The Baloch People: Past to Present on a Forgotten Peoples
By: Ty Tan
When Pakistan declared independence back in 1947, its majority Muslim nation was seen as syncretic, combining the beliefs of varying ethnic groups to form its Islam. Yet, not everyone has been happy with how Pakistan has treated them. Making up 3.6% of the population, the Baloch people are a unique ethno-linguistic group spread across Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. As presented, the Baloch on paper are a minority who don’t have much power in the Pakistani or Iranian government. Yet now, they represent an insurgency that has waged a decades-long campaign against Pakistan’s government for depriving the Balochi people. To understand this harrowing situation, the history of the Baloch people must be examined to understand the insurgency seen today.
In a CIA paper from January of 1980, the struggle to create a nation-state in Pakistan is driven by disparate ethnic groups with different views, social structures, and beliefs about how Pakistan would look. Specifically, a clash between Islamic fundamentalism and ethnonationalism drives major strain amongst the Punjabi Muslim majority and belligerent Baloch minority. Due to a Punjabi majority, leaders of the Baloch have long derived a sense of oppression and discrimination, expressing autonomy as a form of rebellion.
This is best viewed in chapter 9 of the book Pakistan in Regional and Global Politics by Rajshree Jetly, who details the systemic socio-economic underdevelopment that made Balochistan the poorest region in Pakistan. From 2006-2007, the Balochi literacy rate was 42% compared to the Punjabi 58%, the human development score was 0.499 compared to the Punjab 0.557, and only 20% of Balochistan had access to water, compared to the 86% of the national average. Even more strange is the fact that Balochistan is one of the most natural resource-rich regions of Pakistan, with large reserves of gas, minerals, and fisheries. Yet, Balochistan has continued to blame the government in Islamabad for stealing the lion’s shares of resource income, providing only 12% of the royalties they had rightfully deserved for providing Pakistan with nearly 36% of their total gas production. Much of this historical, continued oppression of the Baloch people makes it no surprise that they are in active rebellion against their government.
The modern-day Baloch people have evolved from a tired, oppressed ethnic group to a full-blown insurgency. Known as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), this Baloch terrorist group rose to prominence in the 2000s, primarily conducting small-scale attacks targeted at the government. This article furthers, “Aziz Baloch, an independent security expert in Balochistan, said the BLA is keen “to demonstrate that it can demoralize the [Pakistani] Army” and establish itself as the “dominant militant group” in the province.” To demoralize the Pakistani government, the BLA has expanded its message of the fight for autonomy. On August 25-26, 2024, the BLA conducted a series of attacks on key infrastructure in Balochistan, killing at least 70 people and 23 civilians. The target of their attacks was infrastructure-related Balochistan’s gas and mineral reserves, the very reserves the BLA claims the government has been exploiting. These latest attacks seem to undermine the government of Islamabad, who seem to believe that the leadership of the Baloch insurgency is weakening. Yet this doesn’t seem to be the case. The BLA has grown into a “still robust and sophisticated militant organization with ambitions to widen its appeal by tapping into Baloch nationalist sentiment.”
So, as the BLA continues to conduct attacks that undermine the Pakistan government, where will this insurgency go in the future? That question remains uncertain, as the BLA is currently undergoing a transformation as a number of middle-class professionals join the movement, making it modern while still unconventional. Suicide bombers have become a popular weapon used by the BLA, with a woman in April of 2022 acting as a suicide bomber to kill 3 Chinese nationals at the University of Karachi. As the BLA continues to legitimize itself into a full-blown rebellion, the question inevitably arises: Is what the BLA doing justified? With 70% of Balochistan identified as multidimensionally poor (in poverty), the reason why they fight is crystal clear. Whether or not this movement will prove successful will have to be seen, in the future of Pakistan’s most oppressed and forgotten people.
