a (censored) article about balochistan
http://tribune.com.pk/story/174433/the-terribly-sad-state-of-balochistan/
written by Nosheen Ali
“The military operation in Balochistan has only intensified over the last five years, with many in the province seeing it as nothing but a brutal form of state repression. Reportedly, more than 4,000 people havebeen illegally abducted and detained. Out of these, around 149 were later found dead, usually with their dead bodies found by the roadside. The dehumanising nature of the violence is evidenced not just in the ways people are tortured — with holes drilled in the head and bodies mutilated beyond recognition — but also in the way their bodies are discarded. One note accompanying a decomposed corpse said, “Eid gift for the Baloch”.
Those who have been kidnapped, tortured and killed are not just armed militants hiding in the mountains. A vast proportion of them are from the urban middle class, including students, engineers, lawyers, journalists and activists who have been engaging in civilian protest against what they perceive to be wrong policies of the state and the establishment. As the Guardian reported two months ago, a Baloch farmer went to court to file a case for his missing son but his lawyer was murdered. When he subsequently went to the media, the president of the local press club was murdered. Now, no one wishes to speak up for him.
In this situation, why should we be surprised or offended if some children in the province refuse to sing the national anthem and local schools refuse to fly the national flag? Why do we shudder when an increasing number of people in Balochistan — including women, for the first time — shout slogans that go against the existence of Pakistan. Every dead body is an embodiment of a renewed resolve to fight the policies of the centre. This, in turn, has brought about retaliatory violence. Armed Baloch groups have also resorted to horrific forms of indiscriminate violence. They used to blow up gas pipelines. Now they carry out target killings. Of Punjabi settlers, government servants, even Chinese engineers — any blood that the elite might care about.”
