Around 60 people were killed and more than 60 injured in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Friday by a suicide bomber targeting a procession to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.
The blast tore through a mosque in Mastung in the southern province of Balochistan after a bomber detonated his explosives near a police vehicle where people were had gathered for a procession.
No group has taken the responsibility for the bombing, which is the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan since 2018, when a suicide bombing killed 149.
Balochistan Sees Frequent Attack
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest, but least developed province, which is home to over 13 million people, mostly Balochis. Though the province is impoverished when compared to the rest of the country, but the location as well as abundance of natural resources, especially oil, make it strategically vital for Pakistan.
Earlier in July, four security officers were killed in a shootout in Balochistan province in an attack claimed by the Pakistan Taliban.
In May, more than a dozen people were killed in an overnight battle between Pakistan paramilitary troops and militants in Muslim Bagh of Balochistan province.
Earlier in March, at least nine police officials were killed in a suicide bombing that struck the Balochistan capital. The explosion occurred after a suicide bomber rammed his motorcycle into a police truck in Sibi, a city around 160 km east of Balochistan’s capital Quetta.
The province has seen a series of bloody insurgencies, brutal state repression, and an enduring Baloch nationalist movement since 1948.
Origin of Balochistan
When Pakistan was created after partition in 1947, the rulers of the Khanate of Kalat, a princely state under the British and part of today’s Balochistan, refused to join the new nation. Ahmed Yar Khan, the last chief of Kalat, began advocating for an independent Baloch state.
Pakistan sent troops in March 1948 to annex the territory. Yar Khan later signed a treaty of accession, though his brothers and followers continued to fight, triggering a conflict between Balochis and the Pakistani Army.
There have been several waves of insurgency in the region- in 1948, 1958, 1962-63 and 1973-77. The following two decades were relatively the calmest period in the history of Balochistan.
The recent tensions started after General Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999 and started building new cantonments in Balochistan. Since then, the insurgency has continued in the province led by several separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Human rights violations in Balochistan
The insurgencies in Balochistan have been dealt brutally by Pakistani forces, who have been accused of committing atrocities and human rights violations. There have been several reports of abductions, torture, arbitrary arrests and executions levelled at the forces.
These actions have escalated significantly since 2000s, where military and intelligence agencies working alongside militias and religious groups forcibly disappear and detain thousands of Baloch intellectuals, political activists and social figures.
According to a report in The Indian Express, there have been tens of thousands of casualties afflicted on Baloch nationalists and innocent civilians since 1948. According to NGO Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, around 5,228 Baloch people have gone missing just in the period between 2001 and 2017.
Economic and Ethnic Marginalisation
Balochistan is unarguably the poorest and least developed province in Pakistan. The Pakistani province also retains the highest poverty rate as well as the highest infant and maternal mortality ratios along with the lowest literacy rate in Pakistan.
Moreover, the ethnic differences from the deep economic and political grievances by the Baloch people have led to a sense of economic alienation. The alienation of the local Baloch population at the hands of federal governments has led to Baloch movement and the resultant violence.
The Baloch insurgent groups have also carried out several attacks targeting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and security personnel in the region.
The Pakistani government has often blamed foreign actors, including India, for the trouble in the region and to destabilise the country.
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