Occupation and slavery are the main cause of Balochistan’s miseries: FBM

LONDON: The Free Balochistan Movement in a statement to the media said that the recent large scale of destruction caused by floods in Balochistan is due to occupation and the lack of proper infrastructure for natural disaster management.

Pakistan has brutally plundered the resources of Balochistan for seventy years after its occupation, and with the looted resources of Balochistan, it has carried out developmental works including establishing universities, health projects, large industrial units and building infrastructure to tackle natural calamities in Punjab.

The Free Balochistan Movement in its statement further said that apart from occupation and plundering of Balochistan’s resources, Pakistan uses Balochistan as a buffer zone against the neighbouring countries and gets funds and weapons from foreign countries. The Pakistani army has always used these weapons and funds to counter and crush the independence movement of the Baloch nation.

The FBM added that every independent country alongside increasing the defence capacity of its nation against external threats also builds infrastructure and makes comprehensive plans to deal with natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes and increases the ability to minimize human and financial losses. Unfortunately, Balochistan despite being rich in natural resources cannot deal avoid natural disasters due to occupation which is clear from the latest floods in Balochistan.

After these natural disasters and losses in Balochistan, the Pakistani occupation army receives billions of dollars from foreign countries for rehabilitation purposes. The Pakistani army, however, makes only a few photo sessions in some areas and they do not even bother going to the far-flung regions of Balochistan where people lost their entire livelihood. The same foreign aid is used in different ways to strengthen the chains of slavery in Balochistan and against the Baloch freedom movement.

The Free Balochistan Movement during the 2013 earthquake in the Awaran area of Balochistan, Pakistan received aid and funds from foreign countries but the Baloch volunteers who were active in relief work in Balochistan to support the victims of the earthquake were picked up and disappeared, and then their bodies discovered in a mass grave in Khuzdar, Balochistan. Only a few victims of the Khuzdar mass graves were identified who were abducted by Pakistani forces in presence of witnesses.

Similarly, in the current situation, Pakistan will get aid and financial support from the world in the name of flood in Balochistan in a systematic manner but will use those against the Baloch struggle.

The FBM in its statement maintained that while Balochistan was submerged in water, the Pakistani forces continue their offensives against Baloch people. ‘past week the Pakistani armed forces surrounded several houses in the Padangabad area of Mastung and opened indiscriminate firing due which several people were wounded. The forces also abducted at least eight people including former principal of Degree College Mastung professor Saleh Mohammad Shad and a lawyer with father and brothers.

The Free Balochistan Movement said if it was in the capacity of occupiers, they would submerge the entire Balochistan in flood and wipe out the name and traces of Baloch by exterminating the entire population.

The Baloch nation should understand that the occupiers did not take over their land to develop Balochistan but did so to steal Baloch resources and erase the Baloch national identity, and they are committed to the same goal. The solution to the suffering of the Baloch nation depends only on the freedom and sovereignty of the Baloch land.