The bloody Black Friday: British Still on the Wrong side of Baloch History

 By Archen Baloch 

On Friday, 30th Sept 2022 Iranian forces killed more than 60 unarmed peaceful Baloch protesters and injured more than 275 people in the streets of Zahedan, the capital city of Iranian occupied Balochistan. The protest was a spontaneous uprising by its nature, because, apparently no political party had given the call for it.

According to confirmed reports, widely available on social media in Persian and Balochi languages, the protests across Iranian-occupied Balochistan erupted when the news emerged that the police head of the coastal city of Chabahar, Colonel Ebrahim Kochzai, had raped a 15-year-old Baloch girl Maho Baloch on 27th September after arresting her for investigation. This ugly act of rape of a Baloch girl had taken place at a time when entire non-Persian nations, the Kurds and Ahvazi Arabs were protesting the murder of Kurdish girl, Mahsa Amini across Iran.

Further information suggests college and university students across Balochistan have also come out in support of the people of Zahedan and against the indiscriminate firing of the Iranian forces at peaceful protesters in Zahedan city.

One is compelled to ask that despite knowing the fact that the Persian-dominated Iranian ethnoreligious regime won’t tolerate dissenting voices, what made the Baloch public surge on the streets and protest the brutalities of the regime’s unbridled armed forces immune from public accountability? 

Religiously Shiite-dominated Iran, like Punjabi-dominated Pakistan, is also a multi-national state which is dominated and governed by an ultra-nationalist Persian majority that never bothered to accept ethnic and cultural diversity.  Hypothetically, even if the Baloch nation decides to settle for a moment for a federal solution, then who can make Iran become genuine a genuine democracy where all nations can be represented equally in its federal structure? 

Like many Middle Eastern nations, Balochistan was also a united independent nation. However, when British Raj wanted to establish a buffer zone between Central Asia and South Asia after fully conquering the Indian subcontinent, it pushed its forces towards Sindh and Balochistan in order to occupy Afghanistan and turn it into a buffer zone against Russian influence. The expeditionary forces of the British Raj in Balochistan, while on their way to Afghanistan, faced a reluctant nation that didn’t like the British invading Afghanistan by using their soil.  

In the wake of British advancement towards Central Asia –Afghanistan, we, Baloch, lost our independence and sovereignty to British military aggression. The British Raj attacked the center of the Baloch Federation; Meeri Kalat in 1839 and subsequently the Raj took the charge of our fate.

The western part of Balochistan was still under the rule of Mir Dost Mohammad Khan Baranzai, however, Iranian Persian rulers were constantly pushing their expansionist whim into bordering areas of Balochistan. “In 1927, the Persian Government made an ultimatum on Mir Dost Muhammad Barakzai to accept the sovereignty of Persia (Sykes, 1902). He was promised that the king of Persia would consider his personal privileges in case he surrenders to the Persian demands. For the general Baloch population, it was proclaimed that extensive developmental works would be initiated in return of a pledge of loyalty to the Persian state. Mir Dost Muhammad Khan Barakzai however, the legitimate ruler of Western Balochistan, refused to submit Baloch Sovereignty to the Iranian king’s expansionist desires.

In 1928, Persian King invades Balochistan and the English Raj, which was ruling the Eastern part of Balochistan, instead of defending Baloch territory under the 1876 agreement, encouraged the Persian king to commit aggression against Baloch sovereignty under an appeasement policy, for the fear that the Iranian king might side with Germany after the first world war. 

After the British invasion, the Baloch nation never saw a day of peace, every decade Baloch is forced to go through a blood bath, whether it was British, or now Iran and Pakistan, they never hesitated to riddle the chest of Baloch youth whenever they demanded their democratic rights be respected.

It was the British that broke Baloch national geography into pieces which led to 45 million Baloch at the mercy of two rouge nations, Iran and Pakistan. Even today, the British government and its agencies continue to create hurdles for Baloch national leader Hyrbyair Marri hampering his efforts to seek diplomatic support from the international community for the liberation of Balochistan from Iranian and Pakistan colonial rule.

It is our firm belief that given the geostrategic position of Balochistan and Baloch as a secular nation the establishment of a united independent Balochistan is the geopolitical solution to all regional conflicts in the Middle East and South and Central Asia and the international strategic communities have to see why British is reluctant to correct its historic mistakes in occupied Balochistan.

Enough is enough for British enmity towards the Baloch nation it should stop being on the wrong side of Baloch history and rectify its historical blunders. If it cannot support the freedom struggle, it should not support Pakistan and Iran as both have delivered nothing except terrorism in Balochistan India, and Afghanistan after their creation.