𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐡 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚
𝐀𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐒𝐎 𝐀𝐳𝐚𝐝, 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐡
If we take a closer glance at the genocidal acts of Pakistani state in Balochistan, the crux of Ahmad Shahid’s book “Masakh Shodah lash” (The Mutilated dead body) is not enough to portray its full extent. It is common knowledge that Balochistan can embrace this world in its geographical location, but in this geographical space, no one has dared to capture the scattered bones of the people, the mutilated bodies lying on the rocks, deserts and cities, and the bloody scenes on camera, and to document the stories. Balochistan is a place where the Western media filmed the Russian aggression in Ukraine. How the Arab media photographed human remains in the ruins of Gaza. But the ruins of Balochistan do not become the adornment of the media nor do the human bodies find a place in the world’s eyes.
Under the shadow of this state’s genocide and Barbarism, Baloch Students Organization Azad (BSO Azad), launched a campaign through the medium of alternative media I.e. social media to show these scattered stories to world, through which Pakistan is seen as a champion of international peace and through which the US, by becoming a facilitator of human rights, is concerned about human rights violations in Lebanon and Tehran.
Lalla Baloch conducted an interview with spokesperson of historically active organization BSO Azad on state violence and genocide. The interview sought to gain insight into the organization’s prospective on social media campaign as well as to understand the state’s genocide against Baloch people, the realities on the ground and the border political landscape in Balochistan.
LALLA BALOCH: Why has the organization started this campaign at this time? Tell us about its objectives.
SHOLAN BALOCH: I am first thankful to have me in an important and very necessary conversation. Since the Baloch Nation has been facing Genocide by Pakistan from past eight decades since the occupation of Baloch state, form the first day our people are engaged with the struggle to restore the independence of Balochistan. On daily basis Pakistani state abducts and dump mutilated bodies of Baloch people across the deserts after forcibly disappearing them, to counter the legitimate struggle for freedom and enforce its colonisation over Balochistan. This series has started since Balochistan was illegally occupied by Pakistan and Baloch resisted for the restoration of their sovereignty. But in the start of 2000s, soon after the Baloch National Resistance became clearer and more organized in its ideology and direction, the state atrocities and barbarism were seen increased. This trend has continued from the enforced disappearance and dumping of the dead bodies of Shaheed Chairman Ghulam Mohammad,Banuk Karima Baloch, Qamber Chakar, Comrade Qayyum, Ghaffar Langove, Jaleel Reki, Sangat Sana, Shakoor Baloch, Shafi Baloch and other political workers, to the dumping of the bodies of political workers and civilian to this day. The colonizers have thrown more than hundred dead bodies in the first half of this year alone. And these are only the recorded cases; the actual number is likely to be much higher. The Baloch are collecting dead bodies of their loved ones on daily basis across Balochistan, who are being killed by Pakistani state.
Pakistan is trying to cover his heinous crimes through well organised but fake propaganda, it’s all machineries are engaged in distorting the reality. In this sense, the BSO Azad which is a political students organisation, struggling within Baloch National Liberation Movement for the independence of Balochistan.Today the purpose of this campaign is to expose the cruelties and oppression in Balochistan before the Baloch Nation and the world. At today, Pakistan has increased its kill and dump policy. We have therefore stood against it and are using modern means to expose such acts to the world through this campaign.
LALLA BALOCH: How does the organization explain Baloch Genocide, for example what does the organization mean by it?
SHOLAN BALOCH: The western dictionaries explain the term “Genocide” in simple words as the attempt by a state to eradicate a Nation or people by destroying everything affiliated with them including people, land, economy, social structures, language and culture and their identity. But I believe we must understand the oppression inflicted upon humanity rather than its literal meaning. The Baloch is facing such a genocide that Pakistan has destroyed an entire generation of Baloch political leaders, activists, teachers, intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, doctors and people from other walks of life. Pakistan is not only killing us physically but targeting our intellectual minds selectively through its brutal conspiracies.
The word “genocide” may bring to someone’s mind the image of the Holocaust, in which people belonging to a particular nation and religion were killed and deprived of their fundamental rights to life. The world may read genocide from the books but we are experiencing it practically and witnessing it by our own naked eyes.
The same situation can be witnessed in Balochistan today, where Pakistani state is killing Baloch, abducting them, putting them in dark torture cells, dumping their mutilated bodies in the deserts, killing educated youth and it is involved in the crime of depriving Baloch of their language and identity. Yet this genocide does not awaken the consciousness of the so-called civilized world which never tires of examining and reporting on Russian escalation in Ukraine. There can be several reasons for the silence of the world but I emphasize on some of these, Pakistan is an artificial and sponsored state which runs from the support of the capitalist states and they do not blame it even after knowing everything because doing so would expose their hypocrisy of the so-called democratic and civilized world. Secondly there is a media blackout in Balochistan due to which Baloch Nation cannot portray injustices inflicted upon them to the world. Third and the most importantly, it is carefully an arranged policy which is slow and silent in nature which takes place without attracting any attention. For example, Pakistani state is dumping dead bodies in various locations of Balochistan every day yet these incidents cannot even find a place on the last pages of the newspapers due to state-sponsored censorship. In this way every incident overshadows the previous one and the cycles goes on. This is what I consider to be a silent and slow genocide from Pakistani state inflicted upon the Baloch nation. All of these acts fall in the category of Genocide. All these acts are the evident of the Pakistani’s policy of Baloch genocide.
LALLA BALOCH: What are the motives behind this genocide?
SHOLAN BALOCH: If we take glance at the history of world, the Holocaust, Rwanda genocide, Armenian genocide, Ukrainian Holodomor, Maya genocide in Guatemala and the massacre of Indonesian people are among the recognized genocides. These are the absolute cruelties inflicted upon the colonized by powerful states during the period of colonization. This is also representing the cunning behavior of the world which remains silent while people are being killed and entire societies are being destroyed. But after a whole nation is destroyed, the time comes for the documentation and investigation, human rights organisations and scholars are seen engaged in competition.
If we shed a light on Balochistan, a Nation is deprived of its fundamental rights to life through violence, people are uprooted from their homeland, its sovereignty is taken away and the land is colonized. The national identity, language and culture, social norms, and economy are being destroyed. People are made corrupt and dehumanised, and are forced to live a miserable life. The people are being exploited to such an extent that it has created a national crisis, including severe economic exploitation. Pakistani colonialism has affected every walk of their lives, they cannot live a normal life. Anyone can be forcibly disappeared at any time and from any place. The dumping of the bodies of Baloch people, including political workers and others associated with the national resistance, has become normalized.
Most of the population of Balochistan is deprived of basic facilities and a significant number of the people are living a refugee-like life. All these are acts through which, I argue, the genocide of the Baloch is being carried out. The only difference is that it has not been recognized by the world, for the reasons I have discussed earlier.
LALLA BALOCH: The Organization is increasingly focusing on digital campaigns these days, what is the opinion of the organization in this regard?
SHOLAN BALOCH: As there is media blackout in Balochistan and the press is prohibited from covering the ground. The cruelties and barbarism cannot be properly documented in print or electronic media, neither any news channel and journalist are allowed to freely report from Balochistan. Freedom of speech is completely banned and Pakistani state has adopted a very calculated policies to hide Baloch National Resistance from the eyes of the world. As our voice is being suppressed through a planned policies and conspiracies, the only platform left for us is the social media through which we can highlight the cruelties inflicted upon us within the region and the world. But the Pakistani state is also afraid of social media, in the response, the data service across Balochistan are shut down, social media accounts of individuals are monitored, media activists are harassed and threatened and full-scale media surveillance is being observed while social media handles of journalists, active on Balochistan are constantly facing censorship.
Despite of all these hurdles, our organization has been running campaigns through social media. BSO Azad has designated different days to make Baloch National remembrance alive. These include 13 November, Baloch Martyrs Day; 8 June, Baloch Missing Persons Day; 11 August, Balochistan Independence Day; 14 August, Black Day; 27 March, Black Day; 28 May, Yom-e-Aasrokh; 21 December, Baloch Women Day; 2 March, Baloch Culture and on other events, we run campaign to highlight the realities of Balochistan. We do not merely run campaigns; rather we document these realities on these occasions to preserve our history and memories. Today the world is digitally connected and news from any corner of the world easily reach to another. Many revolutionary movements have used these platforms to propagate their purpose to the public and they have succeeded. Among them Arab Spring, Black lives matter, Ukrainian revolution, Zan Zend Azadi are among the them. Today Baloch Nation is also connected digitally, despite of state censorship, we can succeed in highlighting our realities. Baloch Nation should use these platforms positively in Baloch Liberation Struggle. Every individual of the Nation should play their role to highlight the voices that has been suppressed.
LALLA BALOCH: Collectively, to what extent has this genocide affected the organization?
SHOLAN BALOCH: The genocide perpetrated by Pakistani state has affected every part of our society in colonized Balochistan leaving Baloch nation suffering from an existential crisis. The Structure of the Baloch society has been distorted, every comfort has been taken away from Baloch, normal life has been paralyzed and the public is living in the state of trauma. It is not a complaint but the truth and ground reality of Balochistan.
In these cruelties, organizations have also been targeted. Political leaders including workers have been targeted through enforced disappearance, dumping of their mutilated bodies, target killings and other policies. The organization remained connected with the Nation on the ground under the shadow of this genocide. It continues to struggle for the freedom of Baloch society and to lead the nation out of these dark days of cruelty. Our workers including leaders have been affected by this barbarism; many were selectively targeted and martyred. Our leaders including Qamber Chakar, Comrade Qayyom, Raza Jahangir, Banuk Karima, Sangat Sana, Rasool Jan, Shafi Baloch, Shakoor Baloch and many other anonymous comrades were forcibly disappeared and their mutilated bodies were dumped in the deserts later. Our ex-chairman Zahid Baloch, senior voice-chairman Zakir Majeed, Spokesperson Shabbir Baloch and joint General Secretary Asad Baloch are in Pakistani torture cells till today. The enemy has used different policies to affect the organization and weaken us but in our struggling for the freedom and with the willingness to make sacrifice we have never bowed down to the cruel enemy. Instead the blood of our martyrs has strengthened the organization ideologically. Indeed, our organization has suffered from the barbarism of the state. BSO Azad has been banned since 2013 and is the only political party in Balochistan facing such a ban. This is ridiculous that an outsider enforces ban on an organisation at its own land. Despite of this so-called ban and crackdown, the organisation is strengthening strategically and structurally.
We do not take the martyrdom of our comrades merely as a national loss; rather then we consider them as broader part of the philosophy of sacrifice. We are proud that owing to their sacrifice the organization is not merely active but getting stronger ideologically and structurally in its struggle. We do not take these cruelties and crackdown strange rather we consider them a conventional part of the struggle for the freedom. No nation has ever gotten independence without sacrifice, but every nation that is independent today, have walked through such harsh struggles of oppression.
LALLA BALOCH: In this modern age, as Pakistani state trying to weaken the Baloch narrative through social media, what is your message to Baloch Nation?
SHOLAN BALOCH: You cannot block the light of sun with a finger, nor you can bury the truth through polished lies. No any organised propaganda can scrub the blood from the soil, or hide oppression on Balochistan. Baloch and Balochistan are real while Pakistan’s existence in Balochistan is illegitimate and based on occupation through violence and oppression. Reality is that Balochistan is the historical land of Baloch Nation, it lives in our veins, and rooted in our past historical memories which the artificial state of Pakistan has forcibly occupied it. The tyrant Pakistani state is trying to enforce its colonialism through the genocide of the Baloch and desperate to cover its crimes over polished and organised lies to legitimate its colonisation in modern so-called terms and laws. If we have a glance over Balochistan, the realities are exposed like the shining sun. You can see this state’s real face in media that it only relays on lies and calculated propaganda, it has expended a large amount of money to cover its crimes and distort the facts in Balochistan that no any state in the world did so. The state’s security forces and intelligence agencies harass and threaten the Baloch families and force them to media trials. Pakistan, like the mercenary soldiers, recruits mercenary media touts to distort the realities of Balochistan but every Baloch individual is well aware in this modern era and will not be deceived by white lies. Our contents have the truth and reality and Pakistan’s media contents have only lies and fabricated stories to distract the masses and create a chaos among them. I feel pity on his these acts. However, it tries to create a chaos among the population, if there is a small chaos in public then it will be our responsibility to expose these colonial tactics. I urge the Baloch social media users to use the media like citizen journalists, capturing, recording and sharing the state’s brutalities in social media. Through this we can counter the enemy’s lies and show the facts to a bigger audience. The organization will run different campaigns in the coming days to expose Pakistani colonial policies over Balochistan.
I especially want to give message to Baloch youth; do not be deceived by the polished lies of the enemy. We are well aware from the reality of this enemy and its cunning face is part of our memory. The enemy is trying to deceive the youth by greed in form of fake jobs and youth schemes, to use them against the Baloch liberation struggle in the social media propaganda. Baloch youth should not fall for these lies and should follow the reality and truth. Their future lies in an Independent and Free Balochistan, not being a corrupt employee and slave of the colonizer. Being part of the national struggle against national occupation has been compulsory now. We believe that success lies within our own power and strength, therefore, Baloch youth should dedicate their life and energy to this nation struggle for securing an independent state for ourselves and our future generations.
𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗭𝗵á𝗻𝗴ó𝗹é𝗻 𝗝ó𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗹𝗲𝘁.