AYUSH ANAND
It has been only two week that the Pakistan Army gets its new chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. He is from the 16 Baloch Regiment, and has expertise in handling Kashmir affairs for a long duration. He was involved in vicious and brutal oppressions by the Pakistani Army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir against the people of Kashmir. He was awarded for this by being promoted to the rank of Major General, and he served there as the force commander of Gilgit-Baltistan region of PoK. The modus operandi of Pakistani forces is not unfamiliar to the Indian people.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi voiced his concern towards the grave human right violations in Balochistan in his Independence Day speech this year, and later by Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj at the United Nations General Assembly, the Government of Pakistan and its Army has intensified its campaign in the region. Balochistan is bleeding the worst in its 70-year old history of forced and illegal occupation by Pakistan. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which passes through the region, has made thing worse for the people there.
The Pakistan military raids seem to have intensified after the coming of General Bajwa, as per the reports coming out from Balochistan. The incidents of raid, search of villages, seizure of belongings of the Baloch villagers, looting and torching of Baloch villages, abduction, kidnapping, disappearance and murder of Baloch activists, are on the surge. Baloch activist Naela Qadiri recently said in India, that Balochistan was being converted by the Pakistani Army in a like situation of Nazi concentration camps.
Even the possession of books in Baloch and Pashtu languages is being considered an act of sedition. The Army can arrest even a child if they find it in possession of any book in the native language. The environment is so stifling that major civil Baloch voices to quite the place. B Bugti lives in Switzerland; H Marri in Europe; Naela Qadiri in Canada; Hammal Haidar in London. Some have taken shelter in Afghanistan. Others are trying to get political asylum in India.
The nexus of China and Pakistan is also making it difficult for civil voices of Balochistan to be heard on foreign soil. Recently, Thailand deported two of the famous Baloch activist, Munir Mengal, founder of Baloch Voice Association, and Bilal Baloch, a journalist, both living in France, by arresting them from a Bangkok hotel. They had gone there for a conference on Balochistan.
It has been estimated that since General Bajwa became the Army chief of Pakistan, in just two weeks, more than 200 Baloch civilians and activists were abducted and are missing; more than 10 of the other activists have been killed and their body dumped.
General Bajwa has learned from his notorious experience of handling of religious fundamentalist jihadi forces against Indian, using such terrorist groups and non-state actors against the Baloch activists. Jihadi terror organisations are also being used to aid of Pakistani forces to eliminate the Baloch civilisation, its intelligentsia and the ethnic plural society of the Balochs who refuse to accept the radical and venomous interpretation of Islam.
The Baloch civilisation is not looking as strong as Bengali Muslim community of East Pakistan who fought and got their liberation. So then, what is Balochistan’s future? How many more years Balochs have to suffer? Will Balochistan get its Sheikh Mujibur Rehman? It’s for the Balochs to decide, but India, as a proponent of democracy and popular will and humanity and justice and diversity, as also true friends of the Baloch people, must stand for their cause.
(Certain parts of the report are based on Tweets by Baloch activists and Baloch news sources. The writer is a research Associate at Dr Syama Prasad Research Foundation, New Delhi. )