Pakistani state violence towards the Baluch people is not something new and it will not end as long as Pakistan has a foot in Baluchistan. The artificial state of Pakistan commenced its violence against the Baluch from the very day of its illegal occupation of Baluchistan in 1948. The newly invented fundamentalist state of Pakistan initially used Islam as a pretext to annex Eastern Baluchistan but deception through Islam did not work. For a mostly secular Baluch, religion was not and is not an issue that determines the boundary of a nation and a nation’s democratic rights. It was the principle of equal national rights that was their guiding yardstick that led them to regain their full independence on 11th August 1947.
As the pretext of religion was ignored entirely by the secular Baluch, M. A. Jinnah resorted to brute force. The iron fist replaced the religious card. By February 1948 the founder of Pakistan had made up his mind about the future of Baluchistan. Since the Baluch rejected his demand of joining Pakistan on the dubious ground of shared religion there was one option left to him. That was to annex Baluchistan unlawfully. The illegal occupation inevitably required the imposition of a tyrannical political system to control an invaded nation. It was for this reason that Mr Jinnah suggested a dictatorial system of government for Baluchistan after its occupation. His rational for the imposition of tyrannical rule in Baluchistan was that Baluchistan was economically underdeveloped. (The Question of Baluchistan, 01.06.2010-Urooj Zia, Himalmag.com).
The irony is soon after the British departure; Baluchistan held its first democratic election in its history. This was in stark contrast to the elections held in Sindh and the Pushtun regions where the Indian Fundamentalist party of the Muslim League rigged the election with false promises in the name of Islam. It does not come as a surprise, therefore, to any fair minded and a democratic individual what Pakistan and its leader Jinnah did to a free and independent Baluchistan.
The newly invented state of Pakistan signed the ‘the Standstill Agreement’ on 4 August 1947 officially recognising Baluchistan as a sovereign state. A week later, on 11 August 1947, Baluchistan was declared independent. The proclamation of Baluchistan regaining its independence was signed by M. A. Jinnah the founder of Pakistan. The news was announced from New Delhi and was reported in the New York Times on 12 August 1947. The declaration of Baluchistan Independence was also officially announced to a large gathering on August 15, 1947 by the ruler of Baluchistan, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan. Subsequently, elections were held soon after the declaration of independence for Baluchistan’s assemblies, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In the election the national party put forward its members as independent candidates and won 39 out of 52 seats in the House of Commons.
When the Pakistan government put the Khan of Kalat under pressure to join Pakistan the issue of a merger was taken to both houses to discuss and both houses unanimously rejected Pakistan’s obtuse demand. It was after this unyielding democratic vote of refusal that the Pakistan army invaded Pasni, Jiwani and Turbat on 26 March 1948. Following that, on 1st April 1948, they invaded the heart of Baluchistan’s political administration, Kalat (then the capital city of Baluchistan).
Pakistan’s involvement in Baluchistan has been exceptionally violent. The fact is it could not have been anything but violent. To believe otherwise would be counter intuitive and defy any rational reasoning. An artificial entity that was formed on the basis of the contingencies of a humiliated and dying Imperial power, religious fundamentalism and the interests of a handful of Machiavellian characters headed by M.A. Jinnah could not have produced any different outcome than what the Baluch have been encountering for the last 63 years of the occupation of their homeland.
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Within this period the Baluch have experienced five military operations. Each military operation has sown the seeds of a larger Baluch resistance movement. The more the Pakistan establishment and army imprisoned, tortured and killed, the more Baluch freedom fighters have replaced their fallen compatriots. This snowballing process has inevitably has extended the scope and the scale of the Baluch resistance against the occupying state of Pakistan and its army. For this reason the structure of Pakistan cannot be anything but a mixture of inconceivable violence, deception and corruption.
The mindset of the ruling establishment would be the same regardless of whether they were from civilian or military forces. Their response to the legitimate and democratic demands of the Baluch people cannot be a democratic response. It can only be sheer brute force. Under such circumstances, occupying nations be they the Baluch nation or any other nation, turn in defence of their rights with greater determination and courage.
Each uprising, adds a new dimension to the Baluch liberation movement and as well as to the cruelty of Pakistan state and army. It brings more unity among different social groups of Baluch but it also simultaneously exposes the vindictive and sinister nature of Pakistan’s establishment. This vicious circle was set in motion from the day Pakistan illegally occupied Baluchistan and this will not end until the day when Pakistan is removed from Baluchistan. Rulers in Pakistan knew perfectly well from the day of invading Baluchistan that Baluchistan was everything for Pakistan, while Pakistan to Baluchistan has not been anything but disaster. Ruthless robbing, the like of early European colonisers of Latin and South America, has been the regular way of life for Pakistan’s establishment in Baluchistan. To ransack and plunder everything as if no one lives on this land and there is no tomorrow. Their presence in Baluchistan is not short of catastrophic. It has left behind a devastating legacy of unworkable social and economic fabric, and indescribable degree of violence and poverty.
The illegal occupation, extreme repression and poverty and the struggle for democratic rights can go hand in hand. The scale and scope of these parallel events can equally go at the same time. The Pakistani state and army have arrested, imprisoned, tortured and killed Baluch freedom fighters in their thousands. First they caught and hanged those few freedom fighters that headed the rebellions, then their close followers, and then the followers of the followers. They first abdicated student leaders and political leaders that did not recognise the state of Pakistan but now anyone who dares to wear a T-shirt with the photo of Balaach Marri and talks about a free Baluchistan is at risk. First they assassinated those hard-headed political leaders who openly questioned the illegal occupation of Baluchistan but now they assassinate teenage children and those who are presumed to be likely opponents of the state and the Pakistani establishment. First they poisoned obvious opponents and now they even cannot spare young girls, disfiguring their innocent faces with acid attacks.
The occupying state of Pakistan has also conducted six nuclear tests in Baluchistan with absolute contempt and disregard for Baluch people. The tests were carried out in complete secrecy. Baluch were kept in total darkness and the horrific “Pakistani Islamic Bomb” was tested not on Pakistani homeland but in Baluchistan.
There is not any rational, economic or compassionate justification for the construction and possession of nuclear bombs, be it an Islamic or non Islamic bomb. They are inherently destructive weapons. They are the weapons of fear in the absence of reason. Even if they were tested in Pakistani homeland this would not have justified the use of such weapons. But the reason they were tested in Baluchistan homeland is due to Pakistan colonial policy towards Baluchistan and the horrific consequences to human life that followed. The Baluch are paying a heavy price as a direct consequence of Pakistan’s criminal actions.
The first five nuclear explosions were conducted in the Koh Kambaran range and Chaghi hills on 28 May 1998. The sixth explosion was conducted in Kharaan in an undisclosed location. In total all six explosions yielded 52 kT (kilotons) of radio toxic nuclide. The full consequences of such nuclear tests are unknown to this day. The impact of these tests has not been assessed independently. Anyone who dares to carry out an investigation of the effects of the explosions would find his or her life to be at risk. One thing that is certain about this immoral act is the contamination of the surrounding areas and possibly the groundwater from these tests. Local Baluch have reported ever-increasing incidents of animals and people suffering from previously unknown and mysterious ailments. People have been observing ever more incidents of deformities among newly born babies, animal and birds.
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It is difficult to name one heinous type of torture known to any psychopath torturer that has not been employed by Pakistani establishment on their captive Baluch prisoners. Many of their victims who have survived such ordeals are permanently handicapped because of their prolonged and persistent torture. During 1973-77 conflict Baluch fighters and civilians after being captured were flown by helicopter at very high altitudes and were then thrown from the helicopter to the ground. Pakistani military officers then filmed and watched their victims falling onto ragged terrain and dying a slow and painful death. During the ongoing conflict Pakistani security forces have poached alive a number of Baluch freedom fighters in boiling tar to extract information about their comrades. The army have taken many innocent Baluch women as hostage in order to capture their brothers, fathers and male relatives. They have raped Baluch women in their medieval jails and kept them for months and years in incommunicado. The sad saga of mistreatment of Baluch political prisoners by Pakistani state is endless.
The Pakistani establishment and army have tortured the Baluch in their thousands and have been responsible for extra judicial killing of hundreds of Baluch political activists and intellectuals. They are responsible for the killing and displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. They have employed all sorts of sinister and vicious means to eliminate the progressive Baluch political class. The methods employed have included poisoning, sabotage, spurious accidents, and organising fundamentalists groups in the name of Baluch people.
The Pakistani state and establishment is responsible for introducing their own branch of fundamentalist Islam that is intrinsically intolerant to dissent and has no respect for human values. They have systematically encouraged, organised and financed such anti -democratic forces in Baluchistan. They used Islam as a tool of domination, deception and exploitation. They have preserved the culture of Sardars, Khans and Mollahs as social structures to keep Baluchistan backward and impoverished. Preservation of such structures enables further ignorance, keeps societies backward and impoverished and thus can be more easily controlled for long periods of time. Such social structures are an effective instrument of a ‘divide and rule’ policy. The Pakistan State have the mind-set that believe that the true leaders of a progressive and democratic Baluch liberation movement are either “ Sardars” or the employees of foreign powers. In contrast the whole Sardari and Mollai system has been preserved by the Pakistan regime to serve its own interest. This fact is so easily forgotten and overlooked.
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Vested interest can be a blinding force. It can set itself a pole apart from the experience of history. On that account no dictator has ever learnt from history. To the very day of their demise they are deluded with the belief in their unparalleled popularity and greatness. This general rule also applies to half baked vested interests and second hand dictators. Their misfortune comes in two forms. They are the target of their masters as well as their subjects. This thought should be a word of warning to undecided Baluch leaders that are part of the Pakistani establishment and those who wish to remain under it.
The recent assassination of Baluch political leaders must be taken as an eye opening alert to all Baluch - Those who are on the side of the establishment and those who are against the establishment. There is a natural progression in the nature of assassinations perpetrated by all dictatorial states. As the state killing machine is turned, it spares no opposition and Baluch interests are completely opposite the Pakistan state.
Defending Baluch interests within the artificial boundary is not simply doable. Those who have tried it very soon learn this fact. For some who are in the system and wish to be part of it in the future will find out that Pakistan is the problem and not the solution to the question of Baluchistan. They too will then experience the frenzied character of the Pakistani state and army. That is because assassination and elimination of dissent are inbuilt components of the structure of the Pakistan state and its corresponding mindset.
Such states begin with the assassination of those individuals that are relatively low key but are perceived to be the potential trouble makers of the future. The list of Baluch political and social activists that have become the prey of the Pakistani assassination machine is too long to include here. So we rely here only on some high profile assassinations that occurred since 2006. In August 2006 the Pakistani military assassinated the most high profile Baluch political leader at the time, Nawab Akbar Bugti. He was a 79 years old man who had lived and experienced most of his life in Baluchistan under the control of Pakistan. This was followed by a further assassination, this time of the young charismatic Baluch liberation leader, Balaach Marri, in November 2007. On 3 April 2009 the Pakistani secret police abducted three other prominent Baluch political leaders; Ghulam Mohammed Baluch, Lala Munier Baluch and Sher Mohammed Baluch. Less than a week later their mutilated bodies were discovered at outskirt of Turbat, a city in Eastern Baluchistan, on 8 April 2009.
On August 23 2009 Pakistan state forces abducted Rasool Bux Mengal, the joint secretary of the Baluch National Movement, from Uthal. When found, on 30 August, his body was covered with multiple signs of extreme torture. Jan Muhammad Dashti, a prominent Baluch intellectual and the owner and publisher of the Daily Asaap, also fell victim of a failed assassination on 23 February 2009. A string of other assassinations were carried out by Pakistani forces in Baluchistan and most of the recent victims have been of Baluch students.
Baluch children and women have not escaped this plight. Fearful of Baluch women taking an active part in Baluch liberation movement they too became the targets of the Pakistani wrath. Agents working for the Pakistan State have carried out acid attacks on two sisters in the Dabandin area on 13 April and three other girls, Skina Bibi 14, Saima Bibi 16, and Fatima Bibi 20 on 30 April 2010. In another menacing showcase the agencies have murdered an old Baluch woman political activist. In an apparent car accident the fearless elderly Mrs Raisani was killed on 22 May 2010. She was the mother of Mir Abdul Wadood Raisani a leader of the Baluch Republican Party who was abducted by Pakistani agencies. Mrs Raisani was a well known figure to Pakistani agencies. She worked tirelessly campaigning for the recovery and release of missing Baluch. The death of Mrs Raisani was no accident, but planned and executed by Pakistani agencies. There appears to be evidence that clearly indicates that the car that Mrs Raisani had been travelling in had been tampered with some kind of explosive substance.
There has been a recent surge of assignations. The leader of National Party, Maaula Baksh Dashti , was assassinated on 11 July 2010 and a leader of the Baluchistan National Party, Haji Liaguat Ali Mengal was assassinated on 20 July 2010. The much respected leader of Baluchistan National Party, Dr Habib Jalib was assassinated on 14 July 2010. These latest assassinations are significant on two accounts. The first one is that the Pakistani establishment blames Baluch for these killings and are intent on creating mistrust among the Baluch community as a whole. Secondly, no Baluch are safe under Pakistani control even if he or she accepts their domination. Total submission is what Pakistan wants but the question is there is no one Pakistan. There is the Punjabi Pakistan, there is the Pakistan that belongs to Military, and there is the Taliban Pakistan. Therefore, Living under a democratic Pakistan that some may aspire to, is merely a contradiction in terms. Baluch or for that matter other nations under subjugation of Pakistan cannot and will not gain their full democratic rights under this rather absurd structure. As long as this structure is in place, all Baluch will remain its victims. These victims also include those Baluch who, either by convenience or by coercion accepts total compliance and the yoke of being less equal. The only true way out is a free and democratic Baluchistan. Any other option will not lead to freedom, democracy or equality.
Shahsawar K is a Baluch Human Rights and Political activist based in United Kingdom.
http://www.balochwarna.com/modules/articles/article.php?id=2107
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