Volume 7, No. 1, January 2025
Editor: Rashed Rahman
The contemporary wave of struggle in Balochistan is led by women, following the Baloch Long March in 2023. Baloch women are leading the sit-in protests in Gwadar and holding mass demonstrations in Balochistan. The spectacular nature of the women-led Baloch movement transcends boundaries. It creates the transnational nature of the movement, which echoes the global systemic oppression against Palestine, the Congo, Kashmir, and the Kurdish Nationalist movement. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo) movement emerged during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976-1983). The mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, wearing their white headscarves, arm in arm, marched around the capital Buenos Aires’ central square, holding huge placards chanting for justice for their missing (disappeared by the military dictatorship) children. Turning their bodies like walking billboards, they were demanding that their children be brought back alive. Those mothers demanded justice for the human rights violations committed by the brutal military dictatorship that tortured, abducted, and extrajudicially disappeared 30,000 of their children. The individual women became known as Madres, who not only performed traditional domestic duties but also became dissidents. Likewise, mothers in Balochistan have not only been protesting for their loved ones, but also creating the space for resistance.
The majoritarian government system in Pakistan with ethno-religious supremacy is a continuation of colonial power dynamics. The Pashtuns bore the brunt of the Afghan jihad, and military campaigns have been going on against them. The Baloch, on the other hand, have witnessed enforced disappearances and insurgencies. To sustain the political hegemony of the rulers, Islam has been seen as the common denominator. This exacerbated the ethnic divisions in an innately rich, diverse nation. To seek ethnolinguistic identity in the context of political rights was then seen as divisive. The colonial policies towards the Baloch and Pashtuns also laid the foundations of Pakistan’s policy towards these two ethnic groups. Pashtuns have been stereotyped since before Partition by the British. They were recruited in the army based on racialised assumptions that some groups are inherently known as martial races.
In 2019, the Pakistan army opened fire on a crowd in Khar Qamar, North Waziristan. The protests were led by Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, the leading figures in the non-violent Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). The two PTM legislators accused the Pakistan Army of human rights abuses. Perhaps as many as 13 people were killed when the soldiers opened fire on the march, in the military’s violent response to the peaceful PTM. The Pashtun population of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has borne the brunt of drone bombings, militant attacks, and army operations. The Pashtuns have been seen through a racialised lens during colonial times and now by the Pakistani state. Winston Churchill called them “savages and barbarous” (Churchill, 1897). Similarly, in Balochistan, the Baloch people have been subject to enforced disappearances, kill-and-dump, and encounter killings. The association between the Pashtuns and military prowess preceded colonial rule. The Baloch were also manipulated, co-opting their leaders to support British rule. Such colonial policies never ceased, despite the independence of Pakistan. Recently, in the Bannu region of northwestern Pakistan, thousands of demonstrators participated in the sit-in protests after the authorities fired on participants on July 19, 2024.
The Baloch Raaji Muchi (National Gathering) was held on July 28, 2024. The authorities arrested participants and started a military crackdown in Gwadar. According to the Baloch Yakjehti (Solidarity) Committee, a bogus FIR was lodged against the activists and participants. The peaceful protestors were detained by the police. The ongoing crackdown against the Baloch Raaji Muchi couldn’t dent the political will of the participants. Dr Mahrang Baloch delivered her speech during the sit-in protest at Padizir Gwadar despite Gwadar having been put under siege. In Balochistan, tracking political activists through mobile phone surveillance and social media has played a crucial role in inducing atrocities. When dictators couldn’t crush the masses, the regime fell, and when armies opened fire repeatedly, autocrats clung to power. Regime survival hinges on how the military responds to mass demonstrations. The peaceful nature of demonstrations becomes challenging for the military because such manifestations do not fit easily into the narrative of the ‘national security threat’. This makes it harder for the military authorities to justify using force against peaceful demonstrators. Still, the act of firing on peaceful demonstrators who are fighting for a just cause is rationalised as critical for the regime’s survival. This makes it more likely that a regime facing a challenge will act against the protestors. In Pakistan, the military has been structured along patrimonial lines – the military’s loyalty is tied to personal, familial and ethnic connections, who see any threat as a threat to their own institution and are more willing to repress the protests.
The suppression of dissent keeps the status quo through a tripartite agreement among the military authorities, political elites and public opinion. A renowned political organiser for the Baloch struggle, Mir Muhammad Ali Talpur says, “Balochistan is an unnecessary tragedy.” The mobilisation for the Baloch movement, which is igniting through social media platforms, may have shaken the conscience of some people, but it is historic. The mountains of Balochistan have witnessed countless bloodshed, violence, and the mourning of Hazara, Pashtun and Baloch mothers. The flowers also lament the disappearing ones. There are unheard-of earths in Pakistan. Today, the middle class in Pakistan is reflecting dialectical polarisation. The privileged middle class on the one hand, and the educated right-wingers on the other are oblivious to the people of Pakistan living at the margins. On the contrary, the middle class from the peripheries has become disillusioned with traditional political parties and institutions and has ignited a grassroots movement.
The environment in the militarised space unravels the junction between survival and conflict with each passing day. But, amid survival and conflict, resistance prevails and seeks liberation. The Baloch Raaji Muchi caravan left Gwadar and reached Turbat; thousands of people welcomed the convoy. The Baloch Raaji Muchi isn’t just a protest but a movement that aims to resist domination and mobilise for political, economic and cultural liberation. Resistance is nurtured not just through protests but also through artistic expression, art, songs and slogans that challenge the dominant narrative. The oppression induced in Balochistan is multi-dimensional and intersectional. Militarisation reinforces heteropatriarchal power structures, creating ethnic, religious, and class-based polarisation.
Today, Baloch women have challenged their traditional prescribed roles by stepping into political public spaces. Mahrang Baloch mobilised to enlighten the political consciousness and build cross-ethnic solidarity among the Baloch, Hazara, Pashtun and Sindhis. Talpur also stated: “The purpose of the Raaji Muchi is to tell people that the Baloch are indigenous to Balochistan, and we own this land. Today, we witness the same colonialism and systematic violence visited on the Bengalis until 1971 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Balochistan. To conceptualise the Baloch oppression, Gwadar is the epitome of the exploitation that has ignited the marginalisation of the Baloch more than ever. Since the CPEC projects started, the Makran belt of Balochistan has been affected disproportionately. Over many decades now, Baloch women have led protest rallies, marched, and worked toward building a Baloch political consciousness regarding the right to self-determination of the Baloch people.”
It also becomes problematic when marginalised people are seen through the lens of victimisation. That only reinforces the dichotomy of supremacist ideology and people in the peripheries who are treated as sub-human. One of the grievances of the Baloch is how some Pakistani privileged people engage with such resistance movements in a superficial or symbolic fashion. Some people may support the Baloch cause, but their struggles are often co-opted and appropriated for tokenistic purposes. Even members of the provincial Assembly of Balochistan are enjoying the political patronage of a military-bureaucratic system that has long been playing the politics of tokenism while giving the appearance of progress. Some people in Pakistan choose selective humanity as they are the beneficiaries of the power structure that oppresses the oppressed. Such perpetuation of inequities is also a form of violence, as it maintains the conditions that necessitate resistance in the first place. Criminalising the peaceful protests of the dissidents allows violence to continue unchecked.
What constitutes the definition of ‘Baloch nationalism’ has become a web of complex phenomena because of the interplay of historical, political, geopolitical and economic dynamics and the competing narratives surrounding Baloch nationalism. Some Baloch nationalist groups seek liberation by appealing to the international legal frameworks and UN agencies that could provide legitimacy and aspirations for autonomy. However, some critics within the nationalist circles argue that the same international laws are complicit in perpetuating global imbalances and acting as genocide apologists. The divergence of ideologies reflects the broader tensions within Baloch nationalism. Still, it is imperative to understand the nuances of human agency and build solidarity networks with shared struggle rather than make essentialist assertions that provoke the structures of domination. Right now, international support means that Baloch or Palestinian choices in their struggle, whether through direct action or grassroots organising, do not undermine their autonomy, and global solidarity can enhance the legitimacy of such marginalised people’s struggles. Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Baloch have created a ripple effect and, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, catalyzed a far-reaching resistance movement led by women. Baloch Raaji Muchi is perceived as an anomaly within the socio-political landscape of Balochistan, but it has been revealed to be the precursor to igniting the collective Baloch consciousness. Rather than extinguishing the flames of dissent, the violence inflicted by the state acted as an accelerant, propelling the subaltern from the peripheries to its very centre. When systemic violence relegates the subaltern to the margins, Baloch Raaji Muchi creates a cascading series of actions that reverberate transnationally across the province and beyond the borders. Such a movement is both the product of material conditions and collective efforts to reshape the pursuit of liberation, drawing on historical grievances. Blair Imani says: “Marginalised people don’t have the luxury of losing interest in liberation.”
The author is a graduate student at University of Cincinnati, a writer and social activist from Balochistan.