AWARAN, BALOCHISTAN: Speakers Talar Naz, Mirak, Zubair, and Masood addressed a gathering organized by the Baloch National Movement (BNM) in the Awaran Zone on the occasion of what organizers called “Baloch Pledge Renewal Day.” Describing August 11 as a historic day for the Baloch nation, the speakers said it serves as a lesson to continue the struggle against what they called injustice and to reclaim what they described as stolen freedom. They said the Baloch National Movement would continue “until foreign occupation ends, national identity is safeguarded and an independent state is established.”
The speakers claimed that Britain invaded Kalat on November 13, 1839, laying what they called the foundation for Balochistan’s prolonged subjugation. They said the then-Khan of Kalat, Mir Mehrab Khan and his companions resisted the occupation and were killed and asserted that decades of resistance eventually forced British withdrawal, which they characterized as Balochistan regaining independence on August 11, 1947. The speakers described the Khan of Kalat and those killed as a continuing source of pride for the Baloch nation.
The speakers expressed anger over what they said was Pakistan’s forcible annexation of Balochistan on March 27, 1948, shortly after the region’s 1947 independence. They said decades of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and military operations, and the Baloch nation had never accepted Pakistani rule. They said Baloch leadership remained committed to what they called generational sacrifice to restore the region’s independence.
The speakers called for an assessment of past shortcomings within the movement and said the Baloch nation needed to organize around modern demands including education, defense and international engagement to secure the stability of what they described as a future independent Balochistan.
Rejecting what they called opposition propaganda suggesting an independent Balochistan could not be economically viable, they argued Balochistan’s geographic location, coastline, natural resources and history made a “free, just, and prosperous” state achievable.
