Balochistan's Isolation

But even as Balochistan remains paralyzed by a strike called by nationalists and educational institutions there remain closed, it is significant we have not heard even a peep of protest in any other province.

The angry fires ignited in Balochistan by the murder of three nationalist leaders last week burn on. It is not known if an investigation into the killings has been initiated or any preliminary findings obtained as to how or why they died. At least 16 people have now been killed in violence across the province, many others have been injured. The victims include policemen targeted as representatives of an unjust and mistrusted state, but also several persons who had come to Balochistan from other parts of the country to seek work. Ethnic strife is easy to stir up in the kind of situation that exists.

But even as Balochistan remains paralyzed by a strike called by nationalists and educational institutions there remain closed, it is significant we have not heard even a peep of protest in any other province. The fact that three political leaders were taken away apparently from their lawyer's office and then dumped many kilometres away, their faces blown away by gunfire, is apparently an act that stirs up no sense of outrage beyond the borders of Balochistan. Whether or not they hold any sympathy with the controversial views of Baloch nationalism, the violent deaths of all political figures must be condemned by mainstream parties and by citizens. No matter where it takes place, in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad or Quetta, such killings mark a descent into barbarity. The atrocity the three leaders were subjected to simply cannot be condoned. This is all the more true given that the purpose seems to have been to sabotage the reconciliation process in Balochistan. The fact that one of the men who died is credited with having played a part in the release of John Solecki is another reason to mourn the brutal death of persons who saved a life, and were also known as holding bravely liberal views in an age when Talibanization has become our biggest threat.

Once more, as it has through the years and through the decades, Balochistan stands isolated. The anger within it has been ignored elsewhere. The people of the province will have noted this. The indifference of their countrymen to their rage will add to the sense of being an outcast within Pakistan that hovers everywhere in Balochistan. The silence in Sindh, in NWFP and most of all in the Punjab will also make more difficult the lives of non-Baloch people who live there. There may, in the years to come, be a heavy price to pay for this failure to act as a single nation at crucial moments