Opinion | Deputy train a terrible memory of the way Balochizan is the victim of Pakistan’s exclusion policy

Last update:March 18, 2025, 16:48 Ist

In recent times, Blas have become an even more dangerous threat to Pakistan’s security, due to the consolidation of various separatist factions Baloch in a single group – Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar or Bras

People gather next to an ambulance that carries the bodies of the people, who were killed after a train was attacked by separatist militants from Bolan, during the funeral in Quetta, Pakistan. (Image: Reuters)

Terrorism has no justification. The use of violence to kill or persecute another human being is something that no civilized society should ever tolerate. However, terrorists cannot be isolated from the social-political environment under which they operate. This is due to the fact that the understanding of someone about their surroundings and about the elders who forced them to raise their arms can travel a long way to ensure a long -lasting peace.

With this intention, the Baloch (Bla) release army diverted a whole train in Pakistan must be approached. The whole world followed them while they took hundreds of civilians, as well as hostages of military personnel. Now, the Pakistanian military operation against them could have ended with a large amount of victims on both sides.

But where did it all start?

Blas or Baloch release army is a terror outfit that operates mainly in the Balochizan province of Pakistan. It was first established for the first time in 2000, with the purpose of ensuring independence from Pakistan and, since then, has targeted military personnel, sometimes even civilians, as well as foreign nationals to reach their goal. It was raised to importance in the 2000s only when it began to make certain high profile attacks to ensure international attention.

In 2013, he was involved in the abduction and killing of bus passengers in Balochistan, half of which belonged to Pakistani Security forces. In fact, Jaffar Express, the train they diverted this time, is one of their usual targets. In the past, there have also been many attacks and explosions targeting this train between Quetta in Balochizan and Peshawar in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In recent times, BLA has become an even more dangerous threat to Pakistan’s security, due to the strengthening of different Baloch separatist factions in a single group – Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar or Bra.

Bras comprises many other separatist organizations in Baloch, apart from Bla, and soon intends to form a national Baloch army with a unified military structure. On its target are not only the staff serving in the army or in the Pakistanian government officials, but also at the Chinese Resortisants, who are part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC).

This is due to their craving against CPEC, which has accumulated several economic benefits for all parties involved, but has systematically excluded the well -being of Baloch people. Today, China has invested nearly $ 65 billion in the initiative with a strategic Gwadar localized port, an airport, as well as several mining projects that have appeared in the last decade in the Balochizer province, but all of this has come with the price of excluding indigenous people from Baloch.

Not only that the local workforce was completely marked, but also the heavy military implementation for the corridor providing the abuse of human rights with forced disappearance, sexual abuse, extrajudicial killings being the norm.

It can be said that the colonialism could have ended for the rest of the world, but Baloch still lives in a double colonization era by not only Pakistan, but also China. For this reason, the CPEC infrastructure and Chinese experts who work there, even with the new Gwadar International Airport, have been targeted, worth $ 240 million, which are dysfunctional, because both the Chinese and Pakistani government are afraid of a possible attack from the Baloch separation.

While China came to the radar of the Baloch nationalists only recently, their resentments with the Pakistani state return a lot in time. People in Baloch who form an ethnic minority in the country today lived as semi-autonomic princess states for a very long period of time during the colonial period. The British signed a treaty with them in 1876 to ensure the northern -west border of their own empire, which has become the main basis for Baloch separatists to seek independence. In 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided, the Baloch nationalists used the same treaty to declare his independent status, but Pakistan forcefully occupied the territory, which led to the first round of armed rebellion.

In the following decades, they faced exactly the same type of repression on the part of the Pakistani state as the ethnic Bengals. It is well known that the dominance of Punjabis in the government, as well as the army, led to the marginalization of any other ethnic group in the country. Baloch has also confronted the effects of the same when not only became one of the extremely under -present groups in the power levels, but even their cultural identity was also sabotaged with the imposition of the Urdu language.

At the end of the 1950s, there was a second round of insurgents in the province, when the Pakistani government imposed a “unity” policy, bringing all four provinces in Western Pakistan (Sindh, Punjab, North-West and Balochartitan province) under a single administrative division. The purpose was to have only two divisions in Pakistan – West and East Pakistan for the ease of administration, but the Baloch separatists opposed this because of the decim of their political identity by unifying with other provinces. Although politics “a unit” was later abandoned, the desire it left in the hearts of the Baloch people was deep.

Many of these were reflected in the first large-scale insurgency that broke out in Balochizan between 1973-1977. The release of East Pakistan in 1971 was seen by Baloch separatists as an encouraging sign for their own freedom. This determined an anxious government Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to suspend the provincial government of Akbar Khan Bugti in Balochizan. He also sent a great contingent of the army in the province for a mega military operation that killed thousands of innocent people in Baloch. At that time, Pakistan received even air support from Iran, who was afraid of the spread of insurgents in his own Baloch population.

Between 1940 until today, Baloch separatism has witnessed many phases so far, but a reality that has remained constant is the economic apart with which the people of Baloch faced. Baloidetan is a slightly populated province in Pakistan, but it is also the largest with an area of ​​land that represents almost half of the territory of the whole country. It is also the most blessed province in terms of natural resources, with huge reserves not exploited by natural gas, copper, gold and oil.

However, it is also the poorest province in the country, because all these wealth have been exploited by successive Pakistan governments for their own parochial interests. For example, the gas pipelines for the transfer of natural gas in the province have been fully developed, but the local infrastructure to transport the same for the Baloch people, so that they can meet their own energy needs even today.

Also, according to the available data, only 36% of the province is electrified, while the rest are still struggling to obtain an appropriate power source. In fact, if Pakistan is an undeveloped country today, then Baloch is placed even worse. Compared to the national income per capita, their income per capita is not even half of it.

Even in human development indicators, if Punjab and Sindh rank larger than the rest of the country, then Balochizan is at the bottom with negligible literacy, the greatest incidence of poverty and the most inadequate access to medical assistance. No wonder he detested the Pakistanian state exclusion policy. Their resentments with the state of affairs are obliged to continue to consolidate, because even the “player changer” scheme has excluded their economic interests.

Imagine this, out of the thirteen mega energy projects that were jointly initiated by Pakistan and China, six are in Punjab, six in Sindh, one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and none of Balochiztan.

The stories of this economic apartheid faced by Baloch people are widely shared in the media by activists, Baloch Diaspora members, as well as many scientists and journalists. However, all these Sage of persecution and repression have never received the attention they really deserve.

Even cases in which the diaspora Baloch was killed in foreign countries were totally ignored by otherwise proactive Western governments. Now, the episode of hijacking the train has brought back the situation of Baloch people on the international platform in a large way.

In the following days, the state of Pakistan will use this incident even more to persecute ordinary people in the province. Although, as I said from the beginning that terrorism has no justification and taking the people of the hostage or the use of violence is an unacceptable movement by all means. But the world should not forget what the Baloch is facing regularly in that country. This is the lowest of the hopes I can have today.

The author is a Delhi commentator on geopolitics and foreign policy. He owns a doctorate from the Department of International Relations, University of South Asia. Tweet @tranymanica. The opinions expressed in the piece above are personal and alone of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the News18 opinions.