CPEC: The Corridor to Baloch genocide

By Sobdar Baloch

I was watching the inauguration ceremony of Gawadar corridor route passing through occupied Balochistan territory.

The puppet and toothless ministers from Balochistan and other parts were also present to confirm their attendance and obedience to Punjabi domination on Baloch land.

Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif repeated the same rhetoric and showed lollipops of the past to Baloch nation.

We still remember the tall claims of Zulfiqar Bhutto, Zia-ul-Haq, General Ayyub Khan, Benazir Bhutto, General Musharraf, Asif Ali Zadari and now again Nawaz Sharif of turning Balochistan into paradise but the reality in today different.When you visit Balochistan today after six decades you will witness the increased number of graveyards and mass graves instead of School, Collages, Universities, health care centres, technical centres.

Only three days ago the ‘Dawn Newspaper’ reported quoting the Home Secretary of Balochistan that “More than 9,000 ‘suspected militants and criminals’ were apprehended by police, levies, frontier corps and intelligence agencies in Balochistan as a part of the national action plan in the year 2015.But neither Dawn nor the Home Secretary has said anything about the whereabouts of those arrested 9000 ‘suspected militants’. Have they all been killed and dumped or are they being tortured in secret dungeon of Pakistan army?

The Home Secretary claimed that a total of 1,973 intelligence based-operations were conducted in Balochistan and apprehend the elements involved in targeted killings, bomb explosions and kidnappings.”

The report by Home Secretary of Balochistan is the endorsement of view point of Baloch genuine leadership and representatives and is a charge sheet against Pakistan of mass killings and abductions of Baloch civilians. It is a self-confession of ones crimes against humanity but wrapped in the cover in the name of so called National Action Plan (NAP).

Pakistani security forces have abducted and killed thousands of Baloch civilians in span of one year, imagine how many Baloch they have abducted and killed since 2001 from General Musharraf’s regime till today? The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, an organisation striving against enforced-disappearances in Balochistan, claims that more than 3000 Baloch activists have been killed by Pakistani forces in their custody.

It must be noted that this number doesn’t include the victims of bombardments on villages and the target killing of the cream of Baloch society. So the number of people killed since 1999, the beginning of current of phase of Baloch freedom struggle, is much higher than only 3000 people.

Pakistan army, ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) and MI (Military Intelligence) have cleverly involved Baloch and Pashtun political parties in their dirty war in Balochistan to justify their policies of “search and destroy”.

By introducing the so called NAP (National Action Plan). The prime objective of military courts and National Action plan is to pave the way of Baloch and Pashtun genocide. Pakistan army no longer have to kill the Baloch and Pashtun civilian in secrecy because they have the shield of NAP and military court to protect their heinous crimes against humanity against Baloch and Pashtun people.

Pakistan army have always had the backing of greedy elements from within the Baloch and Pashtun nations (in shape of Nawabs and Sardars or so called middle class leaders) from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakhtunistan) who have been Punjabis partners in crime to help in killing and abducting their own brothers for sake of incentives and money.

The Pashtun leadership of Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakhtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PMAP) leaders Mehmood Khan Achekzai and Iftekhar Hussain were also present during the ceremony. They advised Pakistani PM to hand over the Gawadar to Baloch nation but on the other hand shied away from condemning the daily bases genocide of Baloch and Pashtuns by Panjabi Pakistan army. It is worth mentioning that everyone knows that Gawadar corridor was signed with the Chinese authorities without the wishes of the inhabitants of Balochistan and the Baloch nation does not approve of the Gawadar port treaty with Chinese.

So we hope that our Pashtun friends also know it very well that Baloch nation have been struggling to regain their independence because Balochistan has never willingly joined Pakistan nor the Baloch wish to be part of Pakistan ever.

The Baloch never forget their national heroes and heroin including Agha Prince Abdul Karim, Nawab Nouroz and his comrades, Safar Khan, Hameed Jan, Fida Jan, Ghulam Mohammad and his comrades, Jalil Reki, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Balach Marri, Chakar Qambar, Shah Naz Baloch, Gul Naz Marri, and thousands of other Baloch men and women who sacrificed their precious lives in the line of freedom.

We feel pity for the Pashtun leadership that occupying state of Pakistan have killed their prominent leadership like Gran Achekzai (the younger brother of Mahmood Khan Achekzai), Basher Bellor, and the son of Iftekhar Husain of ANP leaders and many thousands of innocent Pashtun women and children in the name of terrorism, operation Zarb-e-Azb and now the colonial Punjabi army is butchering Pashtuns under the National Action Plan. It is the unfortunate of Pashtun leadership after losing brave sons and daughter in the hands of Punjabi army, still want to live the life of slavery under Punjabi domination.

Pakistan government and army often try to mislead the world that Pakistan suffered in a greater scale after the 9/11 terror attacks by helping NATO and America in the war on terror but people asks today if really Pakistan was effected then why there is no losses of lives in Panjab. Why there are no drone attacks in Raiwand, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad where approximately 5000 Madrassas are situated. It is obvious that Panjabi Tehrik-e-Taliban’s base camps, training centers and recruitment franchise are located in Panjab province.

Intellectuals believe that the war on terror was a very profitable business for Pakistan army where ISI and army are playing a dual rule to misguide the world by fake operations but actually they have been nurturing the terror groups to spread terror across the globe and destabilize, Afghanistan, India and defeat NATO troops by signing the Mega projects like Gawadar Corridor with China.

The real victims of war on terror are Baloch and Pashtun nations because all the support that Pakistan received from the Western World in the name of war on terror, have mostly been used against innocent Baloch and Pashtuns. The Pashtun nation is facing same genocide like Baloch and Sindhis but unfortunately they seem to have failed to raise the Pashtuns voice for freedom.

The stone of inauguration of Gawadar corridor in Balochistan is equivalent of tightening of the rope around the neck of Baloch people which will slowly suffocate the Baloch nation and turns them into red-Indians in their homeland Balochistan in near future. Those Baloch and Pashtun who are today collaborating with Punjabi army and playing their part in Baloch genocide will chucked away like tissue papers once the colonial army of Punjab succeed in its evil and expansionist design in Balochistan.

I ask few questions from those puppet ministers of Baloch and Pashtuns that:

* Did Panjab ever ask you about any project, or developments in Panjab province?

*Most of abducted and killed people belong from Baloch and Pashtuns. Can you figure it out how many Panjabis are missing or killed by drones or close range shots by army?

*Balochistan and Pakhtunistan are the richest territories in the region, Did you every compared the poverty rate between Baloch, Pashtun and Panjabi? Did you know how many Baloch and Pashtun children goes to school or have middle meal?

*Did you know the current scenario of Gawadar how many Baloch and Pashtun traders have the cruise ships for import and export to the world and central Asia?

*Can you tell how many Air Lines, passenger and cargo planes belong to Baloch and Pashtun which will land in Gawadar Port in the future?

*Government says Gawadar belong to Baloch and first priority will be given to Baloch but question arises if Gawadar is of Baloch nation then why the residents of Gawadar are forced to leave their native homes and villages. Why they are being evacuated forcibly from area and why they are being forcefully displaced?

*Sui Gas was discovered from Sui in 1952 but the dwellers of Sui, Dera Bugti and Peer koh itself are deprived of their own resources and women are still burning woods to make food or to survive in freezing cold. Here again question arises that if the residents of Sui can’t use their gas after 63 years of its discovery then who can guarantee that the residents of Gawadar will get benefits from corridor and port?

*China and its conglomerates have been digging the Gold mines of Sandak in Balochistan for years but the owners of Sandak have been kicked out of mining area (Baloch are not even allowed to work as labours). The Baloch only can see the Gold in their dreams. Reports suggested that people there still die of malaria and other minor diseases. There is no any health related facility neither any education centre for the people of Sandak in Chaghai Balochistan.

*How the people of Gawadar would be treated if corridor succeeds? Sui gas and Sandak are clear examples of the mega exploitations of Baloch resources.

In short the mega so called development plan by foreign occupying forces are mega plans to strengthen their grip over Baloch resources and land and expel the Baloch nation or overrun them by flooding in millions of people from outside Balochistan so the Baloch become a minority in their own homeland. The Gawadar port and CPEC are also plans of Punjabi expansionist army to tighten the rope around the neck of Baloch people and eventually leads to mass killing and genocide of Baloch nation.