Anguished Cry Of A Balochi

Popular nationalist movements do not succeed merely because of their own efforts, but their success or failure is largely dependent on the nature of counter-efforts to meet them. For the Pakistan State countering Balochi insurgency, patience has clearly been in short supply. There is only one answer to genuine demands from the Balochi side: meet them with disproportionate force. Pakistani history shows that unrepentant coercion has come out a cropper every time the military has been sent to tackle Balochi rebellion. The state has tried to replicate this every time Balochistan has been on fire.

A Pattern

There is a pattern in the way the state and its leadership have handled the Baloch issue. Pakistan does not have a singular locus of power. There is a perennial competition between the civilian and military apparatus to prevail over each other. The military has persisted as the more dominant element. The civilian and military leaderships have accused each other of insensitivity towards the Baloch issue. If Ayub ordered the killings of Balochis in 1958-59, Z.A. Bhutto came out with his offer of autonomy. But soon he went against his own promises and ordered killings of Balochi leaders in the 1970s. Zia-ul-Haq succeeded him and declared general amnesty and soothed the Baloch nerves. This time round, after the excessive use of military might by Musharraf’s military government, Zardari government in power, has promised to apply the balms. The method of winning back the sympathy of the Baloch Sardars was through ensuring state support for their dominant feudal hold over Baloch society. They were heavily compensated and effectively silenced.

Change in the air

Thus, in previous instances the Baloch people were duly duped by their leaders who were heavily bribed by the Pakistani leadership. However, this time round the leadership of the movement has passed on to the hands of the upcoming younger generation who are dedicated to the cause of nationalist struggle, unafraid of the Pakistani state and immune to appeasement. This young generation of Baloch nationalists have compelled the old veteran Sardars to follow them. The Sardars starting from K B Marri to Akbar Bugti saw the writing on the wall and had to stop hobnobbing with the state. The state under Musharraf misconstrued the problem.

Musharraf thought getting rid of the Sardars will amount to getting rid of the problem of Balochistan. It used excessive force to eliminate Nawab Akbar Bugti. The Baloch resistance has shown no sign of coming down in spite of it. Little does the Pakistani state realise that the ordinary Baloch has now a genuine cause to live and die for. But Pakistani state with its expertise in raising insurgencies has no patience to understand the inner dynamics of the Baloch struggle. It is on the wrong side of history on this occasion.

Pakistani State in a Hurry

Bugti was killed in 2006. This led to a state of shock. There was an immediate dip in the Baloch assertion. However, it picked up again next year. There were 72 different incidents of bombing in 2007 only around Quetta. In 2008 the number increased to 81. In 2008, there was even a case of suicide attack against the Frontier Corps personnel. The Baloch National Army has the support of the people this time.

The moderate political leadership in Balochistan had hailed the return of democracy as a possible way out of the Baloch crisis. Even the Baloch rebels had called for a ceasefire. However, very soon the people have realised that this PPP-led coalition government headed by Zardari, despite its expression of good intent, is a lame duck one. There is a firm belief that army is still controlling the shots from behind and would not allow the government to devolve power to Balochistan and other provinces.

Nothing short of Independence

A Balochi Protest in Washington

Baloch nationalists would argue that they would not stop at autonomy. Pakistani state with its Punjabi majority bias would never yield them fiscal and cultural autonomy. According their account, Punjabi businessmen and technocrats have already colonised the state. They have reduced Gwadar to a mini-Punjab and have conspired with the Pakhtun population in the state to reduce the Balochis to a minority within their own homeland. The largest, poorest, most suppressed and least populated nation of Balochis have also vanished from the public gaze.

The media in Pakistan has adopted a lackadaisical approach to the Baloch issue. During Musharraf’s reign, the media did pick on Bugti-assassination as a major stick to beat his administration with. However, it did not argue out forcefully the need for decentralisation or devolution of power. A Punjabi majoritarian state has its own existential biases towards minority communities. The media also reflects this Punjabi majoritarian bias.

No manipulation by external forces

There have been flippant accusations that we the Balochis have been manipulated by the Russians, Afghans, Indians and even Americans. Truly speaking, any of these countries would like to fish in troubled waters. But so far none of these countries have been allowed by the Balochis to step into the Baloch ‘freedom struggle’. The Balochis are determined to fight their own battle. They want only moral support from the larger international community which includes all these countries. But we have studiedly avoided any truck with any particular country in this regard.

The Balochis have learnt their lessons from the Kashmiris and would avoid the risks of overdependence on external sources. They would never like to be swayed by external instigations and keep fighting till the end. No brute power on the earth can shake their self-confidence and their unwavering faith in their own inherent strength and capacity to work doggedly till they achieve their aim.

The moderate Baloch leadership at the provincial level have tried to steal the thunder from the militants by echoing the nationalist concerns earlier raised by the Baloch militants. They have sought to re-negotiate the status of Balochistan with the powers in Islamabad hoping against hope that a Sindhi leader at the helm of affairs would deliver them autonomy on a platter. They do not realise that the real power is in the hands of the Paunjabi dominated civil-military bureaucracy, which would not like to sacrifice the advantages accruing to them from the present configuration of power. They may devolve nominal power which is unacceptable to most of us today.

A Critical Turn

The Baloch struggle stands at a critical turn today. There are quite a few who would like to convince the Pakistani state that it is in their interests to shed power and accommodate Baloch concerns. They would like the state apparatus to confess that they had been brutal and repressive in the past and expect the state to transform itself. But majority of Balochis today do not want to beg Pakistani state for mercy. Freedom is much more valuable than small concessions being offered to the Baloch nation.

Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for the rapes of Baloch women, incarceration and disappearance of Baloch youth and killings of hundreds of innocents in Balochistan. The world outside is watching Pakistani generals perpetrating horror and state terrorism in the name of protecting the integrity of the Pakistani state. On the contrary, the Pakistanis have labelled the tag of terrorists on the innocent Balochis who have the right to protect their lives against indiscriminate attacks by the Pakistani military forces.

Moreover it is the Pakistani state and the military which have allowed Taliban to capture northern Balochistan and intimidate and demoralise the Baloch freedom movement. Balochis have raised their voice against such unthinking Talibanisation of Balochistan in recent times. Unable to take Balochistan through military means they would now like to win Balochis through Islamist hate campaigns against the US and the West. The Balochis have kept their ears and eyes open. They will not join this hate wagon.

Pakistan has never been a unified nation. It is at best a union of nations. Balochis may not be as numerous but they hail from a resource rich corner of Pakistan and are the rightful owners of its resources under international law. The inhuman and unjust way in which Balochis are being handled, and being dispossessed of their wealth, cannot continue for ever.

The Balochis have woken up. They have taken a resolve to fight for their freedom till the last Baloch is dead.

It is clearly a struggle between a self-respecting nation and a self-aggrandising one. The Balochis would urge the world to take note of the brutalities of the Pakistani state which is all out to liquidate an entire nation of Balochis. The state of Pakistan should be made to explain its position in the comity of nations. Long Live Baloch nation. Long Live Balochistan.