Balochistan, the size of France and abundant in natural resources, was invaded by the Pakistani army in 1948. Unlike Punjab, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, Balochistan is a maritime land, connecting South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Despite possessing gold, chromite, gas, and oil, the people of Balochistan live below the poverty line, like those in Sub-Saharan Africa, Burundi, and the Central African Republic, Balochistan’s resources are being exploited for the benefit of Punjab, the dominant province of Pakistan.
The Pakistani army’s generals have built islands in Australia and opened businesses in Western and Gulf countries while exploiting Baloch natural resources. Any general of the Pakistan army posted to Balochistan from Punjab seems to have acquired millions of dollars through illegal means. So the Pakistan army’s generals see the Baloch in their own land as “others,” just as African people were seen as “others” by European invaders.
Pakistan’s invasion of Balochistan empowered Punjab-dominated generals to kill and abduct any Baloch under the shield of immunity. After slaughtering probably ten thousand Baloch, including my two brothers Shahnoor Baloch and Shahzaib Baloch, and abducting more than twenty thousand Baloch, the Pakistan army’s generals went scot-free. My brothers were arrested by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, on March 11, 2013, from Turbat, Balochistan, and their decomposed and mutilated bodies were recovered on May 19, 2013, from Turbat, Balochistan. Unlike Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Sudan, and Chile, Pakistan went unpunished although its army has killed and maimed Baloch political workers like a butcher slaughtering sheep in a slaughterhouse.
By remaining silent about the massacre in Balochistan, the international community has been encouraging the marauding Pakistan army to carry out atrocities in Balochistan. When atrocities took place in the countries mentioned above, the international community took notice and stopped the genocide. In Balochistan, they are as silent as a grave, which is emboldening the immoral and outlaw Pakistan army. It looks as if the Baloch, unlike South Sudanese, Kosovans, and East Timorese, are not human beings, and treating them like objects and insects is legal under international law. Pakistan, which is a signatory of international law, is practicing its legal right in Balochistan by eliminating “non-humans.” It seems as if the slogans of humanity and humanism on a broader basis are an empty, soulless, and deceptive program projected by Western people. It looks as if human beings are emotionless, as the emotions, pain, and suffering of the Baloch do not touch the hearts of people in the world and in Western countries. They are in the habit of talking about the past Nazi genocide but ignore the present Baloch genocide committed by the Pakistan army. They lambaste the past Armenian genocide but are reluctant to say a word against the genocide carried out in Balochistan by the Pakistan army. Is it double standards, ignorance, or lack of emotion?
When Baloch women like Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Bibo Baloch kept protesting against the enforced disappearances of their loved ones by the Pakistan army and exercising their democratic right for the safe release of their loved ones, the Pakistan army gave them life imprisonment through its compliant courts. The Pakistan army’s decision and practice echo the poem Sympathy, in which the caged bird beats its wings till its blood is red on the cruel bars. Like the caged bird, Dr. Mahrang Baloch and her party members, who protested against the abduction of Baloch activists by the Pakistan army, were not allowed to protest; instead, they were put behind bars. Is our Baloch blood water? Was Kosovan, South Sudanese, and Bosnian blood? Why is the West, which claims to be the champion of human rights and humanism, silent over the pogrom and atrocities carried out by the Pakistan army in Balochistan?
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