<\/p>\n
Balaach Mola Bakhsh’s killing, allegedly at the hands of CTD officials, and subsequent protests tell what we already know about Balochistan.<\/p>\n
Over the last couple of weeks, Balochistan\u2019s southern Kech district has been gripped by mass protests<\/a> following the reported killing of a young man, who was earlier taken into custody by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).<\/p>\n The CTD termed the killing a result of \u201carmed clashes with militants\u201d, adding that three more suspects were killed<\/a> in the clash on Pasni Road in the north of Kech\u2019s district headquarters, Turbat.<\/p>\n One of the deceased was identified as Balaach Mola Bakhsh. The CTD claimed to have arrested him with five kilogrammes of explosives on November 20. An FIR was registered against him on November 21, and he was presented before the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on the same day in Turbat. However, on the night between November 22 and 23, Bakhsh\u2019s body was brought to Turbat Teaching Hospital, where his family identified him.<\/p>\n Initially, the CTD, in a brief statement, said that four insurgents were killed in an intelligence-based operation on Pasni Road. Later in the evening, in a more detailed statement, the CTD explained that based on a tip-off provided to its personnel by Bakhsh, a CTD team raided a house where insurgents had taken shelter.<\/p>\n During the exchange of fire, three insurgents, including Bakhsh, who the CTD said was acting as a guide, were killed. The CTD also claimed that Bakhsh died as a result of firing from the insurgents.<\/p>\n Soon after, Bakhsh\u2019s family refuted the CTD\u2019s claims, saying he was forcibly taken away from their home on the night of October 29 and produced before a court almost a month later. They accused the CTD of extrajudicially killing him. Subsequently, the family, along with thousands of residents of Kech, staged<\/a> a sit-in with Bakhsh\u2019s body on Turbat city\u2019s main road, demanding an impartial inquiry against CTD officials.<\/p>\n On November 25, a sessions judge directed<\/a> the Station House Officer (SHO) of Turbat City police to register an FIR against the CTD Regional Officer, the investigation officer and the lock-up officer. During the hearing, the sessions judge also expressed skepticism over the CTD\u2019s claim that three terrorists attacked the CTD team and the raiding party did not even sustain a minor injury, while Bakhsh, who was in their custody, died.<\/p>\n Despite the sessions judge\u2019s directives, an FIR was not registered, and protests continued<\/a> with Bakhsh\u2019s body placed on the city\u2019s main square. Subsequently, the provincial government, represented by the prosecutor-general, approached the Balochistan High Court on Thursday (Nov 30), requesting it to overturn the sessions judge\u2019s order. The high court, however, upheld the sessions judge\u2019s order until further hearings into the matter.<\/p>\n The provincial government also formed<\/a> an inquiry committee, headed by Fisheries Secretary Imran Gichki, but the family rejected the committee and called for an independent judicial inquiry, while also demanding the implementation of the sessions judge\u2019s Nov 25 order.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, after seven days<\/a> of protests<\/a>, Bakhsh was laid to rest in Turbat on Friday (Dec 1) amid a massive crowd that is rarely seen at the funerals of regular, working class youth. His family and rights activists asserted that they would continue the sit-in until an inquiry against CTD officials was launched.<\/p>\n Bakhsh\u2019s funeral was not just a mere congregation; it was an expression<\/a> of anger against the state\u2019s use of brute force to bring peace to Balochistan. Kech is not known for its religious tolerance \u2014 a fact signified by the killing<\/a> of a man over blasphemy allegations just this August. However, even in such a region, the locals looked beyond religious and sectarian lines and followers of various faiths an sects attended Bakhsh\u2019s funeral, where slogans were raised against the authorities, indicating an increase in resentment among the public.<\/p>\n It also begs the question: is this the beginning of a new movement in Balochistan?<\/p>\n Since 2013, Balcohistan has witnessed several major protest movements \u2014 such as the one in Gwadar<\/a> in December 2022 and in Quetta in February this year, in July 2022, and in October 2021 \u2014 but the current wave of demonstrations in Kech\u2019s headquarters, Turbat, particularly stands out.<\/p>\n The current protests, which have turned into a sit-in, are also unique due to the participation of a large number of women. While Gwadar saw similar scenes last year, the nature of those protests<\/a> \u2014 where the demands centered around the lack of provision of basic necessities and civil rights \u2014 differed from the situation right now.<\/p>\n Today, not only is there widespread anger against the CTD\u2019s actions, the public is participating in these protests in large numbers. It\u2019s been more almost two weeks now that the participants have been protesting and demanding both an impartial inquiry into the CTD\u2019s actions and the filing of an FIR against officials involved in the incident. The sit-in has already outlasted the previous ones.<\/p>\n The alleged targeted killings of Baloch youth by law enforcement agencies, followed by a lack of impartial inquiry into the circumstances of the said murders, have created a deep mistrust between the Baloch people and state institutions. At the same time, mainstream political parties and the media are seemingly ignorant of the issue, adopting an ostrich approach. This is exactly why such incidents keep happening in Balochistan from time to time.<\/p>\n This approach has also alienated the Baloch youth, heightened the already widespread sense of deprivation among the province\u2019s residents and boosted the insurgency, which had seen a decline after the 2013 election that had led to a coalition<\/a> provincial government of Dr Abdul Malik Baloch\u2019s National Party, Mahmood Khan Achakzai\u2019s Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the PML-N.<\/p>\n The waning insurgency resurfaced in 2018 following the formation of a new provincial setup when a series of incidents riled up sentiments once again, and sympathy for the insurgents reappeared in no time.<\/p>\n In July last year in Quetta, several families protested in the Red Zone against the alleged killing of six people in a \u201cfake\u201d encounter in Ziarat by security forces. Following 50 days of protests, government officials, including then interior minister Rana Sana Ullah, law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, and BISP chairperson Shazia Marri, met the families<\/a> and pledged to address their demands. The families ended the sit-in, and the Balochistan government formed a judicial inquiry commission<\/a>, but the case never reached a logical conclusion.<\/p>\n Similar judicial inquiries followed the mysterious death of former Senator Usman Kakar<\/a> in 2021, the killing of 70 lawyers in Quetta in August 2016,<\/a> and the discovery of three mass graves<\/a> in Tootak, Khuzdar, in 2014. Reports of these inquiries were either not disclosed, government recommendations were ignored, or the inquiries never reached their conclusions.<\/p>\n Other incidents have simply been brushed under the proverbial carpet. These include the July 2022 killing of nine youths in a military operation<\/a> in Ziarat, the August 2020 killing<\/a> of university student Hayat Baloch in Turbat, the April 2021 alleged sexual assault<\/a> of a young boy by an FC soldier, the October 2021 deaths<\/a> of two children in the Hoshab area of Kech district when a Frontier Corps mortar shell exploded, and the April 2022 killing<\/a> of a Baloch driver by security forces in Chagai district.<\/p>\n These events underscore the interconnectedness of the various untended grievances that contribute towards adverse sentiments against state institutions and the resurgence of the insurgency that has reared its ugly head in the province yet again after a brief lull.<\/p>\nUnprecedented protests<\/h2>\n
One too many times<\/h2>\n