Baloch genocide

Baloch genocide
Balochistan
Location
Date
Target	Suppression of Baloch Insurgency (Pakistani Government) Destruction of Baloch Ethnic Group (Baloch Activists)
Attack type	Genocidal massacres, genocidal rape, deportation, torture, Death Squads, ethnic cleansing, Enforced disappearances
Victims	Baloch people
Perpetrators	Pakistan
Assailants	Pakistan Armed Forces Pakistani Intelligence community Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Lashkar-e-Taiba Frontier Corps Pakistani state backed Militias and Death Squads

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

Main article: Baloch people

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 many were executed including 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.

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 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 have not even been spared and his brother is the first missing person of Balochistan.

Death squads

Although there are reports that Pakistani military has been using such squads for decades now, in-depth investigations point out that since the 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.

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.

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 around 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.

Resistance

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.

Demographics

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.

References

This article "Baloch genocide" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Baloch genocide. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• The Karakalpak Genocide
• Ror dynasty
• 2025 U.S. military campaign against cartels
• Alleged western support of dictators
• 1947–1948 Rajouri massacre
• Tamil genocide
• Seventy-second firman of the Yazidi

---