Forced displacements and shifting of population in Balochistan
Rahim Baloch Advocate
The Balochistan Post
In the initial days of present phase of Baloch national freedom movement, the Pakistan army, as a part of its military campaigns against Baloch freedom fighters, adopted a policy of forced displacement of indigenous civilian populations from the areas known as strongholds of the freedom movement.
More than half a million civilian people from Kohlu, Kahan, natural-gas-rich Dera Bugti, Sui and adjacent areas have been forcibly displaced and compelled to migrate. Their dwellings were destroyed, their herds and other valuables looted by army and its proxies.
In 2015 ,after concluding CPEC agreements with China in April, the same policy of forced displacement of indigenous population was extended to the districts of Washuk, Awaran, Panjgur, Kech and Gwadar. Hundreds of villages, lying adjacent to the CPEC route, of Mashkai, Awaran, Jhau, Kolwa, Raghai, Rakhshan, Panjgur, Keelkaur, Balgatar,Hoshab, Heeronk, Kech, Dasht, Kulanch, Pasni and Gwadar were set ablaze, bulldozed, bombed and destroyed, whereby the indigenous Baloch people have been compelled to leave their ancestral residences, lands, pastures and other means of livelihood.
Such an inhuman policy was probably aimed to isolate Baloch freedom fighters on one hand and on the other hand it aimed to protect the exploitative imperialistic schemes of the CPEC.
The victims of forced displacement are constrained to live in miserable conditions. They are continuously under the threat from army, its intelligence agencies and their armed proxies. They have no safe places to go to because wherever, in Balochistan, they go, security agencies pursue and harass them while the neighboring Afghanistan is itself war torn at the hands of Pakistani armed proxies, while Iran is not willing to welcome Baloch victims as refugees.
Baloch people are suffering from the policy of forced displacement in the above-mentioned regions due to the CPEC, but the proclamation of the so-called general elections on 25 July, 2018, brought another disaster — the forced shifting of population – for the victims of state terrorism in the said areas. In these regions, the Pakistan army has launched an escalated, fresh campaign of forced shifting of population near army basis, camps and check-posts where they have neither dwellings and other necessary means of livelihood nor they have pastures for their herds.
According to reports, the army raids scattered villages, sets ablaze, bombs and bulldozes the dwellings, arrests men, women and children, and then shifts them near army camps and checkpoints and compels them to settle there without providing them any residential infrastructure and facilities. Such places are like bigger internment camps, where people are compelled to live with their families in concentration. Said inhuman and illegal campaigns of forced shifting of population by Pakistan army are continued, unnoticed and with impunity, as media is non-existent there and dissent is dealt with zero tolerance by the Pakistan army and spy agencies, who virtually rule the region.
It is not a disclosure that due to colonial occupation, rules and policies of Pakistan, entire Balochistan, including the said regions, is backward in terms of economic and social infrastructure .There are no industries, no big cities, markets, businesses and jobs. An overwhelming majority of the population lives a life below the poverty line.
Maternity death rate, malnutrition, joblessness, poverty and literacy rates in Balochistan are lowest in the world. Means of livelihood of the most of people are small pieces of agricultural lands, tiny gardens, springs, herds and pastures, but forced shifting of population deprives people of their limited means of livelihood making their lives further miserable.
Such mass forced displacement and shifting of population is a severe violation of human rights and freedoms enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights, which warrants a prompt intervention by UNO. The main reason behind the escalated row of forced shifting of population is the drama of so-called general elections. Army intends to forcibly cast the votes of such detained population on July 25, 2018, as the Baloch people are not interested in the drama of Pakistani elections.
In the general elections of 2013, the voter turn-out was zero to three percent among the Baloch population of occupied Balochistan. Neither polling staff had gone to the notified polling stations nor voters were seen there.
The former puppet chief minister Qudus Bizenjo was declared member of provincial assembly with 544 votes only. Even those 544 votes were challenged as bogus by his contesting candidate.
Baloch people have no interest and faith in Pakistani elections, its so-called parliament and other institutions .Baloch people know that their country – Balochistan — is not a part of Pakistan, rather than the legal status of Balochistan is of an occupied colony which was forcibly occupied by Pakistan on March 27, 1948, six months after the creation of Pakistan.
Baloch people know that their national problem is their subjugation and a proper solution of the same is independence of their country. It is also clear that the Baloch quest for freedom is within the ambit of international law. The UNO’s charter, the UN declaration on ‘The granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples’ of 14 December 1960 and other relevant UN resolutions, conventions and declarations recognise the right of independence and equal sovereignty to all, small or big, nations.
However, history shows that oppressors have always been unable to understand and peacefully recognize the aspirations of oppressed people for their independence. It is the duty of the UNO and world powers to help Baloch people get their independence.
It is time for the UNO and other world powers and institutions to intervene and save Baloch people from Pakistani oppression and exploitation of their resources. It is the only way which is imperative for the promotion and preservation of world peace, prosperity, security, stability and harmony as well as for human rights and freedoms.
Rahim Baloch is a senior Baloch politician, he tweets at @RahimBalochh
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.