The Baloch fear ethnic flooding of their homeland due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. However, they are not browbeaten. They have a history of being resilient enough to thwart powerful forays by foreign powers
Fear runs high among the people in Balochistan that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, that will link the Gwadar port with road and rail to Xinjiang in China will turn them into a minority in their own homeland. China is touting the the CPEC as an important part of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century that will run through Asia, Europe and Africa. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong, in an interview to the Associated Press Of Pakistan, described the CPEC as “a symphony performed by all relevant countries.” Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Islamabad recently and signed 50 memorandums of understanding.
But the Baloch say that they do not want to become part of this Chinese orchestrated symphony. They fear “ethnic flooding” of their homeland by the dominant Punjabis, Mohajirs and Pakhtuns. If Mr Xi’s ambition succeed, Balochistan will no longer be the land of the Baloch. Baloch leaders see the CPEC as a deal between Pakistani Punjab and China. They accuse the Punjabi elite of being robbing Balochistan of its wealth, without giving anything to the people of Balochistan.
Instead of addressing Baloch concerns, security-conscious military and the civilian leaders from Punjab appeared to have silently changed the CPEC route to avoid the Baloch heartland. Even the Army’s own handpicked Balochistan Chief Minister, Abdul Malik Baloch, told Pakistan’s The Dawn newspaper, that he was not taken into confidence by anyone with regard to the CPEC route.
Originally, the CPEC route was to pass through Balochistan and the north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, but now, it has been reported, the CPEC has been re-routed to go through the Punjab Province. This has led to the allegations that the Punjabis, who control the Army, want to eat the Chinese cake all by themselves. “We are only questioning whether CPEC stands for China- Punjab Economic CorridorIJ” Ms Reham Khan, spouse of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, sarcastically asked on Twitter.
Baloch nationalists have also expressed apprehensions if Army brutalities against them are likely to increase as they oppose the Chinese plans tooth and nail. Already, for quite some years now, human rights groups have accused Pakistan of carrying out a ‘kill and dump’ policy and massive enforced disappearances of freedom activists in Balochistan. Extreme forms of torture, like forced feeding of faeces and sodomy have also been reported, while bodies of freedom activists have at times been found with slogans like Pakistan zindabad incised on them.
According to former Balochistan Fisheries Minister Kachkol Ali, who lives in exile in Oslo, Norway, “No benefit is going to accrue to the Baloch people from the CPEC. If the Baloch cannot stop it, we can in the least die in the struggle to stop it,” he insists, meaning that the Baloch will not live to enjoy the fruits of the CPEC in any case.
Despite the lack of international support, the Baloch are sticking to their guns, literally. last month, guerrillas of the Baloch liberation Front, gunned down 20 workers from Punjab and Sindh, who were working on an Army-run Frontier Works Organisation bridge to augment the CPEC plans. The killings came barely a week ahead of Pakistan dispatching eight JF-17 thunder fighter jets — using fighter jets symbolises an unstable situation on the ground to welcome and send off Mr Xi when his plane entered and left Pakistani air space.
In contrast to Baloch opposition, Mr Xi’s visit caused an adrenalin rush among generals and politicians in the Punjab Province, from where Pakistan draws most of its soldiers for the sixth largest Army in the world.
President Xi expressed his concern over the safety of Chinese working on the project. To allay Chinese fears, the very next day, the Pakistan Army announced a new 12,000-strong security force, which will be headed by a Major General and will compose of nine Army battalions and six wings of civilian security forces.
However, the Baloch do not seem to be browbeaten, as they have a history of being resilient enough to thwart powerful foreign forays in the past.
Five centuries ago, the Baloch bravely fought to keep the Portuguese at bay from their coastline that forms the northern lip of the Strait of Hormuz. Out of reverence, the Portuguese built the statue of Mir Hammal Kalmati, ruler of coastal Makkuran region of Balochistan, which now stands at a museum in Goa, India.
The Portuguese arrived in the region soon after the departure of China’s Ming Dynasty, and their most famous maritime explorer and castrated Admiral Zheng He, who commandeered his 63 ships and over 28,000 men to the Straits of Hormuz.
(The writer is a senior Baloch journalist based in the Washington, DC, area)