Balochistan is part of the Central Asian Plateau. The Baloch land shares its border with Persia in West, Afghanistan in North and Sindh and Punjab in East. Because of its strategically important location and vast reserves of natural resources Balochistan has been the focus of world powers throughout history. The first unifiedBaloch nation state was established in year 1666 under the authority of Khanate of Kalat. The British Empire army invaded Balochistan on 13 November 1839 and killed Mir Mehrab Khan the then ruler of Balochistan. A few decades after the invasion, they divided Balochistan into three parts. That is why today Balochistan divided between three countries i.e. Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. There are only guesstimates of the Baloch population - about 12 million Baloch people live in Pakistan occupied Balochistan, over 4 million in Western Balochistan (Iranian occupied Balochistan) and over a million in Northern Balochistan, currently controlled by Afghanistan.The British using its infamous policy of divide and rule drew two arbitrary lines, which have divided Balochistan into three parts: The ‘Goldsmith Line’ (1871) that presently separates Iranian occupied Balochistan from Pakistani occupied Balochistan. This agreement was between the Persian rulers, the then Qajar King Nasir-ul-Din Shah (1848-1896) and the British. In 1893 another arbitrary line the ‘Durand Line’ was drawn – transferring a large segment of the Northern region of Balochistan to Afghanistan. These borders were drawn without the consent of the Baloch people and to this day Baloch have never accepted these artificial lines (FPC, 2006).By the beginning of the First World War the Persian lost control over Western Balochistan. In 1916 Bahram Khan Baloch wasrecognised by the British as the effective ruler of western Balochistan. Bahram Khan was succeeded by his nephew Mir DostMohamed Khan in 1921. His time in power coincided with the reign of Reza Khan as the ruler of Persia. Reza Khan invaded WesternBalochistan and illegally annexed it to Persia in 1928.Eastern Balochistan declared its full independence on 11 August 1947 at the time of British departure from the Indian sub-continent. The news of Balochistan’s proclamation of independence was reported in the New York Times on 12 August 1947. In the same moth first democratic general elections were held in Balochistan. Members of the Balochistan National Party, a secular democratic party, won 39 seats out of 52 seats in Balochistan legislative assembly of House of Commons (Sarmachar, 2009).In 1948 Pakistanis asked the Baloch rulers to join Pakistan on the basis of shared religion but the democratically elected parliamentarians of Balochistan unanimously voted against the merger. However, Pakistan disregarded the decision of Balochparliament and invaded Balochistan on 27, March 1948 (History, 2011).In the very same year the younger brother of Khan of Kalat started the struggle against occupation of Balochistan. Baloch people have never accepted the forced annexation of their sovereign state to Pakistan and their struggle to regain independence continues to this day.The Baloch liberation struggle 1948-77Since illegal occupation of Balochistan in 1948, Pakistan has carried out five major military operations to crush the Balochliberation movement. These military operations were conducted in 1948, 1958, 1962, 1973-77 and the year 2000 which is still continued. The last two Pakistani military operations have been the bloodiest wars in the history of Balochistan. During 1973-77 military campaign, over 90,000 Pakistani troops supported by 30 US Cobra attack helicopters, supplied by the Shah of Iran, confronted over 60,000 Baloch fighters. As a result of this conflict, at least 15,000 Baloch were killed and many thousands were displaced (Rehman, 2010).Selig Harrison, an American Scholar, in his book in In Afghanistan’s Shadow states that in 1970s Pakistan was fighting a losing war against Baloch fighters with relatively clumsy Chinook helicopters that they had received from United States. By “mid-1974, Iran sent thirty U.S supplied Huey Cobra helicopters, many of them manned by Iranian Pilots” (Harrison, 1981). That changed the balance in favour of invading Pakistani army.Just three examples among their long list of different types of torture that Pakistani army employed in Balochistan during this conflict would suffice to reveal their murderous psyche. In one case after keeping and torturing their victims for months, Pakistani military officers flew their victims in a helicopter and dropped them from a very high altitude and filmed them falling down to the ground. In second case after arresting and torturing their victims, in many occasions Pakistan military fastened their victims, drove and dragged them alive from one village to another. One of these victims was in Marri area from Alyani Marri tribe who lived in nearKahan village. He was dragged behind the Pakistani army truck from one village to another village alive. After their truck reached to the next village only a small part of the victim’s body was left attached to the rope. In addition, Punjabi army crucified many Baloch. One of the victims who experienced this entire ordeal has survived to tell the tale. This brutal mind-set of Pakistan has not changed and they still carry out such inhuman acts. In August 2008 Pakistani military abducted three Baloch men and after failing to get any information from them, the men were burnt alive. The Asian Human Rights Commission confirmed this report and later Peter Tatchell wrote in The Guardian as following: “The AHRC received confirmation that Pakistani soldiers arrested four people on April 5 2008, in the Dera Bugti district ofBalochistan, and subjected them to torture. They were asked to identify local supporters of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). After failing to get any names from them, the victims were immersed in scolding hot coal tar. Three of the men were literally boiled and burned to death. A fourth died later from his injuries.” (Tatchell, 2008)
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 16:02:20 +0000
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