What makes the murder of prominent Professor Ghulam Hussain Saba Dashtiari of Balochistan University that much sadder and senseless is the fact that he will be reduced to just another statistic of the dead piling up in the never-ending Balochistan killing fields. An upright intellectual, dedicated educator and vocal activist, Dashtiari was probably as brave as they come in a province riddled with so much unrest and bloodshed. Despite many threats to him, he continued living life his own way. It was during his customary morning walk that masked gunmen on a motorcycle shot him three times. He died on the spot. There is no doubt that Professor Dashtiari was a towering presence on the educational circuit (he had set up a library to promote Balochi literature among other contributions and had been with the university for 31 years) and his death has left a huge void. His death has also left many unanswered questions, prominent among them being: when will there be some justice and peace for the war-ravaged Baloch? Many intellectuals, teachers and progressives in Balochistan have been targeted and their bodies found tortured and dumped out in the open — almost as if they were warnings against being meaningful or dissident members of society. Many of the corpses have been of settlers from different parts of the country. However, Professor Dashtiari was no settler, neither was he a provocateur. His only crime? Wanting a better life for the citizens and working towards a better Balochistan. Although many of these target killings are pinned on the nationalists who are waging an insurgency, it is difficult to say who is the real perpetrator behind these ghastly crimes. Ordinary citizens and the Baloch nationalists have time and again accused the Frontier Corps (FC) and the intelligence agencies of waging this war against the Baloch and their rights. Increasingly, the nationalists are distancing themselves from these murders and now the onus suspiciously rests on our law enforcing agencies that seem to be getting more lawless by the day. Such crimes will only serve to provoke the seething sentiments of the nationalists, nudging them into retaliation — a fiendish dead end if ever there was one. What is needed is a decidedly strong will to push the process of political dialogue in the province. Aiming for a political solution that restrains the military/intelligence establishment in the province and aims to award the Baloch the rights that were theirs in the first place should be top priority. Without this, there will be no end to the ever-increasing number of dead bodies in Balochistan. *