Home Journal List Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan Volume 57 Article Details

Baloch Unrest in Pakistan 1947-2016: Historical Perspective

Abstract

This study attempts to re-contextualize the causes and consequences of unrest and resistance in Balochistan. The paper focuses only on the socio-economic and political dimensions of the Balochistan. The main argument of this paper is that the federation of Pakistan did not fare well with the Baloch people who caused unrest and anxiety which provided the centrifugal forces to operate in Balochistan. Consequently, one section of the Baloch people took up arms few times to show their resentment. Therefore, it is important to explore, investigate and analyse the causes of their deprivations and role of the main players in the Balochistan politics. It is also stressed that the foreign powers also have been instigating the separatist’s elements in the past and that pattern has continued to date. Increasing insurgency in Balochistan is among one of the most serious threat to federation of Pakistan. Balochistan is a huge zone of mountains & deserts, larger than France, extending for approximately nine hundred miles along the Arabian Sea. Balochistan province geographically is considered to be the biggest province of Pakistan although it is minutest demographically. Balochistan is the most under developing province in Pakistan. The Baloch people have been going through various kinds of deprivations from the year 1947. They recognized the union with the state of Pakistan but they were well aware of the fact that their thin population makes only a small part of total population of the state so the protection of their definite individuality & cultural values will be the foremost problem for their headship in coming days. Political provisions under long military rules put worries and uncertainties in the mind of Baloch community who had insufficient presence in armed & civil service areas of Pakistan. This condition turned out to be the main foundation for firming the sense of patriotism among the Balochi people. The nationalism in Balochi community spans across boundaries of Pakistan, Afghanistan & Iran. There were many nationalists who were dreaming for a separate state of Balochistan.1

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