The Baloch struggle

Quetta: 27 March, 2012 was spent commemorating the 27 March, 1948. That was the day Pakistan Army occupied Balochistan. In the Baloch prism this occupation is termed illegal, inhuman, and unlawful. But for the Pakistani narrative Balochistan’s demand for independence was out of question. At the time of partition states and provinces could either secede to Pakistan or India. The prospect of a third entity ‘Balochistan’ was incomprehensible. Then is it illegal to demand what goes against the laws by which states are governed? Or is it unlawful for the state to use force against a people it views as digressing? Does a state not have monopoly over aggression (if need be)? Can any local leaders or populations unite and make demands for separation? These are questions that need to be understood. What are the laws that govern states as a whole? Can coercion bring these freedom fighters under the state’s thumb? 

Today the Baloch claim that their rights are being neglected/ violated, their natural resources are being exploited by the other three provinces, and Islamabad’s ‘colonial’ mindset on the Baloch table has gotten even more suffocating with the decades. The recent American Congress intervention by the ‘Special Committee on Oversight and Investigations’ could be considered a new type of drone attack on Pakistani sovereignty. The Congress invited in Ali Dayan, a social activist apparently and drafted an entire resolution on ‘Pakistan’s other war: Balochistan’ based on one man’s word. Within two weeks the Congress was told he was exaggerating, and how can a province’s fate be based on one man’s testimony? More importantly the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton assured our flustered political establishment that US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty. Whether it was a genuine apology, or just our media/ Prime Minister hallucinating we can perhaps not know.

Read more...