By Justice Katju
A train, the Jaffar Express, travelling from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, was hijacked on 11th March 2025, along with 400 passengers, near the Bolan pass, leaving 6 security personnel dead. The Balochistan Liberation army has claimed responsibility
Some people have called this incident an act of terrorism, but to correctly understand it one has to see the historical background, just as to correctly understand the Hamas attack on Israel one must see the historical background.
The truth is that Balochistan became an independent nation on 15th August 1947, the day India too became independent. But on 26th March 1948, i.e. after 227 days of independence, the Pakistan army forcibly occupied Balochistan, the Balochs having been betrayed by the crafty British government and the ambitious Jinnah ( who had earlier given assurances that Balochistan would be independent), and Balochistan was forcibly annexed by Pakistan
After it’s forcible incorporation into Pakistan, Balochistan was always treated as a colony, instead of as an equal to Punjab, which became dominant among the 4 provinces constituting Pakistan.
The Pakistan army, comprising mainly of Punjabis, committed continuous heinous and terrible atrocities and violation of human rights against the Baloch people
Balochistan has huge natural resources, e.g. coal, oil, natural gas, and minerals such as copper, gold, silver, chromite, marble and limestone. These, instead of being used to benefit the Baloch people, were taken away by Punjabi businessmen, and now are being taken away by the Chinese, while the vast majority of Balochs remain in abject poverty.
All this oppression and exploitation has created intense hostility against Pakistan among the Baloch people, who have taken up arms against the Pakistan Army, created the Balochistan Liberation Army, and started an insurgency
The truth is that ever since Pakistan was created, Punjabis have dominated Pakistan, and the people of the other 3 provinces in the country have been oppressed, treated as inferiors and exploited.
This reminds us of the erstwhile Soviet Union which broke up in 1991 because the Russians, the largest of the republics constituting the Soviet Union, began dominating, oppressing, and exploiting the other republics
One wonders whether Pakistan is headed for the same fate
