I am a researcher, focus on freedom of religions or beliefs and violence against religious minorities in Pakistan. My PhD focuses on Islam in Britain where I am documenting the post-1945 Shi’a history in the country.
I think most people in this room already known about the issues and human rights violations in Pakistan. Almost all ethnic groups are the victims of state violence and repression. Similarly, all religious minorities face discrimination and violence on a daily basis. I sometimes wonder and often failed to understand what exactly the Pakistani state wants. How can a state be so complicit that every other ethnic and religious groups are persecuted and unhappy the way things are. Anyway, today I don’t want to focus on religious and other ethnic minorities. I want to focus on Balochs and Balochistan.
Just a bit of background: I actively started taking an interest in Balochistan’s human rights issues from 2103 onwards. As I vividly remember that the Balochistan issue was dealt with or seen as a peripheral issue. But it’s not peripheral anymore, it has become mainstream where people across all parts of Pakistan not only know about the military’s role in Balochistan but also show sympathy with Balochistan’s cause. People in this room and online know and are the authority on Balochistan, therefore, my role here is just an observer and I will share my reflection on how in the last 10 years, the Balochistan movement has emerged as one of the powerful forces.
I agree the recent events led by different Baloch groups is an uprising consisting of multiple and diverse movements. Some would call it Baloch Spring. From non-violent human rights-based struggle to militancy, the force and strength we see in the overall Baloch struggle is unprecedented. The consciousness among Balochs and how it’s translated publicly is something we haven’t seen before. One of the things that made me think about why the Baloch movement has become so powerful that it is gaining not just local but international attention. Some people would, however, say this is not the first time Balochs are uprising. This would probably be their fourth or 5th uprising. However, the current uprising and its impact is different from previous uprisings, therefore, the current movement deserves detailed attention. Since I have very limited time, I would just discuss two interconnected reasons that make the current movement different, powerful and unique in its own value. First, the flow of information and narrative formation has become democratised now.
Previously, the Pakistani state controlled and manipulated the human rights violation and Baloch question. The state would blame external elements and Baloch tribal leaders for all the wrongs in the region. However, social media has challenged the state’s grip on narrative and information control. The Pakistani army, like all other traditional armies, has been using violence to curb the legitimate concerns of the people. However, this is not the case anymore. Physical violence does not guarantee the control over narrative anymore. The flow of information on social media has brought the Balochistan issue into the limelight. Forcible abduction, killings and other repressive measures are unable to hide human rights violations. And Pakistan is no exception. All modern states are no more the gatekeeper of information. For example, in the case of Palestine, where the Israeli army, much more sophisticated army in terms of its technology, is unable to hide facts from the ground, the level of mass killings and the humanitarian crisis.
As we see when traditional armies are unable to control narratives, they usually block the sources and medium of information such as internet. The Internet coverage in Balochistan has always been limited but in recent years when the military is facing challenges from the mainland and all peripheries, it has limited the Internet coverage across all regions. These tactics are not new. Such as China and India are also examples of this communication repression. China’s blockade of news in Shin-jang region or India’s blockade of internet in Kashmir are all identical measures that the Pakistan army is doing. But neither China or India nor Pakistan has been able to prevent the facts coming from these regions and human rights violations. Therefore, the impunity and monopoly over information that the Pakistan army was enjoying is challenged now.
The second point I wanted to make is that the current movement involves cross-generational and cross-gender participation which I think makes the most significant impact.
I must say that the involvement of young Balochs and women is not something new. Baloch Student Organisation (BSO) has been the Organization of young student. Similarly, the likes of Karima Baloch, Farzana Majeed and many others have been active since the 2000s. In fact, these women, particularly the late Shaheed Karima Baloch, are the reason we see the involvement of young Baloch women in the current movement. When Karima was leading there were very few women who were the public face.
Karima’s story and leadership inspired young women who are part of the current movement who were teenagers when Karima was active and they grew up seeing Karima mobilising Baloch families. As a result, we see young women and girls who are leading and have become the face of the movement.
The charisma of Mahrang, Sammi and other Baloch women is so powerful that it has already inspired future generations of Baloch both in Balochistan and the diaspora. Yesterday I was watching a video clip shared by a Baloch friend where a hardly 7 or 8 years old child called Fatima Baloch was making a speech in a protest in Quetta. She was clear about who oppresses her nation, abducts her loved ones and humiliates her family members. She promised those who humiliated her nation, they would be humiliated. She was referring to the army. You don’t see this level of clarity among this age group but it’s quite an often sight in Balochistan because the young generation has only seen and witnessed the brutal and repressive response from the Pakistan state which politicised them right from the beginning.
I mentioned earlier about diaspora, if one sees the recent protests in London organised by BNM, the presence of women and young girls has significantly increased in recent months and there’s no doubt it is the Maharang effect. So in a way, it’s a global consciousness or uprising that has united different Baloch groups and ensured participation across gender, something we haven’t seen it before.
So coming back to the cross-generational point, the young generation, particularly Gen Zia and millennials, are much more tech-savvy and, as a result, possess greater awareness of narrative making and challenging the mainstream narratives.
Baloch Yakjehti Committee is a classic example of presenting and framing the Balochistan issue from a global and anti-colonial perspective. Of course, again, this is not something new. Balochs and their literature have been presenting the Balochistan issue from an anti-colonial lens. However, the way and the timing the current generation utilised is something highly impressive. For example, the use of phrases such as dispossession, occupation, exploitation, climate justice and the way young generation align these terminologies with the global anti-colonial movements made the current movement a part of global discourse.
Therefore, you see the likes of Greta Thunberg and other anti-colonial movements show solidarity with Balochs. And credit simply goes to young Balochs who aligned the Baloch struggle with the global anti-colonial movements. As a result, the human rights violation in Balochistan is not a local issue anymore, it’s becoming a part of global discussion which reflects that the movement is getting its due recognition beyond the South Asian region which I think one of the greatest achievements the younger generation brought to the movement.
So coming to the conclusion, the key question is: where do the Baloch movement and the Pakistan Federation go from here? I think the majority of us in this room know the crisis Pakistan is in, and the commentators believe that Pakistan’s federation is on the verge of collapse. In fact, some would say that the belief in the project or idea of Pakistan is now limited to Sindh and Punjab.
A recent BBC news report claims that Balochistan is no longer in the grip of Pakistan. I am not an expert on armed insurgencies, therefore, I don’t know how or whether the recently reinvigorated Baloch insurgency poses an existential threat to Pakistan.
However, the consciousness of self-determination and doubtful future within Pakistan seems to have become more clear among Balochs. I am not claiming that every person in Balochistan wants independence. I am not a Baloch and don’t live there so I will leave this to the people of Balochistan. However, there is one thing we can say with absolute certainty that every person in Balochistan wants freedom, justice and dignity. They have been deprived of all these things for the last 70-plus years. Pakistan can’t continue denying fundamental rights to Balochs. Suppressing Baloch’s voices had never worked before and will work in future. If anything history teaches, the state persecution makes Balochs more resilient.
I would end with Urdu poetry and wanted to remind to the Pakistani state who would have thought that killing Kareema Baloch would silence Balochs but they didn’t know that dozens of Karima had already born in Balochistan:
ki raat jab kisī ḳhurshīd ko shahīd kare to subah ik nayā sūraj tarāsh laatī hai
I can’t do the literal translation but the contextual translation is, that whatever is the scale of violence and oppression, Balochs will rise every other day.
