Author: Ehsan Baloch
BSO-Azad recently announced its 23rd Central Council Session, which has raised the hopes of Baloch students that the organization is actively working on the ground and leading their programs. The session will be held in the name of Lumma-E-Watan Banuk Karima Baloch and Shuhda-E-Aajohi (Martyrs of Freedom), and is a welcome step for the present and future of Baloch student politics. This is especially important at a time when affiliated wings, NGOs, and other monitored groups are trying to manipulate student politics. With a new central leadership, the organization will plan new strategies to reshape Baloch student politics.
In 2009, when a crackdown was launched against BSO with the forceful disappearance of Central Vice Chairman Zakir Majeed Baloch, the organization became a target of the new state policy of ‘Kill and Dump.’ This policy was designed to threaten Baloch political workers and cut the roots from student politics. However, the leadership and members were committed and leading from the front. When the organization was banned from working on the surface in 2013, it further enhanced troubles for BSO-Azad in particular and Baloch student politics in general. But BSO continued to work.
Later in the same year, organisation’s Central General Secretary Raza Jahangeer (Shay Mureed) was martyred in August in Turbat along with Baloch National Movement’s (BNM) Imdad Bojair. This raised serious concerns for both the pro-independence organization and party respectively. In fact, it was a major blow to mass politics and mobilization, while even a harder loss for student politics. However, the organizational leadership and members remained committed. But the state continued to shape policies to cease BSO-Azad from bringing awareness among the youth who were to represent the movement then. Ban and crackdown both continued with great pace.
The next target was the Central Chairman. In 2014, the state managed to forcibly disappear Central Chairman Zahid Baloch along with BSO’s Central Committee member Asad Baloch (who are still missing) from Satellite Town Quetta, and the organization changed its policies. By then, a number of members had quit the politics of BSO, but the organization was working in one way or another. They went underground and continued working.
After some time, the ground went empty, and actual student politics for the Baloch cause was replaced by politics of personal interests. Student politics had become a voter bank for parliamentarians, and groups and wings were activated in campuses. They presented a fragile face of student politics to the contemporary Baloch students, which disheartened them from joining student politics. It had become a blackmailing tool for the wings which served the interests of their parties sitting in Balochistan’s Assembly or in Pakistan’s parliament. During this time, BSO-Azad was out of sight, and eventually, Baloch students thought BSO-Azad had finished. Although they could not believe it, it seemed like a reality. BSO’s hostel rooms were captured, and the other wings portrayed themselves as the actual BSO and announced the end of BSO-Azad’s era from ground politics. Within a short span, everyone began to believe that BSO-Azad had ended, and the hopes of Baloch students sunk with such a fabricated reality.
However, revolutionary organizations can never finish, especially a revolutionary organization that has a noble cause of setting its nation free from external powers by mobilizing Baloch students to participate in the mass movement against all injustices. BSO-Azad could never end this easily. After Banuk Karima Baloch and Chairman Sohrab, the central leadership was handed over to Chairman Abram Baloch, who reshaped BSO-Azad. He worked tirelessly with his team and organization to reinvigorate BSO-Azad in every corner of Balochistan.
As the countdown for the twenty-third Central Council Session of BSO-Azad begins, the hopes and expectations of Baloch students are high. The organization has a rich history of leading the Baloch student politics, and its presence in the campuses is going to be a significant threat to the so-called NGOs and wings trying to manipulate the student politics for their personal interests.
The new era of BSO-Azad will focus on guiding Baloch students towards the politics of ideology and science, which is the need of the hour. The revolutionary literature will also play a significant role in shaping the minds of Baloch students and getting them out of the thoughts of personal interests. The Baloch student politics has missed the gap between Baloch students and the politics of BSO-Azad, but it seems to be bridged with the recommencement of BSO-Azad back on the track of student politics under new leadership.
BSO-Azad’s role in shaping the Baloch student politics is essential for the Baloch movement’s success. With the new leadership, the organization is expected to become stronger than before, and the next five years of Baloch student politics are likely to contribute significantly to the movement from the student level.
In conclusion, the twenty-third Central Council Session of BSO-Azad is a welcoming step for Baloch student politics, and its presence in the campuses is going to bring positive change for Baloch students. The organization’s commitment to the Baloch cause is unwavering, and its efforts to guide Baloch students towards politics of ideology and science will contribute significantly to the movement’s success.