Daily Times

The Alamdar Road massacre, like all other horrific atrocities of the religious extremists, is a reprehensible crime against humanity. Unfortunately, the Muslim world’s religious divide has over time intensified, with South Asia being the worst hit. The South Asian Muslim is a victim of his/her inferiority complex in comparison to the Arab Muslim. And in an effort to prove his/her religious credentials, adopts bigoted extremism as a route to be at par with the Arabs and succeeds only in alienating them and the world in general.

Bigoted extremism naturally leads to sectarian violence and this violence like depleted uranium weapons not only brings death and destruction when committed but also continues to spew its destructive and pernicious effects for a very long time. The evil of sectarianism, like uranium-235, has a very long half-life. It perniciously contaminates the atmosphere even more with the passage of time because it thrives on hate, ignorance and greed, and these flourish with the state’s abetment.

Governor’s rule in Balochistan or for that matter any rule in Pakistan will not change the prevailing environment because this bigotry is due to the ethos of religiosity and intolerance that the state promoted to dampen and neutralise Baloch, Bengali and Sindhi nationalism. This resulted in acute national and religious divisions. Things will only change when the entire social and political ethos is changed and there is economic equality and rule of law.

The imposition of Governor’s rule or rather Frontier Corps (FC) rule in Balochistan is a charade aimed at fooling all those who are willing to be fooled. The Baloch, oppressed and exploited for the last 64 years, simply do not trust the state any longer; for them, cosmetic changes are meaningless. Interestingly, Zulfiqar Magsi, Aslam Raisani, the Speaker and a horde of ministers stated on record that the FC, the stand-in authority for the army, ran a parallel government. Now instead of running a parallel government, the FC will officially be running the government with Magsi as a facade.

The Hazara massacre at Alamdar Road is comparable to the two massacres in Qana, Lebanon, by Israel, in its scale of brutality and inhumanity. The first was on April 18, 1996, when during Operation Grapes of Wrath, the Israeli Defence Force fired 38 artillery shells on a United Nations compound near Qana, a village in southern Lebanon. Two-thirds of these 38 shells were equipped with a proximity fuse anti-personnel mechanism, which explodes them above the ground, causing maximum casualties. Of the 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge there, 106 were killed and 116 injured. The bombing of the UN compound was deliberate because the Israelis had a drone and helicopters in the area and 800 civilians there could not have remained unseen. The enemy, blinded by pathological hate, wants to inflict maximum damage and is not really bothered about human sufferings or condemnations.

The Second Qana massacre took place on July 30, 2006, when the Israelis bombed a three-storey building in the small community of al-Khuraybah near Qana. Two bombs were dropped, at least one of which was precision-guided. The second bomb was dropped five to 15 minutes after the first to ensure casualties. It killed 28 persons, including 16 children, of two Lebanese families sleeping in the underground garage because it was risky leaving the area, for although Israel had directed south Lebanon residents to flee, the roads leading out were subjected to Israeli bombardment.

The genocide of Hazaras is indeed heart-rending but at the same time, the killings of thousands of Baloch too are no less tragic than the Qana massacres though publicly there have not been Baloch killings on the scale of the Alamdar Road massacre. Nevertheless, the fact is that the FC (read army) actions in Mashkay, Marri, Bugti, Mastung and other remote areas away from the media glare are as brutal, inhuman and devastating as any other massacre anywhere. Therefore, instead of protesting, the Baloch have chosen resistance for they know that no protest of theirs would be heeded by the state that only wants Balochistan’s real estate.

The outrage prompted by the Alamdar Road massacre was thoroughly justified. Remarkably, since 1999 when the organised killings of Hazaras and Shias began, not a single killer has been apprehended, while thousands of Baloch suspected of fighting against the army were surreptitiously abducted and killed on mere suspicion. Incidentally, the leaders of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) had conveniently escaped from a high-security jail in the Quetta cantonment. Expecting the FC or the army to crackdown on religious extremists is living a fantasy. The LeJ and its ilk enjoy the security establishment’s support because they are used to attacking the Baloch nationalists and are being groomed for a further escalation against them. Because this state patronage will not end, it simply means that the attacks against the Hazaras and Shias in Balochistan will not abate and the Hazara anguish and agony will not end with FC rule. The proverb, “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good” is invalidated in this Balochistan situation because ‘tis an ill and vile wind, which only blows evil for both the Baloch and Hazaras.

The state patronage of criminal elements has unleashed violence, corruption and instability on an unprecedented scale. This has spawned a vicious circle of violence, corruption and criminality thriving in the atmosphere of insecurity and that insecurity promoting violence, corruption and criminality. A high-ranking police officer who has served in Quetta told me that millions are made daily by security officials at Chaman alone. That sort of lucre would push anyone into ensuring that the situation remains unstable so that they continue to prosper.

Zulfiqar Magsi has given the FC the go ahead to kill the Baloch and has also come up with the ridiculous offer of Rs 10,000 monthly for surrendering Sarmachars. With unbridled powers and an excuse of eliminating religious terrorists, the FC will mercilessly strike at the Baloch. Already in an operation in Mastung, the FC claims it killed the BLA commander Rashid Shahwani and his companion, Shah Jahan.

All this means that all those who think they have a stake in a peaceful, prosperous Balochistan will have to translate that desire into concrete action of struggle for supporting the rights of the Baloch who demand the undoing of the forced annexation in March 1948. It has to be understood that a mountain has to be climbed because freedom, peace and prosperity always come with a very high price tag.

The writer has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He tweets at mmatalpur and can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.com