A Baluch Dissent

Wahid Baloch

Contrary to this report (http://www.ciponline.org/asia/reports/pakistan_the_state_of_the_union.pdf), the Baluch people are not fighting Pakistan for a greater share of resources, provincial autonomy or restoration of the 1973 Constitution. It is a great injustice, distortion of fact and misleading to say that Baluch are fighting for such things. Baluch demands are simple and clear. “End the illegal occupation of Baluchistan.”

The only solution that is acceptable to the Baluch people is the end of the Pakistani illegal occupation, the withdrawal of all Pakistani forces from occupied Baluchistan, the unification of all three parts of Baluchistan (i.e., the Iranian Occupied Baluchistan, the Pakistani Occupied Baluchistan and the Afghan portion of Baluchistan) into one United Baluchistan, with the restoration of Baluch sovereignty over Baluch lands, coasts and resources. Nothing less than that will be acceptable to the Baluch people.

Baluch do not consider themselves as Pakistani. We are a secular nation. We should not be forced to live in with terrorists and extremists in Pakistan. We have nothing in common with Islamic Pakistan. Our culture, language and traditions are completely different from that of Pakistan. We are not separatists or terrorists as the Pakistan media projects us to be. We are fighting for our freedom that Pakistan has taken away from us. Baluchistan was never a part of Pakistan. Baluch people were not a part of Indian Muslim League's movement to create Pakistan.

Baluchistan was an independent sovereign state even before Pakistan was created out of India in 1947. Baluchistan was forcefully annexed into Pakistan against the wishes of Baluch people, in March 27, 1948, at gunpoint by the Pakistani Terrorist Islamic army. Since then Baluch are fighting against the Pakistani illegal occupation of their land and exploitation of their resources. Pakistan is in violation of international law for its continuous illegal occupation of Baluchistan and exploitation of Baluch resources. Pakistani army has committed war crimes against the Baluch people in Baluchistan. These war crimes include indiscriminate bombing women and children, use of chemical weapons, rape, torture, murder, disappearances and displacement of thousands of Baluch people, testing its nuclear weapons in Baluchistan, rendering hundreds of miles of Baluch lands into waste and leading to thousands of nomadic lives to perish, causing abnormal birth defects and spread of other diseases as a result of radio active materials. These and many other crimes are well documented by independent human rights organizations. They all constitute crimes against humanity and call for international intervention and action that is long overdue.

Pakistan owes the Baluch people trillions of dollars for illegally occupying Baluch land, exploiting Baluch resources for the last 60 years and for testing its nuclear weapons on Baluch soil without the Baluch consent. Pakistani army must leave Baluchistan peacefully without further bloodshed and Pakistan must pay restitution to thousand Baluch families whose loved ones were killed, tortured, murdered, jailed or made disappeared by Pakistani army and ISI. We are not an enemy of the United States. An independent free democratic secular united Baluchistan is not against the U.S. interests. We support NATO forces and the democratic Government of President Hamid Karzai against Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists.