The mass killings in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971 vie with the annihilation of the Soviet POWs, the holocaust against the Jews, and the genocide in Rwanda as the most concentrated acts of genocide in the twentieth century. In an attempt to crush forces seeking independence for East Pakistan, the West Pakistani military regime unleashed a systematic campaign of mass murder which aimed at killing millions of Bengalis. Similarly Pakistani military is again repeating the unsuccessful tactics it used in Bangladesh against the Baloch’s in Balochistan.
If you have not heard of the genocide in Balochistan, don’t worry: neither have most Pakistanis. Newspaper reports from Balochistan are buried quietly on the inside pages, cloaked in euphemisms or, quite often, not published at all.
“The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; faces are bruised and swollen. Flesh is sliced with knives or punctured with drills; genitals are singed with electric prods. In some cases the bodies are unrecognisable, sprinkled with lime or chewed by wild animals. All have a gunshot wound in the head”. Guardian 2011.
Guardian newspaper article gives an account of what people of Balochistan are witnessing. The role of so called independent Pakistani media has also been a shameful one. I remember very well when three tortured and desolated bodies were discovered in the area of Sariab road which had no mention on the news channel but a much more spectacular event “a cow was drowning in a river” was given live coverage on all TV channels.
The genocide of Baloch people will continue on and the military along with it’s puppet democratic regime will keep on denying the facts till we will see the fall of Balochistan which ultimately will be the downfall of Pakistan.
