Heavy locks on two houses in a residential suburb of Quetta stand as a testimony to what is happening. The owners are from Punjab and feeling insecure, they quietly moved to a safe zone in the dead of night.
Going by what the Federal Interior Minister had told the Senate, 100,000 people had fled Balochistan in 2010. According to HRCP, thousands more have fled since then. At least 2,000 "settler" children have been taken out of school by their parents since 2011.
The problem, according to Tahir Hussain Khan, a Quetta-based human rights activist, is tied to the nationalist struggle by Baloch groups, which began in the 1950s but intensified after the 2006 killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a tall Baloch nationalist.
Baloch Republican Army, which is fighting for autonomy, says that Balochistan should be mainly for the Balochis. Its resources should be used for its development. “We believe Balochistan should be mainly for the Baloch people and not be taken over by those who have moved in from outside and settled here. Balochistan’s resources have been taken away by the Punjab, aided by the central government”, a BRA spokesman told IRNA.
Underdevelopment, according to HRCP, is one of the factors driving the grievances. The province is Pakistan’s poorest though it is the richest resources wise. It also has the lowest literacy rate.
711 persons, including civilians, nationalist militants and personnel from security forces were killed in Balochistan in 2011, and 347 the previous year. HRCP reported the discovery of 57 bodies of people who had gone missing from various parts of the province in 2012 alone. There are at least 500 or more missing persons in the province according to BRA. The report of HRCP says, the disappearance of 198 people has been officially recorded since 2000. The Human Rights Watch pointed the needle of suspicion at the Frontier Corps (FC), which works under the Pakistan army.
Sectarian violence has also started to target the Hazara, a Shiite minority, who are easily identified by their turbans. The extremists, who have been targeting them, have not been nabbed so far.
The activist judiciary is taking the executive and the army to task. The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Ifthikar Chaudhry, who has breathed new life into judiciary with his activism, has become a nightmare to the police and paramilitary alike. The way the bench has been ticking off the police and army leaves no doubt that it is not convinced by the excuses the forces have been trotting out for the situation going out of control. Woken up from slumber by the tough talking judiciary, the prime minister has issued directions for action. A parliamentary committee also has been constituted to meet the Baloch leaders and give its report. The Committee has made headway though it has visited Quetta once. Its work has been overshadowed by the UN appointed mission on missing persons in Pakistan.
HRCP’s secretary general I A Rehman blames the military for the situation. “The military has intervened too often in the affairs of Balochistan, handicapping civilian rule," he says pointing to the fact that Balochistan has a long history of military intervention against those fighting for more autonomy, dating back to the 1950s.
The result of this administrative disarray is fear. Tens of thousands across Balochistan are affected.
