Exclusive: Baloch Nationalism and Pakistan's Jaffar Express Hijacking

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) on Tuesday highjacked the Jaffar Express train and held over 180 people hostage, including passengers and soldiers. At least 20 Pakistani military personnel were killed in the attack, as per the reports. Till now, the security forces have rescued 190 hostages held by the gunmen and have killed 30 attackers, the security sources said.

To understand the background of the recent Baloch attack on Pakistan, historical reasoning and its implications Timeline reached to Dr. Aliva Misha, Assistant Professor, Jamial Millia Islamia University, who has expertise in South Asian Studies.

Timeline: How do you see the current attack on the Pakistan train?

Aliva Mishra: The current train attack is a part of the ongoing secessionist movement in Balochistan. The Baloch armed groups are engaged in hitting at federal assets as a part of their revenge strategy against the government of Pakistan.

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Timeline: Who are Balochs, and could you please give a brief historical overview of the Balochs in Pakistan?

Aliva Mishra: Numbering between 9 and 10 million people worldwide, Balochs are a distinct ethnic group spread across South and West Asia, encompassing eastern Iran, southwest Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Baloch nationalists claim that they are the direct descendants of ‘the ancient Babylonian king Balus’, who is also known as Nimrud. Historically, the area known as Balochistan, or the land of Baloch, was carved out during the 16th century between the two powerful empires, Mughal to the east and Persian to the west.

While nearly one-fourth of the area in the far west was assigned to Persia in 1871 and a small strip in the north was transferred to Afghanistan in 1893, part of it was designated as British Balochistan to be centrally administered by British India. The rest of it was divided into a ‘truncated remnant of the Kalat state and three smaller puppet principalities.

Believing that a large chunk of Balochistan, especially the Khanate of Kalat, was never a part of British India, the Baloch nationalists declared independence in August 1947. Coming under mounting pressures, including the threat of a military offensive from the newly formed Pakistani government, the Khan, however, signed the instrument of accession in March 1948, bringing an end to Kalat’s short-lived independence. Predictably, Pakistan’s forceful accession of Kalat triggered off popular resistance, marking the beginning of a long-drawn-out Baloch nationalist struggle.

Timeline: Why do they want a separate state from Pakistan, and do you think that Pakistan as a state has failed to pursue or assimilate Balochistan?

Aliva Mishra: The Baloch collective movement is an ethno-political one.  It is, indeed, the increasing awareness of the historicity of the land of Baloch and the admiration for its natural features that have greatly influenced the Baloch national imagination and profound love for the homeland. Reflective of this is an ‘ancient Baloch expression wa-e-watan o hoshkindar’ (I will always love my land even it is void and barren)’. Likewise, contemporary Baloch poets and singers describe ‘the mulk Balochi’ as ‘the bahesht-e ru-e zameen (the paradise on the earth) or the gul-e zameen (the flower of the world), and its necessity for the Baloch is compared to that of the body’s to the soul’.

Strangely, however, much of the literature about this longrunning conflict seems to be in sync with the Pakistani state narrative, which portrays the Baloch collective movement in terms of narrow provincialism or tribalism, regional backwardness, or the problem of insurgency.

While several scholars, for example, argue that Pakistan’s Baloch tangle has more to do with poor governance and weak institutions, authoritarian federalism, and the hegemonic control of the military-led establishment, others attribute it to a ‘foreign conspiracy’ against Pakistan’s territorial integrity. Few others lay the blame for the failure to resolve the conflict at the door of the ‘reactionary sardars’, tribal chiefs in Balochistan, describing them as ‘ethnic entrepreneurs’ engaged in politicizing ethnicity in pursuit of their political and material interest.

Despite the sustained military campaign by the Pakistani security forces to stifle the Baloch national movement, it has shown no signs of petering out. If the outbreak of violence in the wake of the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in 2006 and the recent surge in bloody attacks on the Chinese engineers working for the Gwadar development plan as part of Beijing’s ambitious BRI project are anything to go by, the Baloch struggle for independence has emerged as the strongest centrifugal force in the perennially fragile state of Pakistan.

Conflict in eastern Balochistan has more to do with Pakistan’s deception, manipulation, and above all, its policy of cooption and coercion of the former. While the accession of the Kalat Agency and its three peripheral states is based on legally as well as historically untenable claims, the idea of Pakistan either as a state for Muslims or as an Islamic state has few takers in Balochistan, even after seventy years of its creation.

Baloch opposition to the Pakistani foundational ideology and its Muslim identity is grounded in the belief that they serve to legitimize the ‘dominant core’ represented by the Punjabi and Muhajir ethnic factions. This explains why the majority of Baloch remain impervious to the Islamist ideology despite the state appropriating it during Zia ul-Haq’s military rule.

The imposition of dogma of homogeneity under the hallowed cover of Islam has alienated the Baloch, who rather feel proud of their historically distinctive ethnic identity as the descendants of a single ancestor. The Baloch sense of exclusion is further reinforced by the Pakistani national narrative, which does not feature their history, culture, or legendary heroes as prominently as it does the dominant core. This is as much reflected in the Baloch exclusion from the political and economic structure of the state since the loss of Kalat state.

While the gross negligence of the periphery, which, together with discrimination and indifference on the part of the Pakistani elite has induced a psychological distancing among Baloch from Islamabad, its portrayal of the latter in terms of tribalism, social backwardness and unyielding sardari system as a major roadblock to modernization serves to justify the state use of raw power to pacify the ‘rebellious Baloch.’

Pakistan’s repressive measures including aerial bombardment, killing and dumping, extrajudicial torture and disappearance have all significantly contributed to the political mobilization of the Baloch under different nationalist banners.

Timeline: How do you see the intervention of China in the context of the recent security threat of Baloch on Pakistan?

Aliva Mishra: The free hand given to the Chinese to build roads and connectivity projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has further angered the Baloch groups, who feel that they lack agency and are not properly represented in the decision-making. Balochistan is one of the richest provinces in terms of natural resources but is a very poorly managed state. It has extremely low social indicators on education, employment, and health.

The Chinese activities in Gwadar port and their acsses to the gold and copper projects in chagi district has ignited perception of mindless exploitation of economic resources by the Chinese which is helped and abetted by Pakistani state authorities. For them, the CPEC project is a part of the broader ‘colonial plot’, a conspiracy for ‘occupation’ and marginalization of the native Baloch population

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Timeline: How do you see India’s role or impact of the Baloch on India’s security?

Aliva Mishra: The Baloch activists were often seen seeking Indian help to liberate them from the tyranny of oppression and their dislocation from their homeland. Any conflict in the region has a spillover effect, and India will be constrained to take up the gross violations of Human rights of the Baloch in proper forums.

Dr. Aliva Mishra, an assistant professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, specializes in South Asian Studies.