Background: In plunging Balochistan into perpetual violence, Pakistan’s powerful military establishment is no different from the colonial powers it replaced in 1947.  Since its annexation by Pakistan in 1948 when it was the State of Kalat, Balochistan has witnessed five military operations.

The latest atrocity of the massacre of Pashtuns is part of the most concerted and the hydra-headed initiative to destroy all hope of the various nations and groups co-existing in Balochistan.  The end game is to ensure that Balochistan remains an outpost of the establishment and the benefits of its mineral wealth and geographic importance accrue to one institute.

Since 2006, thousands of Baloch nationalist leaders and youths have been kidnapped.  Many have been tortured and their dead bodies dumped on the waysides or from helicopters. Simultaneously, Salafist madrassas have been funded by Gulf countries to radicalize Baloch youth and use them to create instability in the Baloch areas of Iran. The Islamist anti-Shia Jundullah is another attempt to delegitimize and co-opt a secular Baloch nationalist movement.

The recent brutal killings of Pashtun labourers in Balochistan is yet another dimension that has been added to discredit Baloch nationalism. The killing of non combatants will not serve any cause.  Neither will the killings on ethnic lines  serve Baloch nationalist objectives; on the contrary they will cause great harm to a legitimate grievance.

It is crucial that Baloch nationalists should come out against this clearly and the silence of some Baloch activists is disturbing on this account.  However, prominent Baloch activist, Mir. M. Talpur has come out and made some good points (copied in Twitter Report at the end) and it is very important for other activists to come out against this latest atrocity.

Clearly, this latest atrocity against Pashtuns will further widen the divide between Baloch and other nationalities and  will benefit establishment while alienating Baloch nation.  It will give a bad name to progressive and sensible Baloch leaderships and their struggle

The  politically vested interests of PkMAP, their participation in the funeral and leading protests towards Supreme Court creates further problems.  PkMAP is insiting that the SC take action against terrorists instead of sypathising with them.  The Supreme Court meanwhile has not taken a  Suo Moto on beheadings of non-Hazara Shias in Quetta and Punjabi Shias in Sargodha yesterday.  After the Supreme Court’s preferential treatment of Jihadis like Hafiz Saeed and Malik Ishaq, again no surprises.

The latest massacre of Pashtuns in Balochistan is another initiative to widen the ethnic and religious divide in Balochistan.  Baloch nationalists are targetted daily and the backlash has to be suffered by settlers of from Punjab.  Now the Pashtuns are also bearing the brunt in Balochistan and in both cases, the role of the military establishment cannot be ruled out to discredit the cause of Baloch nationalists.

Shias, both Hazaras and non-Hazaras, are being killed on a daily basis in Quetta.  One section of the media misrepresents this as sectarian violence.  This obscures both the victims (Shias) and the perpetrators (ISI-appropriated Salafists-Deobandis).  Meanwhile, the HDP (Hazara Democratic Party) touts call this “ethnic violence” which obscures the very motive of the killing as well as widening the ethnic divide between Hazaras and non-Hazaras. It also attempts to remove Shia Hazara killings from the wider Shia Genocide taking place in Pakisan.  Both misrepresentations serve the purpose of the military establishment and its colonial treatment of Balochistan.

Today, the blood of Pashtuns also flows with the blood of the Baloch and the Shias in Balochistan.  The source of this river of blood is the same and can be traced back to GHQ and ISI.

Baloch activist Mir M A Talpur’s response to killings of innocent Pashtun labourers

Mohammad Ali Talpur ‏@mmatalpur  Wanton violence is immoral and counter-productive, it eventually leads to irreversible rot in organizations and states.

Mohammad Ali Talpur ‏@mmatalpur @BalaachMarri I agree. The Baloch image should not be tarnished by either ethnicity or by sectarianism. We have to be different from enemy.

Mohammad Ali Talpur‏ @mmatalpur  #NotInMyName‬ The Baloch struggle is for freedom and is not an ethnic war. This killing of innocent people in name of Baloch is unpardonable

Mohammad Ali Talpur ‏@mmatalpur #NotInMyName‬ I unequivocally condemn the murders most foul in Turbat. BLT is a blemish on good name of Baloch. The attack was to malign us.

Mohammad Ali Talpur ‏@mmatalpur @LuluLAngeles Your humanism is beyond question. Without compassion we’d be psychopaths. Psychopaths cannot, I repeat, be Revolutionaries

Mohammad Ali Talpur ‏@mmatalpur @LuluLAngeles The Dera Allahyar attack on 14th Aug also killed innocents and Baloch at that. BLT is a rogue group aimed at maligning Baloch.

Mohammad Ali Talpur‏ @mmatalpur @LuluLAngeles State run with the specific aim of undercutting the support for Baloch movement. Some activists mistakenly gloat abt carnages.

Mohammad Ali Talpur‏ @mmatalpur @LuluLAngeles Respected Wendy, such organizations are not bonafide ones. These claims are made to malign those struggling justly and sanely.

Mohammad Ali Talpur‏@mmatalpur #BalochTweples‬Beware of extremists. The success comes not through extremism but through wisdom & sagacity. Sagacity and Cruelty don’t mix.

Mohammad Ali Talpur ‏@mmatalpur #BalochTweples‬ There’s no glory in killing unarmed people. Kindly always put your humanity before anything else. Cruelty’s an animal quality

Mohammad Ali Talpur‏ @mmatalpur #BalochTweples‬ Kindly do not claim everything, good or bad, for ourselves. It reflects badly upon the benign image of Baloch people.

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