Baloch genocide

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been accused of genocide against Baloch People in Pakistani Balochistan during the Balochistan insurgency. There have been reports of death squads as well as the discovery of mass graves since 2014. Baloch activists and scholars blamed the Pakistan Armed Forces as the main culprits for the genocide. Actions labelled as genocidal actions include indiscriminate military attacks, kidnappings and forced disappearances, as well as detention without trial, torture, assassination and extrajudicial killings. The Pakistani State has continuously denied any accusation of genocide.

Background
The Baloch are a nomadic, pastoral, ethnic group which speaks the western Iranic Baloch language, and are native to the Balochistan region of South and Western Asia, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The majority of Baloch people reside within Pakistan. About 50% of the total Baloch population live in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, while 40% are settled in Sindh and a smaller number reside in the Pakistani Punjab.

Before joining Pakistan, Balochistan consisted of four princely states: Makran, Las Bela, Kharan, and Kalat. Three of these, Makran, Las Bela, and Kharan willingly joined Pakistan in 1947 during the dissolution of the British Indian Empire. However, Kalat, led by the Khan of Kalat, Ahmed Yaar Khan, chose independence as this was one of the options given to all of the princely states by Clement Attlee at the time. Muhammad Ali Jinnah persuaded Yar Khan to accept Pakistani rule but the Khan stalled for time. After a period of negotiations, Khan finally decided to accede to Pakistan on 27 March 1948. The Khan's brother Prince Kareem Khan declared independence and fled to Afghanistan to seek aid and begin an armed struggle that failed. By June 1948, Baluchistan in whole became a part of Pakistan.

There were a further three insurgencies in the region after 1948: 1957–1959, 1963–1969, and 1973–1977, and a fifth nationalistic movement which began in 2002. The 1958–1959 conflict was caused by the imposition of the One Unit plan which had been implemented in 1955. This led to further resistance, and by 1957 Nauroz Khan announced his intention to secede; Pakistan declared martial law one day later. Pakistan bombed separatist hideouts and deployed tanks with support from artillery. Nauroz Khan's band of fighters, was involved in several sharp skirmishes with forces led by lieutenant colonel Tikka Khan. Nauroz agreed to peace on May 15, 1959 in exchange for amnesty which was agreed on a Quranic Oath by Government of Pakistan. However, when Nauroz Khan came down from the hills, he and about 150 of his followers, including his sons and nephews, were arrested for insurgency against the state and multiple were executed included his sons. The 1962-1969 led to the restoration of the Balochistan Province and provisional rights.

The Fourth Balochistan Conflict was a four-year military conflict in Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, between the Pakistan Army and Baloch separatists and tribesmen that lasted from 1973 to 1977. The conflict began in 1973 shortly after then-Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dismissed the elected provincial government of Balochistan on the pretext that arms had been discovered in the Iraqi Embassy, ostensibly for Baloch rebels. The ensuing protest against the dismissal of the duly elected government also led to calls for Balochistan's secession, met by Bhutto's ordering the Pakistan Army into the province. The operation itself was led by General Tikka Khan against an unknown number of militants coordinated by their Baloch sardars, or tribal chiefs, most notably Khair Bakhsh Marri and Ataullah Mengal.

The Bhutto regime was overthrown by General Zia-ul-Haq on 5 July 1977, and martial law was imposed. A general amnesty was declared by military governor Rahimuddin Khan. Military action ended by November 1977, replaced by development and educational policies to conciliate the province. After the Conflict the Struggle continued Political in Form of Elections and Political Movements but the tensions were high due to exploitation of resources such as oil, gas and minerals from Balochistan by the national government.

Fifth Balochistan Conflict 2002-Present
Since the early 2000s, there has been a wave of discontent known as the fifth Baloch insurgency. Violations of social, political, and economic rights have pushed many Balochs to resist the central government, which has responded with more force. In early 2005, the rape of a female Sindhi doctor (Shazia Khalid) at the Sui gas facility re-ignited another long running conflict. Her case and the unusual comment by then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf about the controversy, stating on national television that the accused rapist, an officer identified only as Captain Hammad, was "not guilty", led to a violent uprising by the Bugti tribe as Rape is a obnoxious grave crime in Baluch Culture in which Justice must Prevail, the attack caused disruption of the supply of gas to much of the country for several weeks. In 2005, the Baluch political leaders Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Mir Balach Marri presented a 15-point agenda to the Pakistan government.

Response and Aftermath
In August 2006, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79 years old, was killed in fighting against the Pakistan Army, in which at least 60 Pakistani soldiers and 7 officers were also killed. Pakistan's government had charged him with responsibility for a series of deadly bomb blasts and a rocket attack on President Pervez Musharraf. Balach Marri was killed in Afghanistan on 21 November 2007. According to some sources, Marri was killed in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) airstrike in Afghanistan. NATO officials had mistook him and his men for Taliban fighters and conducted airstrike on them, resulting in Marri's death.

In the aftermath of Akbar Bugti's killing, support for the insurgency surged with a large amount of support coming from Balochistan's burgeoning middle class. US-based exiled Baloch journalist and newspaper editor Malik Siraj Akbar writes that the ongoing Baloch resistance has created "serious challenges" for the Pakistan government, "unlike the past resistance movements", because it has lasted longer than previous insurgencies, has greater breadth—including the entire province "from rural mountainous regions to the city centers", involves Baloch women and children at "regular protest rallies", and has drawn more international attention—including a 2012 hearing by the US Congress. Islamabad has accused its neighbour India of supporting the insurgency in Balochistan. However infighting between insurgent groups as of late 2014 has weakened the movement. On 23 November Chinese Consulate was attacked by BLA fighters.

During 2018, the Pakistani state was using Islamist militants to defeat Balochi separatists. Academics and journalists in the United States have been approached by Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence spies, who threatened them not to speak about the insurgency in Balochistan, as well as human rights abuses by the Pakistani Army or else their family would be harmed.

Fall of Kabul to Afghan Taliban lead to a Heightened Wave of Militancy in Pakistan by Terrorist Groups and Insurgents. Of the 81 terrorist attacks in the province in 2021, 71 were carried out by banned nationalist organizations such as the Balochistan Liberation Army, Baluch Liberation Front, Baloch Republican Army and Baloch Republican Guards. According to the PIPS report, 95 people were killed in attacks by nationalist organizations. In addition, 14 people were killed in five terrorist incidents in Punjab and 13 in six terrorist incidents in Sindh.

Deaths and missing persons Estimates
According to Brahumdagh Bugti, the leader of the Baloch organization settled in Switzerland, in his speech at the Geneva Press Club, he claimed one lack of forty thousand Baloch had been killed and at least twenty thousand Baloch had been missing since 2006.

According to a news report of Indian news channels ('Indianarrative '), Mama Qadeer Baloch, leader of Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), claimed in a statement that at least 20,000 dead bodies of Balochs have been found till now and 60,000 Baloch are still missing.

But this claim was countered in a news report by The Express Tribune, Pakistani news site Mama Qadeer Baloch claimed that 21,000 Baloch are missing in Balochistan, and they have received the dead bodies of 6,000 Balochs.

Jan Achakzai Pakistan government official made a momentous statement, announcing that 2,200 missing people had been found in the province. During his regular media conference, the minister announced that 2,200 of the 2,700 people who had been reported missing in Balochistan had been reunited with their families. He did not go into great depth about these results. Achakzai stated that 468 people are now still missing in Balochistan. In comparison, he mentioned startling amounts of missing individuals in other countries, including 350,000 in India, 500,000 in the United States, and one lakh in the United Kingdom.

Violence
Since 2001, Baloch Activists and Civilians Including Leaders have been picked up by Pakistani State Security Forces or Intelligence Agencies with many murdered after torture. Although a Proper figure is hard to get gather, The Pakistani Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances reported 5,000 enforced disappearances in Balochistan from 2014-2019. Local human rights groups say the number is up to 20,000 enforced disappearances, more then 2,500 of whom have been found dead as the figure constantly increases with daily abductions in Balochistan. Figures such as Sardar Akhtar Mengal has not even been spared and his brother is the first missing person of Balochistan.

According to Hamid Mir, When he presented a list of 50 names to Pakistani Government Ministers Rana Sanaullah and Attaullah Tarar for release of the missing persons, The Government one by one murdered them and there bodies were found. Pakistani Military Forces also regularly conduct reprisal against Baloch Civilians for any attack committed by Baloch Separatist Organizations. The killings have helped perpetuate a climate of fear, anger and uncertainty in Quetta and in the Baloch-dominated areas of the province which have already been racked by insurgent violence and a surge in criminal activity as security forces focused on combating the insurgency. The killings are part of Military Kill and Dump Policy.

Pakistani Military also is accused of rape of Baloch Woman and mass murder of Baloch civilians including creation of death squads. Pakistani Military is also accused of erasing entire villages and conducting raids into villages to murder civilians or kidnap locals. Mass Graves has been discovered in Balochistan since 2014 and have been found each year since.

Rape of Baloch Women
The exact number of Baloch Women who were raped by Pakistani Forces is hard to estimate because no official number has been issued and estimates which are published by NGOs and other organizations are censored and removed, The estimate ranges from a couple hundred to thousands. The spark for the Fifth Insurgency was the rape of a Sindhi woman Shazia Khalid.

Zarina Marri, a 23-year-old schoolteacher from Balochistan province, was arrested in late 2005, and has been held incommunicado in an army torture cell at Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. She has been repeatedly raped by the military officers and is being used as a sex slave, to induce arrested nationalist activists to sign state-concocted confessions. One man, who was arrested and held in a military torture cell for almost nine months by a state agency, narrated the story of a young woman to Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières, RSF); nowpublic.com; the International Red Cross; and at Woolwich Court in London.

There are 100’s of other Baloch sisters who are missing after military operations in Balochistan, they are definitely held by the Pakistani military like the Zarina Marri.The Pakistani forces acid attack on Baloch girls in Kalat, Dalbandin, Noshki towns, and warn to attack Baloch women in future if they will come out of the houses.The Baloch women are playing vital role in the Baloch freedom struggle and Pakistan is too much afraid of their active role and that’s the only reason Pakistani forces attacking Baloch women.

Death squads
Although there are reports that Pakistani military has been using such squads for decades now, in-depth investigations point out that since 2010s, the practice of using death squads in the name of private militias has been institutionalized, especially in the south-western districts of Balochistan. Reportedly, many of these Islamist groups in the north also have linkages with the members of death squads in the south, like that formed by the infamous Shafiq Mengal, who is credited to be one of the first to form such a private militia aka death squad in 2008. besides Shafiq Mengal, another well-known private militia aka death squad organizer is Zakria M. Hasni. He is a young man in his thirties and is believed to be responsible for assassinations and abductions of people linked to the Baloch cause not just in Khuzdar but across Pakistan. His sister is an officer in the Pakistan Army, according to highly-placed sources, however South Asia Press could not independently verify this claim. Just next to Khuzdar district, where Shafiq and Zakaria run their militias, is the Awaran district, considered to be the heart of the latest wave of Baloch insurgency.

In the Kech district, where the military has supported several death squads, lead by Rashid Pathan. Rashid's brother-in-law was a key commander of the Baloch Liberation Front, a separatist organization fighting the Pakistani state and was killed in a Pakistani intelligence operation with the help of Rashid in 2010.

Besides Rashid, Samir Sabzal is another accused militia leader in the district. He recently ran into police troubles after his death squad was involved in a shoot-out that resulted in the killing of a woman and injuring her five-year-old child.

Besides these two, another accused militia chief from Kech is Sardar Aziz, who runs a religious seminary in the area since 2010.

Next door to the territory of these three death squads is the district Panjgur where Maqbool Shambezi – a drug kingpin involved in cross-border smuggling – leads a state-backed private militia. Little is known about this drug kingpin except that he is involved in the illegal trade and runs a death squad. Panjgur has witnessed a moderate insurgency in the area since the late 2000s. Beyond these death squad clusters in the four adjacent districts, another infamous but recently defunct one to that South Asia Press was able to confirm information about from local sources was that of Baloch politician Siraj Raisani.

Siraj was running a private militia in Mastung until his recent killing. Besides running the squad, he comes from a politically active family with his brother – Nawab Aslam Raisani serving as the former Chief Minister of Balochistan. Although the Pakistani military continues to provide support to many of these death squads in the province, journalists, activists and political sources South Asia Press interviewed say there has been a gradual policy-shift in the last few years.

"In the past paramilitary Frontier Corps trained and armed notorious criminals to fight against Baloch insurgents. But they [the intelligence agencies] have made a few changes in their old policies now. They are now converting the death squads into political parties in the region to prevent Baloch ethnic nationalists from winning the polls. Same old notorious Islamist militants are also being washed to head the political parties," says a Baloch politician from Makran division of the province.

He contested the last polls after returning from Afghanistan some time before the 2018 general elections but did not succeed. And recently, in January 2021, he has announced the launch of his own political party, while there are also reports to suggest that he may join the Pakistan Army-backed BAP (Balochistan Awami Party) which currently leads the Balochistan government. Many of BAP members recently met with Shafiq Mengal in Islamabad last month, reportedly to discuss his entry into politics.

Death Squads: The Failed Containment
Many say post the elections of 2013, there was an attempt to shift the government policy towards Balochistan initiated by the new chief minister Abdul Malik. Credited to be the first non-tribal leader to serve as the CM, with roots in the south-west of Balochistan, Baloch political circles say he was brought in to reconcile with the insurgency that the Pakistani military was grappling to deal with despite unleashing a deadly campaign of violence against the Baloch. As Dr. Abdul Malik assumed power, he announced many measures to reconcile with the separatist Baloch including a crackdown against death squads. Just a few months into this crackdown, Abdul Malik faced his biggest challenge. On January 25th, 2014, a local shepherd while herding his cattle stumbled across mass graves in a small town of Balochistan. He alerted the local authorities who reached the site and dug out several dead bodies buried together.

Government sources say they found 17 bodies only but Baloch activists dispute this and say around 169 dead bodies were recovered, as per reports in the international media.

The Balochistan government formed a judicial commission in February 2014 to launch a probe into the discovery of these bodies. And once again Shafiq Mengal name surfaced and he became the center of attention. Local media reports say the bodies were found near his property in Khuzdar’s Tootak area, a deserted locality, and several locals have alleged his involvement in the mass graves.

Subsequently, the Pakistani Supreme Court also took notice, but to date no one has been held accountable and the government’s commission report also remained inconclusive. Many of the suspects including Shafiq Mengal refused to appear before the commission.

Mass Graves of Baloch
On January 25 2014, three mass graves were discovered in the Khuzdar district of Pakistan's western Balochistan province. The corpses were too decomposed to be identified. As the news spread, the people gathered around the graves and started digging in the nearby area, where they unearthed two more mass graves. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) says that 169 bodies have so far been recovered from the graves. Pakistani officials, however, deny these claims, arguing that the total number of bodies amounts to only 15.Pakistan's independent Human Rights Commission, HRCP, disputes the government's figures. "The residents of Khuzdar have told us that the number of dead bodies uncovered is much higher than 15," Zohra Yusuf, the HRCP chairperson, told DW. The rights activist linked the discovery of the graves to the ongoing Balochistan conflict between the separatists and Islamabad.

According to the media, a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said so far they have found around 56 unidentified graves and that there are many more. It is claimed that these bodies are those of Baloch missing persons.

The confirmation by government officials that over one dozen bullet-riddled bodies have been dumped in unmarked graves — many of them considered to be mass graves — in Balochistan has exposed the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the security forces over the years in a bid to suppress a popular uprising against the government.

It was feared that more mass graves will be found in the coming days. However, the Pakistan Army, in order to hide its crimes, is not allowing any civilian or media outlets to visit the area. Anyone trying to gain access to the area comes under live fire by the Army. It is believed that the genocide of Balochs is one of the biggest mass killings of the 21st century.

Minorities
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Al Jazeera, there has been a surge in religious extremism in Balochistan, with banned terrorist organizations such as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Pakistani Taliban targeting Hindus, Shias (including Hazaras), and Zikris, resulting in the migration of over 210,000 Shias, Zikris, and Hindus from Baluchistan to other parts of Pakistan.

In 2005, 32 Hindus were killed by Artillery Shells fired from the government side near Nawab Akbar Bugti's residence during bloody clashes between Bugti tribesmen and paramilitary forces. The shooting left the Hindu residential locality near Bugti's residence badly hit.

Shia Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds make up at least 20% of the total population of Pakistan. The Hazara ethnic minority has been facing discrimination in Balochistan Province for a long time, and violence perpetrated against the community has risen sharply in recent years. Since the year 2000, over 2000 Shia Hazara community members, including many women and children, have been killed or injured in Quetta. Most of them have been the victims of terrorist attacks by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, which is a Sunni Muslim militant organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Repression against the Shi'ite Muslims began in 1998 with the assassination of Gen Musa Khan's son Hassan Musa in Karachi, and worsened in Pakistan after the September 11 attacks and the expulsion of the Taliban from Afghanistan.

Many scholars and Baloch Nationalists Blame the Attacks on the religious minorities on Pakistani Government as they consider them backing the religious extremist organizations also most of these organizations are based in Punjab and led by People from Punjab. Some Baloch Nationalist Radical Factions have attacked minorities.

Denial and Cover up
Many political activists, members of the Baloch Students Organization, and journalists have been abducted in broad daylight by pro-Pakistani gunmen and security forces. For example, Hamid Mir, a senior Pakistani journalist, hosting a program on Balochistan in 2014, was shot in a suspected assassination attempt by ISI gunmen—although Mir survived, the case highlights Islamabad’s extreme attempts to censor media coverage of tensions in Balochistan.15 A year later, a famous human rights activist, Sabeen Mahmud, was killed by gunmen in Karachi for hosting an event called “Take 2 of Unsilenced Balochistan.” While the attack was pinned on random Pakistanis who felt threatened by a woman talking about human rights issues in a province of Pakistan, fellow activists have accused Pakistan’s powerful ISI of playing a role.16 These are just two in a number of other cases that have plagued both Baloch and other activists fighting for their rights. This has continued to such an extent, that with hundreds of bodies being uncovered every year, Balochistan is now being viewed as Pakistan’s land of mass graves.

HAMBURG, Germany, Apr 07 (IPS) - Geologists have described the region as the most similar to Mars on Earth. Whether it's violent sandstorms or ice found on its surface, we get more news from the red planet than from Balochistan.

"I still don't understand how a territory divided by the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan remains so unknown to the rest of the world. I can't think of a people who receive as little attention as the Baloch," Martin Axmann told IPS.

Today it is the most depopulated province, the one with the highest rates of illiteracy and infant mortality, and the one most affected by violence. It´s also the most hermetic one.

Carlotta Gal was a correspondent for The New York Times when she was brutally beaten in Quetta - the provincial capital, 900 kilometers southeast of Islamabad - in 2006 by a group of men who identified themselves as "members of a special section of the Pakistani police."

In its latest report on press freedom worldwide, Reporters Without Borders ranks Pakistan 157th, describing it as "one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists." The Balochistan Union of Journalists points to more than 40 journalists killed in Balochistan between bomb blasts and targeted killings, some of them committed outside the country. Sajid Hussain's body was found Baloch in a river on the outskirts of Uppsala (Sweden). RSF then pointed to the possibility that it was the work of Pakistani agencies.

Resistance
Genocide and oppression led to more Baloch joining the militant organizations such as Baloch Students Organization, Balochistan Liberation Army, Baluch Liberation Front, Baloch Nationalist Army and United Baloch Army. The militant organizations have gained and persisted even after 2 decades of insurgency and without foreign support. Political parties such as the Balochistan National Party - Mengal and Baloch National Movement have raised the issue at national and provincial levels. Baloch women and civilians have continued protests against the oppression, and have endured repression leading to movements such as the Baloch Long March.

Retributive Violence
Some Sections of Baloch Militant Organizations have commited acts of retributive violence against civilians from province of Punjab which they consider as spies and informers of the government. The Baloch Nationalists consider afghan refugees and Punjabis as settlers into the province.

Nearly 1,200 settlers are estimated to have been killed across Balochistan according to Pakistani News Tribune., mostly in what are referred to as hit-and-run incidents and grenade attacks on their businesses and homes. According to Balochistan Punjabi Ittehad, some 200,000 people have fled Balochistan since early 2008 when the violence against various ethnic groups excluding Pashtuns peaked. Other estimates put the number at 100,000. In any case the migration has been significant.

Muhammad Khalid of Balochistan Punjabi Ittehad says "the militants began to target the Punjabi settlers after Nawab Bugti was taken out by the military (in August, 2006). Before that there were occasional incidents in which Punjabis were targeted".


 * 1) According to partial data compiled by SATP, a total of 254 'non-locals' have been killed in Balochistan since August 26, 2006, (data till December 31, 2023). Of these, 198 were Punjabis. Other non-locals also fell to the ethnic collateral damage, including 37 Sindhis. The ethnic identity of the remaining 19 was unspecified. Significantly, most of the Punjabi settler killings were recorded in South Balochistan, which accounts for 167 of the total of 198 such killings (principally in Bolan, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Sibi and Lasbela Districts); and 31 in North Balochistan (mostly in Kalat, Nushki, Quetta and Mustang Districts). The overwhelming concentration of such killings in the South is because of the presence and dominance of Baloch insurgent groups in this region.

Change in the demographics of Balochistan
Baloch Nationalists claim that the Pakistani Government is trying to convert them into a minority in their own province. Baloch Nationalists consider this as a planned attempt by the Pakistani state at ending their ethnic groups' existence. Books in the Punjab Province decriminate the Baloch people as robbers and uncivilized brutes.

Per recent census results, the Baloch population has shrunk from 61 percent to 55.6 percent in the last 19 years in 21 districts, whereby many from the Baloch clans observe that form a majority The Pakistani government claims that "it is developing the Region for the Benefit of the Native People".

The Pakistani government has walled off the city of Gwadar from rest of Balochistan. Nawab Akbar Bugti Khan claimed that the Makran Coastal Development Master Plan was a scheme to bring in more migrants and settlers to change the demography of the region.