EDITORIAL: Functioning democracies give space to citizens, especially those belonging to estranged sections of society, so that they may vent their resentment without fear of criminalisation.
Nowhere is this more necessary than in our restive Balochistan province, where long-standing grievances arising from denial of political and economic rights have created a deep sense of alienation, further aggravated by the despicable phenomenon of enforced disappearances.
For a while, the arrest of women activists of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a peaceful protest movement led by Dr Mahrang Baloch against this grave human rights violation, has been making a bad situation worse. Last month, the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal launched a long march from Mastung to Quetta to protest the BYC activists’ detention, but was not allowed to go anywhere near the provincial capital. After a 20-day standoff the party quit the march, deciding instead to stage protest rallies all across the province to draw national attention to the ‘missing’ people.
It turned out to be the main issue of concern at a recent event in Islamabad. Several human rights experts and UN Special Rapporteurs while acknowledging “the serious threat posed by armed groups in Balochistan” warned against conflating legitimate human and minority rights advocacy and public demonstrations with terrorism. They also expressed concern over the detention of BYC leaders and their supporters, as well as alleged actions against their family members and lawyers. That, maintained the rights experts, may amount to reprisals for their interaction with UN mechanisms.
Such episodes together with the Baloch people’s other genuine grievances play into the hands of insurgents and hostile foreign forces supporting them. But a security-centred approach alone cannot help establish durable peace. As a matter of fact, it’s been two decades since the ongoing insurgency (fifth since the country’s inception) was triggered by the killing of a moderate Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti.
A major reason the conflict has remained so protracted is that all these years the state has been resorting to the same old method, use of force, to quell trouble, producing the same results: frustration, alienation and anger towards the Centre.
Meanwhile, suppression of dissent keeps fuelling unrest rather than resolving any, which underscores the need to draw a clear line between rights advocacy and acts of terrorism. The controversial February 2024 elections also have exacerbated the situation.
A policy reset is in order. Criminalising dissent in Balochistan’s context only reinforces the sentiments the state seeks to restrain. Restoration of sustainable peace calls for good faith conversations aimed at addressing the causes underlying recurring cycles of insurgency, as well as the now paramount problem of enforced disappearances. That should be achievable if those who can get things right, i.e., genuine representatives of the Baloch people, are given a free hand to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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