Military Operation in Balochistan: A Case of a Country Invading its People.
Baloch are facing yet another military operation that has killed and injured many and displaced and
dispossessed thousands others. The situation is worsening by the day and one doesn’t see any move to
end the crisis peacefully and amicably.
The situation can be described as a classic case of a country’s invasion of its own people. Though it is
nothing new for the Baloch people as they have witnessed many such invasions in the past. Sindhis can feel
their pain and sufferings as they also faced an inhuman and brutal military action in 1983 when military forces
with full gear were used against unarmed citizens in Sindh that were calling for nothing else but ‘return to
democracy in the country’. Hundreds of villages and towns were attacked and bombed and thousands of the
people were killed, injured and incarcerated.
It can be safely said that while the state of Pakistan has utterly failed in finding raison d’être for her
existence, the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan are being mercilessly and criminally ruled as colonies of an
unholy Establishment. As the colonization process seems to be complete in Sindh, efforts are afoot to achieve
the same in Balochistan.
Why military operation in Balochistan?
Sindh and Balochistan are the two most important provinces of Pakistan - strategically as well as resources
wise. Balochistan has the 43% of the land mass of Pakistan with a great potential of natural resources that
include gas, oil, coal, copper, gold and other minerals besides having a large coastline. Sindh, on the other
hand, virtually feeds the present-day Pakistan - and unfortunately its army – which happens to be its occupation
force.
There is no denying the fact that Sindh provides 70% of the funds that finance the whole country - its
administration and the Establishment - while it gets not more than 8-14% back - depending on what calculations
we use. It has the largest coal reservoirs in the area and vast reservoirs of oil, gas, minerals, other natural
resources, seaports, large coastline and a strategic location. From the very first day of the creation of Pakistan, it
has been the intention of the Establishment to control the province using any and all means. At this juncture, the
establishment feels that it has finally enforced a system in the province with the help of its agencies assuring that
"no leaf can move without its permission".
No such assurance is in sight in Balochistan. Not yet, at least. The government wants to reach there. It wants to
dismantle the last bastions of the resistance. Hence the latest military operation.
Based on my recent talks with Sindhi leaders, intellectuals, common men and women in Sindh and in North
America, I can assure my Baloch brethren that Sindhis unequivocally condemn the military operation in
Balochistan and stand with them in solidarity at this critical hour of their struggle. We were with them (and with
the people of East Bengal) yesterday and are with them today. I hereby renew my appeal to all the people of
Sindh and Balochistan and all of Pakistan – and South Asia - and all the other peace loving and pro-democracy
people of the world - to write to the congressmen, the parliamentarians, government officials, human rights
organizations - and take part in - and organize rallies and protests - to call the attention of the world to the
atrocities of the illegal, undemocratic and unrepresentative government in Pakistan.
We all have to work hand-in-hand for better future - and for the emancipation of our people.
My friends don’t blink. Keep moving forward!
Aziz Narejo
President, SANA
(Sindhi Association of North Ammerica)
Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) is Non-Profit Organization, working to unite and Organize all Baloch in North America, to expose the Occupation and Oppressive policies of Pakistani and Iranian Governments against Baloch people and our Baloch land (Balochistan), and to bring their Human Rights Violations in Balochistan into the world’s Notice.
