Fate of Baloch students hangs in balance

Pak Army is notoriously known for framing Baloch youth and finding reasons to call them anti-establishment, besides treating them in dehumanizing ways to establish their supremacy and continue the goon rule over the province. As recently as the May 9 mayhem, Baloch students studying in Punjabi universities were taken to police custody because it was convenient for the police to blame Baloch students without evidence… writes Kaliph Anaz

The Eid Al Adha supplications in Balochistan reverberated in each corner of the territory crying for justice for the missing youth of the land. Like last year, families of missing Baloch protested in different cities for the recovery of their loved ones on Eid.

The issue of enforced disappearances is not new here. On Pak Army’s whims and wishes, people are tortured in humiliating ways, sometimes at random and other times for demanding their rights as equal citizens of the nation.

No one here is safe from fake encounters. Pak Army is notoriously known for framing Baloch youth and finding reasons to call them anti-establishment, besides treating them in dehumanizing ways to establish their supremacy and continue the goon rule over the province. As recently as the May 9 mayhem, Baloch students studying in Punjabi universities were taken to police custody because it was convenient for the police to blame Baloch students without evidence. After all, the Baloch have no voice in Pakistan.

The agonies of their families know no end. For some of them, their loved ones have not returned for more than a decade. Families make court appearances, protest, and appeal, but reach right where they started in the search. They don’t even know if their loved one is alive and well.

One such story is of Dr. Deen Baloch who went missing 14 years ago. A delegation of the Baloch National Movement had to go as far as to submit a petition at the British Prime Minister’s residence demanding justice for him because the issue held no importance for the Pak government. Pak citizens need external interference to remind the government to prioritize the welfare of its people.

Known as military operations, as if the term justifies their acts, Pak Army’s witch-hunt in Balochistan continues since the beginning of the year. Its foot forces are supported by helicopters, gunships, and drone surveillance to closely monitor underground associations. Presently the military has blocked the entrances in the Kalat district along with Gishag and Johan. God only knows what the people are being put through. It is anyway nearly impossible for the citizens to share their grief a communication channels with the outside world are heavily censored or cut off entirely.

Innocent Baloch are shot at the slightest suspicion or whim. Their remains are disposed of in water bodies or openly on the roadsides, to set examples for the revolutionaries. Though sometimes, the target killings are random to maintain terror and fear of the military. Shaheed Abdul Qayyum, a resident of Turbat, south Balochistan, was killed unjustly right before Eid Al Adha. He was a simple man with no affiliation to armed groups, state institutions, or anti-government organizations. Who will plead his case? Will someone put their life on the line to bring justice to Qayyum and others who have met the same fate?

There has been a significant rise in police brutalities, enforced disappearances, and target killings since 2022. Fake encounters, intimidations at gunpoint, threats, harassment, and use of extreme force on peaceful gatherings simply demanding the release of their loved ones, is the order of the day.

A shadow of uncertainty engulfs Balochistan. As the rest of the world moves ahead, this region is living in the medieval by design. Keeping people in perpetual sorrow is a sadistic strategy of the government to enable strict rule.

The government of a nation is supposed to be the protector of the rights and dignity of its people. But Baloch aspirations and the sanctity of human life mean nothing in the state of Pakistan.

Starved of attention, normalcy, and life, Balochistan cries. She is perpetually kept in conflict, devoid of hope and light, burning by Pakistan which has sworn to juice every last natural asset of the land. Pakistan is running her gas fields dry, digging the ends of her earth for minerals, whilst not allowing the Baloch a single rupee’s worth of restitution for all the environmental and psychological damage caused by these activities. And even after all this, the Baloch are given slave treatment.