Thousands of people held protests in Gwadar and Turbat in Balochistan asking Islamabad to provide basic facilities—water, power, education, health facilities and jobs.
This year has been bad for the Baloch people due to unavailability of water and massive power cuts.
Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports that the General secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami’s Balochistan chapter Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman Baloch led the protests in the port city of Gwadar. The public rally later converged into a large public meeting at Shuhada Jewani Chowk.
Baloch criticised the Pakistan government by highlighting that even after seven decades, the governments in Islamabad had failed to resolve the basic issues of the people in Makran and Gwadar.
بقول حکمرانوں کے پورے ملک کی خوشحالی اورترقی کی ضامن گوادر ہے تو ان حکمرانوں کو پتا چلے کہ اس ترقی یافتہ گوادر کے باشندے پانی اوربجلی جیسی بنیادی ضرورتوں سےمحروم ہیں اورآج ہزاروں کی تعداد میں انہی بنیادی حقوق اوراپنےگمشدہ پیاروں کی بازیابی کیلئے سڑکوں پر نکلنے پرمجبور ہوئے ہیں۔ pic.twitter.com/BEoYgcraFP
— Sammi Deen Baloch (@SammiBaluch) September 30, 2021
Dawn quoted the Maulana as saying: “We are demanding basic rights of the people of Gwadar and Turbat which have been usurped by the rulers and the people have even been deprived of drinking water, health and education facilities and since the government has allowed big trawlers to fish at Makran Coast, local fishermen were also not able to earn their livelihood.”
The Jamaat-i-Islami’s Baloch leader said: “I announce a jihad against atrocities and injustices being committed against the people of Gwadar and Makran”.
He said that thousands of people had come to protest from far-flung areas of Gwadar and Kech districts to demand their basic rights of jobs, drinking water and education.
The Baloch people say they have been independent historically but Islamabad annexed Balochistan forcibly. The people also point out that the resources of the region have been transferred for the development of Pakistan while the Baloch remain steeped in poverty.
Balochistan is on a boil for a while with an increasing number of militant groups seeking separation of the region from Pakistan. Many local groups have taken up arms against the Pakistani Army and the government to carve out a separate country. Organisations like the Baloch Liberation Army have been regularly staging attacks on Pakistani forces and also on Chinese investments.
Pakistan too has responded with a massive show of force. There have been regular disappearances of Baloch youth, extra-judicial killings and even air strikes against the local population.
Balochistan province, which is nearly 40 per cent of Pakistan, is one of its poorest areas with exceptionally low human development indicators. The province is sparsely populated with a rich sprinkling of natural resources—gold, copper, iron, coal and precious stones.
Geographically also, Balochistan is strategically located with its coastline overlooking the shipping lanes in the Arabian Sea. It borders Iran and Afghanistan to the west.
Pakistan’s decision to join hands with China to develop itself economically through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has left its own footprint on Balochistan. China is now, along with Pakistan, mining gold, copper and other minerals from the region. The local people say that they have been left out of these projects.
China is also developing the multi-purpose Gwadar port to be used for naval and commercial purposes. Because of the port development, the Baloch fishermen had to give up their lands and do not have access to fishing. Commercial Chinese fishing trawlers have depleted fish stock from waters around Balochistan, putting additional livelihood stress on the local population.
To ensure the success of the CPEC, particularly the Gwadar port, China has brought in large numbers of its workers and also engineers. It has also fenced off large parts of Gwadar making these inaccessible to the locals further angering and alienating them from the Pakistan government.
With festering resentment against the Pakistani government, military and the intelligence for keeping the Baloch poor, for human rights violations and for economic exploitation, Balochistan is witnessing increasing anger among the people while Pakistan continues to bear regular attacks from militant groups.
Maulana Baloch pointed out that despite the construction of the Gwadar port the people of the area were jobless and the government had done nothing to provide jobs to them.
