#FreeKurdistan

There is no simple answer to this and it depends on how one defines occupation. A colonial-like government was placed in Balochistan when Pakistan came into being. Baloch sardars were supported by the establishment to pacify the Baloch people. I read somewhere that Jinnah himself is on record saying that there is a need to keep Balochistan underdeveloped. The successive military regimes in Pakistan and tense relations with Afghanistan have fueled Baloch resistance. Iran has also maintained a very strong stance against Baloch independence and the Shah supported Pakistan and provided arms to pacify Baloch resistance. General Ayub Khan in the 50s launched a massive campaign against Baloch people and is on record abusing them. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto carried out the biggest massacre of Baloch people by launching an entire military operation for four years that killed thousands of people and was kept away from public scrutiny because of a media blackout on the issue. General Zia kept the entire province underdeveloped. General Musharraf launched another operation and killed one of the most respected Baloch leaders of all time, Nawab Akbar Bugti. Even these days there is a full-on military operation going on in Awaran in which fighter jets are being used to bomb villages. Pak-China economic corridor is yet another way to produce a colonial-like situation in Balochistan where the resources are directed away from Baloch people.

Just a few months ago, a couple of friends and I tried to raise some awareness regarding Baloch missing persons in our university (the army has been abducting, torturing, murdering Baloch students since the 80s - some estimates go as far as 24000 missing persons) and two men from Pakistan’s biggest intelligence agency came to our university and ordered to cancel the seminar we were arranging. That says a lot. There has been massive underdevelopment in the province, all of which is deliberate and resources from Balochistan were directed towards Punjab for a long time. Balochistan is one of the poorest areas in the world because of deliberate economic policies of Pakistani establishment and Iranian regimes.

In many ways this classifies as occupation and many Baloch freedom fighters believe so as well but I am still reluctant to call it that because there are many other factors involved and one needs to take into account the violent process of formation of nation-states and politics of ethnic nationalisms. I do not know much about Iran but Pakistani ethnic politics are quite complex which make Balochistan conflict even more complicated (e.g. the tribal politics and the involvement of Pashtun people in Balochistan). Assigning the over arching label of occupation erases some of these complexities because occupation is a loaded word and perhaps would gloss over the nuances of local context. Having said that, it is important to acknowledge that Baloch people have their own history and they were always somewhat independent until the colonizers came in and carved out the region as a province and the nation-state project reinforced that through the two-nation theory. Much of violence happening in Balochistan and South Asia is a direct product of colonial demarcations (spatial and social) and the two-nation theory.

Do I support Baloch right of independence and self-determination? I most definitely do, just like I support independence of occupied Kashmir. Do I believe that the army has carried out grave injustices in Balochistan? I do and I must say as a Punjabi I am quite ashamed to admit it and doing whatever is in my power to rectify that. I also believe that being a Punjabi it is a bit unfair of me to make definite decisions about this, so instead I have and always will stand in solidarity with Baloch people, their autonomy and their right to self-determination, and raise voice against the Pakistani establishment, as I always have and always will, even though it has landed me in trouble many times. Anyways, I would encourage you to build your own opinion on this and I can facilitate you by providing you some resources which I compiled a few months back.