last month i think..the bus incident i presume..
i dont approve of any atrocity by BLA..i am myself a punjabi...
what we need to do is quite simple..for any indigenous uprising there are certain grievances..why not address them?this was the case in east pakistan..the sense of alienation n deprivation has to be ended..
balochistan is the richest province having the poorest people..HDI is pathetic..1 medical college in the whole province..missing people(i know u d strike here, this is not proved, n where is any claim that disproves it,,CJ isnt stupid enough to take suo mot notice of a non-existent thing!! ) dont u think we have denied them their rights?
the politicians have deliberately kept it backward to serve their ends but whats the mistake of balochis?
BLA are terrorists. They will always kill innocent people no matter what sacrafices Pakistan makes for Baloch people.
Is this the bus incident you are talking about? Well once again innocent Punjabis non-balochis were killed in the hands of BLA terrorists.
Ten people lost their lives in a cold-blooded attack, passengers from Lahore were pulled off a Quetta-bound bus and sprayed with bullets, that was entirely preventable had there been some kind of security measures in place. - File Photo.
The killing of 16 Punjabi ‘settlers’ in Balochistan in two separate incidents on Saturday is a grim reminder that the low-level insurgency in the province is nowhere near an end.
Several points need to be made here. First, why have the provincial government and the security forces failed to provide protection to inter-city buses travelling to and from Balochistan? Ten people lost their lives in a cold-blooded attack — passengers from Lahore were pulled off a Quetta-bound bus and sprayed with bullets — that was entirely preventable had there been some kind of security measures in place. To be sure, it is impossible to provide water-tight security anywhere, least of all in a place like Balochistan. However, the attack on the bus was neither unexpected nor unusual. Better security for the inter-city buses is a must and is not something beyond the capacity of the authorities.
Second, why is the moderate Baloch leadership silent about the violence against those perceived to be outsiders? The silence of mainstream, nationalist voices in Balochistan is only widening the space for the extremists to operate in. True, Baloch moderates themselves feel under threat from the militant extremists in the province, but that does not justify standing by silently as an ethnic purge of Balochistan is attempted through the use of violence and intimidation. There is among certain Baloch leaders a proud history of working inside the Pakistani federation, using peaceful means to correct historic wrongs that have been wrought on the province by ‘centrist’ forces in the state apparatus. Difficult as it may be to speak out openly against the Baloch insurgents today, moderate Baloch leaders need to speak out against the vortex of violence that is dragging the province into an uncertain, volatile future. Third, the noises made by the centre, especially the political government in Islamabad, that Balochistan’s problems will be addressed soon have begun to peter out. The Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package, the NFC award, the 18th Amendment and various other fiscal measures have all been sensible measures and applauded as such, but they are at best solutions addressing the periphery of the problem in Balochistan today. Little to nothing has come of the central issue of missing persons, with the army insisting there are no missing persons, a position that independent observers and rights groups view with a great deal of scepticism. Moreover, the state does not appear to have a coherent strategy to engage the Baloch in political dialogue, especially the radical elements that have turned to violence. Further delay in addressing those central problems will only deepen the Baloch crisis.
DAWN.COM | Editorial | Baloch killings