Free Balochistan, Balochistan is not Pakistan, We want our rights, No more Pakistan’s atrocities, Pakistan Quit Balochistan; these are the most often hashtagged trend in social media and most explicit anguish over the atrocities and aggression of the Pakistan government on Balochistan people.
Social Media emerged as a platform for protest chosen by people to express their misery and torture against Pakistan. This is the only platform left for them to show their resentment and exasperation against Pakistan’s abomination. Almost all other modes of people protests in Balochistan or Gigit-Baltistan is contained by the brutal Pakistan Army.
Pakistan has systematically engaged severe human rights violations to constrict Baloch people’s struggle. The Pakistan government has also been committing cultural, linguistic, economic and sectarian genocide of Baloch people. There were many people who have been tweeting that the army is for the protection of the country and its people; but in Balochistan, they are heavily involved in killing innocent people.
Vinoth Kothandaraman wrote, ‘Pakistani army is killing innocent people of Balochistan.
Why the world is silent over Baloch genocide? Break your silence and speak up for Balochistan! @UN’.
Bramsh Baloch expressed his hatred for Pak and said, ‘Baloch has never expected any decency or mercy from the Pakistani state and neither had they begged for mercy. The deliberate silence of the #HR & democracy & the @UN on the ongoing atrocities against Baloch is adding fuel to the anger and disappointment. #PakistanQuitBalochistan.
Pakistan can no longer hide their false reporting from the world, and the credit goes to the widespread use of social media.
Another tweet shows the situation of Baloch women who are tortured by the Pakistan Army:
#Pakistani media & civil society’s org to reconsider their policy towards Balochistan because remaining silence in this way is to hide the real situation which makes them equal partner. women in #Balochistan are being sexually assaulted and tortured by military. #SaveBalochWomen https://t.co/EEAuzfwen4
— Bramsh Baloch (@bramshBaloc) September 16, 2019
Irrespective of being a province within the territory of Pakistan, Baloch people have expressed their solidarity with India and stated that they need India’s support to free their land from the domination of Pakistan and its military establishment.
Baloch Liberation Party President Ashraf Sherjan has also appealed India to highlight the Balochistan issue officially on all the international platforms.
Shabir Baloch, a member of the Free Balochistan Movement (FBM), said in a recently held seminar by FBM, ‘Pakistan is committing grave human rights violations where several mass graves have been discovered but, shamefully, the so-called human rights organizations were silent on Balochistan’s situation’.
There are many other activists and Baloch representative who are taking steps against Pakistan atrocities. They have also highlighted the issue of gross human rights violations and the mushrooming of terror camps in the region.
A tweet from famous Cartoonist Manoj Kureel shows the double standards of Malala Yousasfzai’s recent statement on Kashmir:
Look Who's Talking#Malala #MalalaYousafzai #Malala_is_Halala #MalalaFraud #Pakistani #PakistanQuitBalochistan pic.twitter.com/cKJh0C4RWh
— Manoj Kureel (@ManojKureel) September 16, 2019
Conflict between Balochistan and Pakistan
The Balochistan province of Pakistan accounts for nearly half of the landmass of Pakistan.
It is immensely rich in natural resources, including chromite, fluorite, marble, oil, gas, copper and gold. Despite these huge deposits of mineral wealth, the area is one of the poorest regions of Pakistan.
In a recent interview, Karima Baloch, former chairperson of Baloch Students Organisation—Azad said, ‘Pakistan always talks about acquiring the land. They don’t want the Baloch people but want the resources there. It has been its policy of exploiting the resources to make use of its geostrategic importance since a pro-freedom struggle is ongoing in Balochistan’.
Natural resources of Balochistan have been mercilessly used by the state but no investment was made in the socio-economic development of Balochistan. As a result, the human development index of Balochistan is the lowest one in all over Pakistan.
Also Read : Gilgit Baltistan Ignored Part Of Jammu Kashmir
Baloch people are fighting a decades-long war for their basic rights with Pakistan but are being labelled as traitors and extremists. The province has been marginalized since 1948 when Kalat (part of current Baluchistan) chose independence. The conflict was about the One-Unit policy and military establishment in Baluchistan.
Pakistan has been ‘illegally occupying’ Balochistan for the last 72 years. Balochistan was once an independent country like many other countries. On 11 August 1947, Balochistan gained its independence from British colonies three days before the creation of Pakistan. But after six months, Baloch people lost their freedom.
The Dirty Truth of Pakistan
Recently, an old video of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has gone viral on social media in which he is slamming the Pakistan Army for bombing and killing innocent people in Balochistan.
In a viral video, PM is seen talking, ‘In 1971, I was a firm supporter of the army back then and stood by our brave soldiers. But only after three years, we realized that the army butchered civilians, including women and children. We are doing exactly the same thing in Balochistan. The army is bombing its own people in Balochistan. How can you bomb our own people, is there any army you are bombing? Just think about the immorality of bombing villages with the women and children. We are doing exactly the same thing in Balochistan’.
VIDEO: Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan is proclaiming that Pakistan army is committing genocide in Balochistan… Butchering children & women. Bombing its own people. Similar to what it did in East Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/vEAAOEzxNu
— Navneet Mundhra (@navneet_mundhra) September 3, 2019
He further stated, ‘The extrajudicial killings are going on and their economy has been destroyed. You are talking about six million people in the tribal areas that are being bombed, their economy has been destroyed, they are living in refugee camps, how are they surviving, and what about the extra-judicial killing that is going on’.
The blatant violation of human rights, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of Baloch people are continuing at the hands of the state authority since ages. The arrested people are often killed in staged encounters and are falsely declared as terrorists in a state.
According to human rights watchdog Amnesty International reports, hundreds of Baloch people have disappeared only to be killed by Pakistani security forces as part of a state policy known as a kill and dump since 2011.
Unfortunately, no state authorities are intervening in an ongoing vicious activity in the province, nor has the international community taken any sufficient steps for the Baloch people. This is not enough! The media has also failed to reflect the real picture of Balochistan.
Height of Hypocrisy of Pakistan
On 5th August, the ‘temporary and transitional’ provision, Article 370 had been removed and India’s bold move to abrogate Article 370 has been receiving approval from all across the globe. Since then, Pakistan and China are not in their control and continuously trying to interfere in the internal matter of India. Especially, the Pakistan government has been actively giving bootless and nugatory advice on the International platform.
While addressing a press conference in Germany’s Frankfurt, Foreign spokesperson of the Baloch National Movement Hammal Haider, said, ‘Pakistan’s recent outcry over the Kashmir issue and its advocacy for the human rights of Kashmiri people is, I think, the height of hypocrisy and shamelessness when it has illegally occupied Balochistan for the last 72 years and killed and abducted thousands of Baloch political activists’.
On the one hand, they are outsourcing over the developments of Kashmir, where people are enjoying their rights. On the other hand, they themselves are involved in human rights violations in their own provinces.
Also Read : Article 370 Has Its Pros And Cons Just Like Other Laws
After removing the Article 370, Pakistan also requested the international community to intervene in the personal matters of India and call for restraint against the so-called illegal aggression. The Indian government has categorically notified the international community that its decision on Jammu and Kashmir is totally an internal matter. But Pakistan is not ready to accept the decision of India. Therefore, every next day, they are trying to impede in the matters of India.
It is very important for Pakistan to focus on their issues for the stability and development of the country instead of interfering in other state matters.
Pakistan’s economic, social and political crisis cannot be resolved overnight. Support from other countries will only provide some breathing room in the short term to its debilitated economy and situation.
Pakistan has been struggling for the last 72 years to establish political and economic stability.
It has four provinces which include Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.
But not even a single province is satisfied by the government’s work. In fact, Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s record on upholding the human rights of minorities is among the worst category in the world and it has been waging a constant war against its own people in the fidgety provinces of Balochistan including Sindh. The nation is yet to focus on the internal situation related to the human rights violation.
The growing voice of concern and protest against the cruelty of Pakistan on people of Balochistan is very loud and clear. Who will take corrective measures soon is the alarming question?
