Earlier this year, while addressing one of the largest public rallies in Quetta’s history, Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, had warned that a “revolution” was brewing in Balochistan.
The ongoing movement against enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings and military operations in Pakistan’s restive province of Balochistan is indeed at a “watershed moment”. Since the long march from Turbat to Islamabad in December 2023, the momentum of the Baloch protests has refused to dissipate.
The custodial killing of 24 year old Balach Mola Bakhsh by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in November 2023 and his family’s refusal to bury him in silence precipitated the present course of the Baloch movement. Since the ‘Rajee Muchi’ or national gathering in Gwadar, the movement has witnessed a flare up that marks a new phase in Baloch activism.
New phase in Balochistan’s movement
This new phase in Balochistan’s movement manifests a broad consensus, including among traditionally pro-establishment sections, that the state’s security-focused approach that has militarised the province must end. While tendering his resignation from the National Assembly, senior politician and leader of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) Akhtar Mengal said, “I say Balochistan has not just slipped; it’s already gone. Many lives have been lost in Balochistan. Everyone should have come together on this issue”.
Diverse protests over missing persons, resource distribution, lack of access to water, discontent over CPEC, and militarisation are beginning to coalesce under a single umbrella. Even amidst the internet shutdowns, several Baloch activists have started to raise their voices through social media in order to expose the extremes of the state.
Internationally the silence around the situation in Balochistan might also be changing, with rights organisations increasingly advocating for an end to the brutal crackdown on the Baloch. Dr. Mahrang’s inclusion in the TIME100 Next 2024 list is an indication that the Baloch movement is receiving global traction. However, Pakistan authorities have forestalled the possibility of her participation at the upcoming event.
Particularly noticeable about this phase of Baloch protests is the active participation of women, in addition to political workers and students. With women like Dr. Mahrang Baloch, 25-year old Sammi Deen or Dr. Sabiha Baloch, spearheading the movement hundreds of Baloch women have joined marches to Islamabad to protest the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Their activism is borne from the harassment and despair that comes from years of seeking answers about their missing fathers, brothers and sons. This marks a significant mindset shift for Balochistan where the ‘Sardari Nizam’ that perpetuates feudalism, tribalism, and inequality is still prevalent.
Baloch activism appears to have evolved from its traditionally tribal focus, to find an anchor amongst urban, educated youth. Organisations like the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) are now at the core of the resistance. Formulated by Mahrang following the abduction of her brother, and formed in 2020, after a four year old girl Bramsh was injured during a violent incident in Turbat that resulted in her mother’s death, the BYC has always been a rather horizontal tanzeem, broadly structuring itself around human rights abuses in Balochistan.
BYC’s campaigns have put the spotlight on extrajudicial killings, the murder of Karima Baloch in Canada, detention of Mahal Baloch, and on the use of state sponsored ‘death squads’ that act upon religious accusations to suppress secularism salient to Baloch political consciousness.
Tragic reality for Baloch families
The ‘Rajee Muchi’ at Gwadar brought together an intersection of Balochis protesting not just enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, but also those objecting the extractive resource capture in the mineral rich province, voices against CPEC which has led to large scale displacement and Balochis demanding basic rights.
The tragic reality for Baloch families, is that none remains unaffected by enforced disappearances, a disturbingly regular feature in Balochistan. Terrorist rendition programs are adopted heavily in US supported regimes, and Pakistan’s military, inflated by American funds has reproduced this model to serve its interests.
Several commissions have taken stock of the problems and yet successive governments have failed to implement key recommendations that could have empowered Balochistan politically and economically.
‘Human Rights Watch’ which has documented ‘Enforced disappearances by Pakistan security forces in Balochistan,’ cites how an official responded to septuagenarian and secretary-general of the Baloch Republican Party, Bashir Azeem during his detention, “Even if the president or chief justice tells us to release you, we won’t. We can torture you, or kill you, or keep you for years at our will. It is only the Army chief and the [intelligence] chief that we obey.”
Rather than curtailing the continued securitisation of Balochistan which makes up less than 6% of the total population of Pakistan, Islamabad has unleashed a new military operation ‘Azm-i-Istehkam,’ choosing to continue securitisation, in context of which disappearances occur.
Negligible support from mainstream political parties
The grievances of the Baloch people have never been addressed by Pakistan in the way a welfare state should. Any talk about improving the socio-economic backwardness of the province or addressing the issue of enforced disappearances is eclipsed by the overwhelming precedence to securitisation. The racial profiling of the Baloch as patriarchal, ‘R&AW funded’ ‘traitors’ and of Pashtuns, a majority in North Balochistan as ‘terrorists’ crystallises this attitude.
Mainstream parties rarely engage with the Baloch dissenters. During the tenure of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Maryam Nawaz met the families of the Baloch missing persons and assured them justice, but has not addressed the issue since the PML-N has been in power. Even now the issue of missing persons has been brought into focus because of the intense crackdown on PTI involving abductions and unlawful detentions.
Political parties for all intents and purposes have outsourced Baloch issues to the military establishment, which has characteristically responded to the non-violent constitutional demands of Baloch activists with force, perpetuating the cycle of repression.
Vaishali Basu Sharma is a strategic and economic affairs analyst.