Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan was turned upside down within 30 seconds when a horrific earthquake hit the city in 1935.
Powerful quiverings jolted the valley reportedly between 2:33 to 3:40 am when people were deep asleep on May 31, 1935. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 and anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people died from the impact. It was recorded as the deadliest earthquake to strike South Asia until 2005.
The epicentre of the quake was established to be 4-kilometres south-west of the town of Ali Jaan in Balochistan, some 153-kilometres away from Quetta
The city was badly damaged and the British colonial rulers immediately ordered to seal the city under military guard with medical advice. Rescue workers and military personnel were moved from Bombay to Quetta in passenger trains to assist in the rescue efforts. Local tribesmen from neighboring towns also rushed to participate in rescue operations.
All the villages between Quetta and Kalat were destroyed, and the British feared casualties would be higher in surrounding towns. It took months to retrieve the dead bodies buried beneath the debris of the buildings.
The people of Quetta and all over Balochistan are still haunted by that tragic incident. On the same day, Baloch nationalists are also remembering Yousaf Aziz Magsi, as some call him the father of modern Baloch politics. Magsi also died in the aforementioned earthquake in Quetta on May 31.
Magsi was a co-founder of the Anjuman-e-Ittehad-e-Balochan-wa-Balochistan [Society for the Unity of Baloch and Balochistan] alongside Abdul Aziz Kurd. AIB was the first modern nationalist party of the Baloch peoples against British rule. Therefore, Magsi is known as the first person to oppose the British rule of Balochistan on modern political grounds of the twentieth century.
He wrote an article called Balochistan Ki Faryad (Balochistan’s Lament) which was published on November 17, 1929, in Lahore’s newspaper Masawat. His words were “Baloch nation should stand up and begin the struggle for freedom of Balochistan and never accept slavery, and be ready for sacrificing for your own country. Stop thinking cowardly, find what history says, and learn from the past.”
The Kalat State National Party emerged from AIB on February 5, 1937, in Balochistan’s Sibi — contesting elections until the government banned its activities in 1947.
Every year on May 31, Baloch political circles remember Yousaf Aziz Magsi and his struggle. Baloch activists run social media campaigns and carry out demonstrations or gatherings in universities.