The term ‘Balochistan’ simply means ‘the land of the Baloch’ and has a significant national implication, associating the region with the Baloch people. The emergence of this name is linked to the development of a Baloch feudal nationality and the geographical expansion of the Baloch into the territory that still bears their name. This process is thought to have taken place between the 12th and 15th centuries. Dr Inayatullah Baloch, a prominent authority on the subject, concurs with this view, asserting that the region known as Balochistan has retained its name since the establishment of the first Baloch confederation in the 12th century.
Baloch intellectual Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur asserts that Balochistan is commonly recognised as 44 percent of Pakistan’s landmass, but what often goes unnoticed is that its inclusion in this percentage was not a voluntary decision. Instead, the region sought coexistence but was forced into merger. Moreover, it is crucial to remember that Balochistan is not a ‘terra nullius’, a land without people; it has its own population. Unfortunately, the plight of the people of Balochistan, whose lives have been adversely affected by injustices since 27 March 1948, tends to be overlooked by both those in power and the general public.
The unfolding tragedy in Balochistan, which was deemed unnecessary, was a result of the Pakistani elite and the profound insecurity of the establishment. Their aspirations to enforce religious conformity led them to exercise authority, unprepared for the diverse social structures they encountered. Resorting to the use of force, a tactic ingrained in them by their colonial predecessors, only fueled lasting resentment among the people. Their attempts to assert dominance over long-established nations in the region showed a disregard for the diverse social and historical realities. It was as if they considered the universe to have begun on 14 August, annulling everything that preceded it. The repercussions of this avoidable tragedy have been catastrophic in terms of human suffering, societal disruption and economic devastation, particularly evident in the plight of the Bengalis and the ongoing challenges facing Balochistan.
Covering 44 percent of Pakistan’s land mass, Balochistan is often seen as more than just a geographical expanse. Its historical context, however, reveals a complex narrative marked by a forced merger with Pakistan on 27 March 1948, leading to profound injustices and destruction of lives. Balochistan’s millennial resistance to Persian, Afghan, British and Pakistani aggressors has shaped its national identity, characterised by a commitment to freedom and dignity.
To comprehend the roots of Balochistan’s resistance to Pakistan, it is essential to look at its history. Nations, defined by their cultures, are a reflection of their actions. The Baloch culture, deeply rooted in a history of defiance against oppressors, underlines the values of independence and stoicism. The harsh terrain and economic hardships necessitate self-sufficiency, shaping the Baloch way of life.
The question of Balochistan’s origins and its alignment with influential tribes over the centuries leads to the formation of the Baloch Confederacy in the mid-1600s under the Khans of Kalat. This confederation flourished and reached its peak under Naseer Khan Noori (1749-1794). However, the entry of the British East India Company altered the dynamics, leading to conflicts such as the first Anglo-Afghan war and the subsequent attack on Kalat in 1839.
The Baloch resistance against the British, unorganised but persistent, played a crucial role in shaping the destiny of the region. Taj Mohammad Breseeg writes that in 1920 a clandestine group known as the Young Baloch was founded by a cadre of Baloch nationalists led by Yusuf AH Magsi, who had been educated in India, and Abdul Aziz Kurd, the son of a Kalat state official. After a few years, the organisation underwent a transformation in both name and nature, becoming the ‘Anjuman-e Ittehad-e Balochan’ (Organisation for the Unity of the Baloch, hereafter referred to as the Anjuman) and shifting from covert operations to an open political party under Magasi’s leadership in 1931. This shift marked the inception of a new dynamic in Balochistan – the emergence of a secular, non-tribal nationalist movement organised in the form of a political party. In this context, Talpur says that political entities such as Anjumman-e-Itehaad-Balochistan and the Kalat State National Party (KSNP) reflected the Baloch people’s yearning for independence.
On 5 August 1947, the British government accepted and decided that Balochistan would attain independence with a status akin to its original status in 1838 and would foster amicable relations with its neighbouring states. The British government also pledged to take precautionary measures to assist Balochistan in accordance with the treaties of 1839 and 1841. Finally, after almost 108 years of rule, the British government declared Balochistan an independent country on 11 August 1948.
Soon after independence, Pakistan used all means and tactics to merge Balochistan with Pakistan. But the Balochistan parliament vehemently rejected such a nation. In the December 1947 session of the House of Commons, Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, a member representing the Kalat State National Party, emphasised the Baloch’s distinct cultural identity, akin to that of Afghanistan and Iran. He argued against the notion that being Muslim obliged them to merge with Pakistan, suggesting that by the same logic Afghanistan and Iran should also unite with Pakistan. Bizenjo asserted that such an act would be tantamount to signing the death warrant for the 15 million Baloch in Asia. Bizenjo was adamantly opposed to subjecting the Baloch nation to the humiliation of merging with a non-Baloch entity, which he considered a grave crime.
Balochistan faced challenges in the post-independence era. Harrison writes: “In April 1948, the Pakistan Army ordered its garrison commander in Balochistan to march on Kalat and arrest the Khan unless he signed an agreement of accession.” On 27 March 1948, Pakistan dispatched its army to Kalat and forced the Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, to sign the Accession Treaty with Pakistan. The forced accession to Pakistan in 1948, disregarding the sovereign status of Balochistan, marked a dark day in Baloch history.
The Baloch leader’s reaction was swift, ” resulting in unrest and anti-Pakistan rallies throughout Balochistan,” says Breeseg, “This first encounter between the Baloch and the forces of the Pakistani state was crucial in shaping nationalist insecurity and fear of repression at the hands of foreigners.”
From 15 April 1948, an armed movement unfolded in the Jhalawan region, spearheaded by Agha Abdul Karim, the brother of Mir Ahmad Yar Khan (1933-1948), the Khan of Kalat. This initiative was supported by certain nationalist figures and carried the clandestine endorsement of the Khan. However, on 8 July 1948, Abdul Karim was arrested by the Pakistani army along with two hundred companions and was later transferred to Quetta and Mach Jail. On 4 December 1948, Agha Abdul Karim was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
During the initial years of the Ayub regime (1958-69) the second phase of Baloch resistance to Pakistan unfolded. The intensified sense of neglect and deprivation resulting from the 1955 merger of the Balochistan Union of States with the provinces of West Pakistan. In response, Baloch leaders promptly organised open opposition, defying a ban on political activity. Nawab Nouroz Khan started the armed struggle against Pakistan. Later, however, he and his fighters agreed to negotiate with Pakistani forces, but he was betrayed and sentenced to life imprisonment, and his son and six others were hanged to death. This betrayal in Baloch history has been symbolised to understand the treacherous nature of Pakistan’s colonial mindset towards the Baloch nation.
The third waves of the Baloch national struggle started in the early 1960s. In 1963, Sher Mohammad Marri, a prominent Baloch irregular warfare strategist, along with a group of Baloch nationalists, initiated the organisational framework of the armed struggle movement. Their objective was to wage an all-out guerrilla war in support of the Baloch demand for the withdrawal of the Pakistani army from Balochistan, the abrogation of the One Unit Plan and the restoration of Balochistan as a unified province.
Pakistan, in collaboration with Iran, waged an all-out war against the Baloch freedom fighters, resulting in the killing of some 30,000 Baloch in the 1970s.
The ongoing fifth military operation in Balochistan, spanning more than two decades, represents one of the most brutal and prolonged conflicts in the region’s history. General Pervez Musharraf initiated the operation during his tenure as Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan. The assassination of the octogenarian Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006 marked a new turn in the struggle. The establishment’s policies, marked by the militarisation of Gwadar, the coastal area of Balochistan and demographic changes, fuelled Baloch resentment. The ‘dirty war’ in Balochistan intensified with systematic abductions, killings and disappearances, prompting a resilient response from the Baloch people.
This new era of struggle, by its very nature, is very different from the previous uprisings. Firstly, all the previous uprisings were limited in nature and scope in one way or the other: those struggles were limited to certain areas of Balochistan and always ended in a short span of time. But this time, the Baloch national struggle has penetrated to every nook and corner of Balochistan. Secondly, previously the movement was mainly controlled by the tribesmen. But this time the struggle is in the hands of those who are highly educated, middle class and have no tribal loyalties. The founding father of the most vibrant political party, the Baloch National Movement (BNM), Ghulam Mohammad himself belonged to a middle class family (Ghulam Mohammad Baloch along with Lala Munir, the vice-chairman of the Baloch National Movement and Sher Mohammad, a senior leader of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) were whisked away from Turbat city in broad daylight by the Pakistani intelligence agency and their mutilated bodies were found three days later on 9 April 2009 in the vicinity of Turbat city). Similarly, the current head of the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), Allah Nazar, a medical doctor by profession, and the leader of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), Bashir Zaib, also come from poor families. Interestingly, both were previously the chairmen of the Baloch Students Organisation (Azad).
According to human rights groups in Balochistan, the Pakistani military and secret services have abducted tens of thousands of people during these military operations. The fate of these individuals remains unknown for extended periods, with thousands experiencing extrajudicial killings, their bodies discarded in jungles and deserted locations.
It is pertinent to add that after the ‘kill and dump’ policy of Pakistani forces that started in 2009 and the policy of ‘collective punishment’ that officially banned political parties, Baloch Republican Party (BRP) and student organisation, Baloch Student Organisation (AZAD) and unofficially banned Baloch National Movement (BNM) by killing and enforced disappearance of its leaders and workers, a state of constant fear was created among the masses of Balochistan. Pakistan succeeded in maintaining this policy of fear for almost a decade. All this time, the political parties went underground and completely shut down their surface political activities. However, human rights groups like Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) continued to relentlessly highlight the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. Even in this hard time, under the leadership of Abdul Qadeer Baloch, widely known as Mama Qadeer, VBMP organised the march that started from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, on 27 October 2013 and ended in Karachi, where the marchers demonstrated in front of the Karachi Press Club on 23 November. In the first phase of the march, the families covered 730 km on foot. The second phase from Karachi to Islamabad began in mid-December and reached Islamabad on 28 February 2014, completing a protest march of more than 2,000 kilometres on foot to highlight the issue of missing persons in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province. Voice for Baloch Missing Persons was somehow the representative of the Baloch cause against Pakistani oppression.
However, the Baloch masses are getting frustrated with this continuous state of fear, as if they were a volcano waiting for a sudden eruption. This happened on May 26, 2020, when a Pakistan-backed death squad broke into a house in Turbat, killing a woman, Malik Naz, when she bravely resisted and wounding her four-year-old daughter Bramsh. This May 26 incident was very shocking. Balochistan had been witnessing an insurgency for about two decades. Since the inception of Pakistan. This is the fifth round of insurgency and the longest in the history of Balochistan. But the May 26 incident, the killing of a woman, Bramsh’s mother, and the injury of the toddler, had not been seen before. The reaction was so sharp and powerful, it resulted in the formation of a rights group, the Baloch Yekjethi Committee (Committee for Baloch Unity), which organised mass protests across Balochistan. Even the Baloch diaspora, especially in Europe, protested against the tragic event in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. Slowly, the Baloch Yekjethi Committee gained momentum and started organising demonstrations and rallies against Pakistani atrocities.
In a recent development, Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), operating under military directives, has adopted a new strategy against previously abducted Baloch forcibly disappeared persons. The CTD orchestrated fake encounters that resulted in the deaths of numerous forcibly disappeared Baloch youth.
On 23 November, the CTD reported the killing of four militants in an encounter, but these individuals were identified as Baloch youth who had previously been abducted by Pakistani forces. Families, including that of Balach Mola Baksh, protested his killing in Turbat, demanding justice. The protest gained widespread support and developed into a march to Quetta and later Islamabad under the umbrella of the Baloch Yekjethi Committee. Led by the Baloch Yekjethi Committee and joined by families of Baloch missing persons, a term used to refer to those abducted by Pakistani forces, the long march reached Islamabad on 2 December 2023. The demonstrators protested against the Baloch genocide and the forced abduction of Baloch civilians, and called for the immediate release of all those abducted.
Instead of addressing the grievances of the marchers, the government did nothing to stop the disappearances. Instead, it filed FIRs against the marchers and their supporters. The media propagated negative content against the leaders of the Long March, and the judiciary failed to adequately address the disappearances. The Chief Justice dismissed the issue by suggesting that the disappeared might have joined militant organisations, disregarding the harsh reality of these disappearances.
Given the failures of the Pakistani media, government and judiciary in delivering justice to the people of Balochistan, the leaders of the Long March are appealing to the international media, human rights organisations, the United Nations and representatives of oppressed nations to help end the cycle of violence in Balochistan.
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur writes that the ongoing struggle, marked by a ‘dirty war’ and persistent human rights violations, reflects Aristotle’s observations about tyrants. The establishment aims to humiliate the Baloch people, create mistrust and render them powerless. Despite this, the Baloch people continue to resist, driven by their desire for dignity and independence. The establishment’s policies, rooted in historical oppression, have met with unwavering resistance from a people determined to shape their own destiny.
Gone are the days when pro-establishment politicians and sardars (feudal lords) dictated the narrative; now it is the Baloch resistance that defines social and political relations in the region. People proudly identify with the sarmachars (freedom fighters) who have been waging their struggle for nearly seven decades, motivated by their love for their motherland and a commitment to its independence, regardless of its resource potential.
