later, the high court ordered the immediate suspension of the four CTD personnel. A committee was also formed to investigate the death. However, no arrests have yet been made.

“We want all the missing persons of Balochistan to be released and … we want to see progress in their cases,” said Sammi Deen before adding that the CTD and state-sponsored “death squads” (or private militia) responsible for these enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings should be disbanded.

On Jan.10, Mahrang and Sammi Deen were able to speak with U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawler about the need for a U.N. fact-finding mission in Pakistan to investigate the human rights violations and genocide in Balochistan. Writing on X, Lawler said, “The reports of police harassment are v. concerning. Spurious criminal complaints against peaceful protesters should be dropped.”

According to Akbar, as long as there is “genuine will from the military,” it is feasible for the disappeared persons to be returned home, so long as they haven’t already been killed. “The military is a very organized institution, so they definitely have accounts of these missing persons.” Akbar also noted that a large number of missing persons were released in the past when the government wanted to appease the Baloch people. However, Akbar does not believe Pakistan will allow an independent U.N.-fact-finding mission into Balochistan, as Pakistan considers it a sovereign matter.

“This is a collective punishment because when one family member is disappeared all his loved ones suffer,” Sammi Deen said. “It is the uncertainty, the continuous wait, the torturous pain that is unbearable.”

Despite all that, or perhaps because of it, Sammi Deen and Mahrang believe that this movement will not burn out, but continue and grow its important work.

“We are expanding this movement all over the country and all over the world,” Mahrang said. “Anyone who sympathizes with us, we appeal to them to protest in solidarity, to send petitions to the U.N., to write to your parliaments to initiate discussions. This is just the beginning, and we will take this forward peacefully.”

ESHA MITRA

Esha Mitra is a multi-media journalist and producer who has reported on issues of gender, caste, class and other socio-political inequalities, LGBTQ+ issues, mental health, the environment, and the rise of Hindutva and Islamophobia in India.

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THE WOMEN OF THE BALOCH SPRING


A movement that began as a protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan is now evolving into a strong political and social force for change.

Muhammad Akbar Notezai 

DAWN

Published September 8, 2024

On January 27, 2024 in Quetta, the leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), Dr Mahrang Baloch, addressed a crowd of thousands, which comprised men and women, many of them young students. Having recently returned from a month-long sit-in outside Islamabad’s National Press Club, held to protest enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, Mahrang said that this movement was the “voice of Baloch people, from Nokundi to Parom and Koh-i-Suleman to Makran.”

The recent terrorist attacks in Balochistan by the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which resulted in the tragic loss of the lives of almost 40 people, tend to take the media spotlight because of the sheer violence involved, but they also do a disservice to the efforts of movements such as the BYC, which have attempted to highlight the alienation of Balochistan’s educated youth in a peaceful and constitutional manner.

Gatherings such as the one in Quetta in January, accompanied by such a large number of attendees, have now become commonplace for the BYC. But what makes this movement unique and sets it apart from any other such group is that women — specifically Baloch women — are the face of this movement.

But how did the BYC come to become such a force? Who are the women spearheading this movement? And how is it that, in a conservative and still-largely patriarchal society, men are turning up in droves to hear these women speak?

A movement that began as a protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan is now evolving into a strong political and social force for change. The women at the forefront of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee have amassed a large following of Baloch men and women, but who are they and how did they become so influential in a largely patriarchal and tribal society?

ROOTS OF DISCONTENT IN BALOCHISTAN

The long-enduring political vacuum in Balochistan has resulted in a rising atmosphere of fear, where both the state and Baloch nationalists have been at loggerheads with each other for decades. Many of the mainstream Baloch nationalists who are peacefully calling for change are of the opinion that their voices have long been ignored. Furthermore, due to the worsening security situation in the province, a number of private militias, locally known as death squads, have sprung up across the region.

Both the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) and the National Party (NP) — which claim they are fighting for Baloch rights within the framework of the state — have been criticised by Baloch nationalists for not doing enough for the Baloch, despite holding positions in the government and being part of the National Assembly. Under these circumstances, desperate Baloch nationalists have been trying to voice their grievances from non-traditional platforms, in the hope that it will lead to long-term change.

Dr Mahrang Baloch pictured at a BYC gathering in Turbat

In May 2020, three men, allegedly associated with a local death squad, stormed into a house in Danuk, Turbat, which resulted in the killing of four-year-old Bramsh Baloch’s mother. That incident gave birth to these ongoing protests and, in the words of BYC activist Sammi Deen Baloch, that is when the BYC came into being.

But it was the killing of Balaach Baloch in November 2023, supposedly in an ‘encounter’ in Turbat with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), that sparked a widespread movement in Kech district. The family of Balaach and civil society activists alleged that Balaach had been apprehended by the CTD the month before and had been presented before a local court, which had remanded him in police custody for 10 days. The protests against the alleged extrajudicial killing culminated in the Islamabad sit-in, led by Mahrang under the platform of BYC. This is when Mahrang and the BYC captured the attention of the nation.

After a big power show in Quetta, the BYC held a gathering in Gwadar under the banner of the ‘Baloch Raji Muchi’ [Baloch National Gathering] this July, in which hundreds of protestors from across Balochistan, and other Baloch-dominated areas in the country, joined in — despite the fact that the state had imposed restrictions upon the peaceful protestors in order to stop them from going to Gwadar. After that, the BYC held large gatherings in several places across Balochistan.

According to Mohammad Arif, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Balochistan, “There are three factors fuelling the discontent felt by the people of Balochistan, which is why they protest. Firstly, Balochistan has been ignored by the centre from the very beginning. Secondly, there is rampant corruption in Balochistan, especially by the politicians and bureaucrats, which has hindered development and progress in the province. Thirdly, the region has become a playground for international politics in the wake of Chinese involvement in the region.”

Professor Arif says that people’s dissatisfaction, instead of being allayed, is further increasing by the day. He further adds, “Balochistan does not have much political participation at the centre, where our representation is just six percent. The government can only provide jobs to 10-15 percent of the population, while the rest have to be catered to by a private sector that simply does not exist in Balochistan as such.”

Sammi Deen Baloch receiving the Front Line Defenders Award 2024

On the question of Baloch women becoming the face of political and social change in Balochistan’s tribal and patriarchal society, Professor Arif is of the opinion that this is the product of a social transformation.

“For instance,” he says, “Japan was a tribal society in 1870, too. But they arrived at the doorstep of social change far before us.” Change is indeed a slow process, and the rise of women in the hostile political atmosphere of Balochistan, particularly through the BYC platform, has not happened overnight.

THE RISE OF MAHRANG

Given that she was born into a political family in Balochistan, it is safe to say that politics has been running in Dr Mahrang Baloch’s blood from day one. But she was suddenly pushed into the limelight when she began to spearhead protests after her father, Ghaffar Longove, went missing in December 2009 from outside a hospital in Karachi.

At the time, she was still a student in primary school. The eldest of six siblings, Mahrang would burn her school books in front of the Quetta Press Club in an act of protest, demanding that her father be returned home. Tragically, as often happens in cases of missing Baloch persons, her father’s mutilated body was found in 2011.

While speaking in a combination of Balochi, Urdu and English, Mahrang tells me, “My father was my political teacher. I joined politics because of him, when I was in the fifth or sixth grade.”

Mahrang’s story, like those of many other Baloch households, is one of immense tragedy and trauma. Violence has marred the region without any respite since the fifth Balochistan insurgency began back in 2000. But the tragedy that has marked her life in this volatile province is one that is felt and understood by all those who have lived and grown up in Balochistan.

Gulzadi Baloch protesting in 2021 after the disappearance of her brother

Perhaps this is why Mahrang has been drawing tens of thousands of Baloch men and women to her protests and gatherings — because they see in her a strength that is giving voice to their decades of grievances. Whether she wanted it or not, she has now become the face of the ‘Baloch Spring’.

“Our ultimate goal,” Mahrang reveals, “is to raise a voice against the Baloch genocide, human rights violations and economic suppression in Balochistan. Our organisation hopes to give a voice to the plethora of issues the Baloch are facing. We continue to try to shine a light on these topics, while also trying to mobilise the Baloch community. Issues pertaining to the climate, health, education and safeguarding our rights are just some of the problems that we need the state to address.”

Back in 2019, like other reporters and journalists, I was looking into the University of Balochistan (UoB) sexual harassment scandal. While working on that story, I saw a young female medical student speaking to protestors, most of whom were men, in front of the main gate of UoB on Sariab Road.

“Who is she?” I asked a professor friend of mine. “That is Dr Mahrang Baloch,” he responded. “The daughter of comrade Ghaffar Longove, a Baloch nationalist who was said to be close to the Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Baksh Marri.”

Clearly, she left quite an impression, and she’s only gained a greater following since then. Reflecting on her journey, Mahrang says, “I have participated in jalsas [gatherings], protests, including the ones led by women in Balochistan. I came into the media spotlight after the abduction of my father, and then of my brother in 2017, and then during the video scandal case at the UoB. That was when I started engaging in politics properly for my people. Since then, I have been very active, because doing what I do and giving a platform to the concerns of my people was a conscious decision on my part.”

Since the UoB video scandal, Mahrang has been actively participating in political activities in Quetta, especially through the platform of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), which was set up by Mama Qadeer Baloch. After becoming the leader of the BYC, she is now at the forefront of the movement calling for justice for the families of Baloch missing persons. There has been hardly any protest in Quetta in recent years, especially in front of the Quetta Press Club, that Mahrang has not attended.

After speaking to Mahrang’s teachers, friends and colleagues, it is clear that all of them think very highly of her. One of her teachers tells me that, despite her ability to draw huge crowds across Balochistan, there seems to be no hint of arrogance in her. He further adds she now seems more mature when delivering her speeches than she did in the past.

But not everyone is as pleased. Mahrang’s critics say that she has not been properly nurtured through the necessary political process and training required for one to establish themselves as a true leader. They argue that she resorts to emotional appeals because she does not have any clear answer when questioned about Balochistan’s complex political situation.

Others have even flippantly accused Mahrang and the BYC of being funded by ‘external forces’, allegedly in an attempt to counter the rising Chinese influence in Balochistan. Mahrang rebuts these claims, saying, “We totally reject these kinds of allegations,” adding that the BYC is a political and social movement that is working on human rights issues, and that the people of Balochistan support this movement.

“We are not anyone’s proxy,” she says firmly, “nor have we been anyone’s proxy. The Baloch people are our support. The state, from day one, uses such allegations of foreign funding to crack down on peaceful political movements. That is why we say that the state, instead of using violence, should wisely and politically deal with Balochistan’s issues. Violence only prolongs issues and leads to great loss.”

Mahrang, however, is just one of the many women that have come to form the spine of the BYC.

Women, men and children in Panjgur being addressed by Dr Mahrang Baloch on August 10, 2024: gatherings such as this have now become commonplace for the BYC

SAMMI, THE ASPIRING JOURNALIST

The eldest of three siblings, Sammi Deen Baloch was just a teenager when her father, Dr Deen Muhammad, was reported missing in 2009. Today, 15 years later, he is still missing. Since then, Sammi has spent most of her time at VBMP camps in Quetta and Karachi, desperately hoping that her struggle will lead to some lasting change.

Even at that young age, Sammi began to meet with journalists at press clubs, as well as at missing persons’ camps. Often, she would be accompanied by her younger sister, Mehlab Baloch.

Similar to Mahrang’s father, Sammi’s father and uncles also had a political background. And it was because of his political activism that Deen Muhammad was ‘disappeared’, Sammi claims. In her words, “I was born into a political environment that nurtured me and my other family members early on. But, unfortunately, more than that, the circumstances surrounding my father’s disappearance played a greater role in my political upbringing.”

After Mahrang, Sammi is regarded as the face of the BYC, and she has now gained admission to the Institute of Business Administration’s (IBA) Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) as part of their masters’ programme. I ask her why she decided to pursue the field of journalism.

“In 2013,” she responds, “I met a female journalist, Mahvish Ahmad [who wrote for Dawn and the Herald], in Karachi at a missing persons’ camp. She used to write extensively about Baloch missing persons. I was enamoured by her.

“In many ways, it had become a routine for me to meet and speak with journalists in Quetta and Karachi, to clamour for the release of my father, to meet other missing persons’ families and to hear stories of their loved ones. I decided in 2013 that I would become a journalist some day and write about the stories of Baloch missing persons, alongside my own personal story.” This year, Sammi was honoured with the prestigious Front Line Defenders Award 2024 in Dublin, Ireland.

Sammi lost her childhood in search of her father, and she reveals that what began as a young girl demanding her father be returned home has now turned into a struggle for the release of all the Baloch missing persons. She tells me, “I started collecting pictures of other Baloch missing persons a long time ago, and I continue to do so, because my struggle is now for all of them — not just for my own father.”

Following her father going missing, Sammi used to hear taunts from people, especially from women, about the fact that she used to travel out of the city so often, that she would interact with men, and that she was neglecting her studies. But things have now changed.

“What is a source of pride for me is that people’s perception — especially that of women — regarding my struggle has changed,” Sammi shares. “I am glad they are now united with us in our efforts, that they join the protests and raise a voice for their own people.”

Sammi says that she is proud that the BYC gatherings are so well-supported and attended by Baloch men. She remarks, “There are tens of thousands of men who attend the BYC jalsas. But, even before us, there were notable female activists here, such as Karima Baloch and Shakar Bibi Baloch.”

GULZADI, THE GIRL FROM THE BUS

Last year, a video of a teenage girl at a Baloch missing persons’ sit-in in Islamabad went viral on social media. The girl, Gulzadi Baloch, was being forcibly returned to Quetta in a bus by law enforcement authorities in Islamabad.

As women swarmed her bus window to try and film her pleas, Gulzadi defiantly, succinctly and persuasively asserted: “We want nothing from Pakistan, nothing at all. We just need our loved ones back who have been forcibly disappeared.”

The journalist and author Mohammed Hanif retweeted the video of Gulzadi with the following statement: “In protest, returning my Sitara-i-Imtiaz given to me by a state that continues to abduct and torture Baloch citizens. Journalists of my generation have seen Sammi Baloch and Mahrang Baloch grow up in protest camps. Ashamed to witness a new generation being denied basic dignity.”

Hailing from the town of Mach in Balochistan’s Bolan district, Gulzadi moved to Quetta after the abduction of her brother, Wadood Satakzai. While talking to me, without me even asking her, she reveals the circumstances that led to the disappearance of her brother.

“On August 12, 2021, my brother went missing in Mach,” she tells me. “After waiting for a few months, and despite many financial issues, I started protesting in Quetta for his release. During my struggle for his release, I encountered several Baloch families who also had their loved ones missing. I found that my story was echoed in their stories. That is why I protest from the platform of the BYC for the Baloch who are missing, even though my brother was released on February 8, 2022.”

According to her, Balochistan has been turned into a security zone, where the males are picked up without any reason whatsoever, which is why women and girls, such as her, have to come to the forefront and ask for justice.

During her school days back in Mach, Gulzadi used to take part in speech and debating competitions. She says that foundation is what gave her the confidence to speak in front of Baloch protestors and command an audience. But her struggle is not limited to the spoken word only.

“I also write poetry,” she says, “in the Brahui language. These writings of mine mostly revolve around poetry of resistance, missing persons, and are against the sardari [tribal] system.”

A rally of the BYC held in Noshki on August 12, 2024: thousands of Baloch men and women look upon the leaders of the BYC as representatives of their collective cause

BEYOND THE MISSING PERSONS ISSUE

Mahrang, Sammi, and Gulzadi, like many other Baloch women, are of the opinion that they came out on to the streets in protest simply because they had no other choice. Since the men of their families had gone missing, the women had to take up the responsibility of fighting for their release.

Mahrang and Sammi acknowledge that the early conversations about politics that they were privy to in their households gave them the necessary acumen at an early age to be able to take a strong stand on political and social issues. Today, thousands of Baloch men and women now look upon the leaders of the BYC as representatives of their collective cause.

Having gone over Mahrang’s recent speeches, it is evident that she has been increasingly talking in expansive terms about ‘the people’. Even during her conversation with me, she keeps using the phrase “Baloch awaam [populace]”, while talking about myriad issues that they are confronted with. The way Mahrang sees it, the Baloch awaam backs the BYC because it has a clear objective.

“The Baloch awaam trusts the BYC because it has got a programme,” she tells me. “Based on that programme, the genuine issues the Baloch are facing are being highlighted.”

But Mahrang and the others know that their cause has to address the many issues in the region that extend beyond that of missing persons. According to Mahrang, “Besides the missing persons cases, the BYC also talks about how the Baloch are denied access to their own resources. We have also spoken against the Reko Diq deal, which has been approved against the will of the Baloch people, and other such projects, such as the Saindak project.”

There is no denying that the work these women have done, and continue to do, is inspiring many — perhaps even generations to come. While working on this story, I came across a relative who has named her second daughter Sammi, while another relative of mine has recently named her daughter Mahrang. Even though these individuals have nothing to do with politics, this gesture on their part is testament to the widespread appeal that the women of the BYC have managed to amass.

One day, while eating breakfast, I saw that my Baloch housemaid was watching Mahrang’s speeches on Facebook. “So,” I asked her, “is she your leader?” She responded, with her eyes still glued to the video: “If Mahrang is not our leader, then who is?”

The writer is a staff member based in Quetta

Published in Dawn, EOS, September 8th, 2024

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