Extracted, Excluded, Erased: The Baloch Dilemma In Pakistan – OpEd

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most resource-rich province, has long been a center of resistance where aspirations for autonomy, dignity, and justice have repeatedly clashed with the centralizing tendencies of the state. The province’s contentious accession on March 27, 1948—signed by the Khan of Kalat under pressure—is widely seen by Baloch nationalists as coerced, sparking a protracted struggle for self-determination.

Since then, Balochistan has witnessed five major insurgencies, driven by persistent political marginalization, cultural suppression, and economic exploitation. From Prince Abdul Karim’s early revolt to the 1973–77 uprising following the dismissal of the elected provincial government, each rebellion has been met with military repression and betrayal.

The ongoing fifth insurgency, reignited by the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006, has become increasingly fragmented and militarized. Armed groups such as the BLA and BRA have expanded their operations, including attacks on CPEC-linked projects—reflecting growing disillusionment with Pakistan’s development narrative.

In parallel, civil resistance has gained momentum, led by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee and figures like Dr. Mahrang Baloch. The 2023–24 long march to Islamabad—primarily led by women demanding justice for missing persons—highlighted the human cost of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, only to be met with state indifference and crackdowns.

Internal complexities also persist, with some tribal elites reportedly complicit in repression. The abduction of Asma Baloch by a tribal chief in February 2025, and her subsequent rescue after public outcry, underscores the dual sources of oppression faced by Baloch society.

More than a separatist insurgency, Balochistan’s movement represents a broader demand for justice, identity, and human rights. This article explores the roots of this struggle, the state’s militarized response, and the implications for Pakistan’s internal cohesion and regional dynamics.

Balochistan — A Land of Wealth, A Life of Neglect

Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan by land area, spans nearly 44% of the country’s total territory. Despite its vast natural endowments—including some of the world’s richest natural gas reserves, mineral deposits, and arable lands—Balochistan remains mired in chronic poverty, economic marginalization, and underdevelopment. The province contributes approximately 80% of Pakistan’s total mineral wealth, yet reaps only a meager 5% share in the national GDP. This stark contrast is the result of a long history of exploitation, state neglect, systemic corruption, and failure of governance.

Among its most valuable assets is the Reko Diq mine, one of the largest untapped gold and copper deposits in the world, estimated to contain 5.9 billion tonnes of ore. The Sui Gas Field, discovered in 1952, remains Pakistan’s largest source of natural gas, powering much of the country while local communities continue to live in darkness. In addition, significant thermal energy reserves are found in the districts of Harnai, Quetta, and Duki, underscoring the region’s energy potential. Yet, in a tragic irony, Balochistan continues to embody the paradox of “more is less”—a region rich in resources but impoverished in outcomes.

Poverty: A Crisis of Survival and Dignity

According to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Balochistan suffers from the highest poverty rate in the country, with a staggering 71.2% of its population living below the poverty line. But poverty in Balochistan is not merely the absence of income—it is the absence of opportunity, infrastructure, and dignity. It manifests as joblessness, food insecurity, and a crushing sense of hopelessness.

Children are forced to abandon educational aspirations to help their families survive. Rather than learning in classrooms, many spend their days in child labor or on the streets—victims of a system that offers neither protection nor prospects.

Literacy and Health: The Cost of Indifference

The neglect of Balochistan by the federal government is painfully evident in the education and healthcare sectors. The literacy rate in the province is an alarming 54.5%, significantly lower than the national average, with female literacy faring even worse. Schools lack teachers, facilities, and even basic safety, leaving a generation without the tools to build a better future.

Healthcare, too, is in a state of collapse. The province has only 0.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people, and medical infrastructure is virtually nonexistent in rural districts. Child malnutrition is rampant—according to health surveys, 49.6% of children in Balochistan suffer from food insecurity, resulting in weakened immune systems, stunted growth, and vulnerability to preventable diseases like tuberculosis, measles, and diarrheal infections. Doctors and aid organizations have repeatedly raised alarm, calling the crisis a “silent emergency.”

Infrastructure: Disparities Carved into the Landscape

Balochistan’s physical infrastructure tells a story of exclusion. While other provinces benefit from modern roads, irrigation systems, and digital connectivity, Balochistan lacks even the most basic amenities. Clean drinking water is a luxury in many areas, with acute shortages worsening each year. The roads, where they exist, are in deplorable condition, making transport and trade both dangerous and inefficient.

What adds insult to injury is the unfair profit-sharing model imposed by the federal government on Balochistan’s resource extraction. Of the total revenue generated by mining operations, the province receives a mere 2%, while the federal government claims 48%, and private corporations take the rest. This financial arrangement has fueled anger and disillusionment among the local population, who see their land being stripped for wealth they never see.

The Military State: Suppression and Securitization in Balochistan

The Pakistani state has long treated Balochistan not as a federating unit with legitimate political aspirations, but as a militarized security zone. Civilian spaces in the province are increasingly securitized, with peaceful protests frequently met with brute force, mass detentions, and charges filed under anti-terrorism laws. Lawyers, journalists, academics, and civil society actors have often been silenced through intimidation or prosecution. Thousands of cases of enforced disappearances remain unresolved, while families of the victims routinely face harassment and reprisals for pursuing legal redress or participating in protest movements.

Militarization and Paramilitary Presence

The scale of military presence in Balochistan is staggering. According to credible reports, over 46,000 paramilitary personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) are currently deployed across the province. These forces—comprising both uniformed and plainclothes members, including agents from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)—have been repeatedly accused of grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, illegal detentions, and torture.

Checkpoints and Arbitrary Surveillance

Extensive and often arbitrary checkpoints—manned by the FC, Levies, police, customs, and coastguard—are found across major highways such as the Quetta–Mastung and Quetta–Chaman routes. These checkpoints not only obstruct mobility and trade but are also notorious for extortion, prolonged delays, and invasive searches, often without any legal justification. Recognizing the growing public resentment, the Balochistan provincial cabinet issued a directive in June 2023, mandating the removal of all unauthorized federal and provincial checkpoints. The directive further stipulated that future checkpoints must receive prior approval from the provincial Home Department.

Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Executions

The abduction, torture, and extrajudicial killing of students, activists, and even minors remains a pervasive and chilling reality in Balochistan. In one disturbing incident, a student named Sher Khan was found dead behind the University of Turbat, his body bearing signs of brutal torture. In another case, Nizam Baloch was forcibly abducted from his home, tortured, and his corpse was later discovered dumped in Pasni.

Such cases underscore the impunity with which security agencies operate, and the extent to which dissent is criminalized. National and international human rights organizations have condemned these incidents as part of a broader pattern of state violence, demanding accountability and urgent international intervention.

Gendered and Child-Specific Violations

In December 2023, Amnesty International documented the illegal detention of 47 Baloch women and five children in Islamabad during peaceful demonstrations. Many of them were subjected to psychological trauma and mistreatment in custody. Simultaneously, civil servants were suspended for participating in the Baloch Long March, and journalists covering the movement faced harassment and censorship. Amnesty called for the criminalization of enforced disappearances, Pakistan’s ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), and withdrawal of charges against peaceful demonstrators.

“Kill and Dump” Policy: A System of State Violence

Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific regional director, Sam Zarifi, in a report titled “Balochistan Atrocities Continue to Rise”, noted an alarming pattern of monthly increases in disappearances and extrajudicial killings since October. The report described this escalation as a deliberate campaign of state terror, carried out with flagrant impunity, especially by the Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies. The report also urged international actors such as the United States and China to ensure that their military cooperation and aid to Pakistan do not facilitate human rights abuses in Balochistan.

Human Rights Data and International Condemnation

The Human Rights Council of Balochistan documented that in March 2025 alone, at least 151 individuals were forcibly disappeared and 80 were killed extrajudicially. In May 2025, the figures were similarly dire: 128 disappearances and 28 unlawful killings. In April 2025, United Nations human rights experts publicly expressed “grave concern” over the worsening human rights situation in Balochistan, citing the misuse of counterterrorism laws, the widespread use of internet shutdowns, and the violent suppression of protests.

Silencing of Dissent and Weaponization of Law

Prominent Baloch activists—including Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Sammi Deen Baloch, Bebarg Zehri, Mahzaib Baloch, and Fozia Baloch—have been arrested or harassed merely for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Amnesty has described this as a “systematic assault on civil liberties”, highlighting the weaponization of the legal system through the filing of false FIRs and the use of preventive detention laws. Many detainees are denied access to legal counsel and are subjected to unjust trials and indefinite incarceration.

Amnesty has called on the Pakistani government to immediately release all peaceful protesters and activists, cease the unlawful use of force, and initiate independent and impartial investigations into the alleged abuses committed by security forces during the March 21 crackdown and beyond.

CPEC and the New Colonialism

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is frequently hailed by Pakistani leadership as a transformative “game changer” for the country’s fragile economy. Encompassing an estimated $60 billion in loans, investments, and grants, the CPEC project spans a 2,700 km route—beginning at the strategic port of Gwadar in Balochistan, running through the Karakoram Highway, and culminating in Kashgar, China. However, the corridor’s opaque implementation, disproportionate external benefits, and disregard for local populations have generated deep discontent, particularly in Balochistan.

Marginalization of Local Communities

Despite the project being constructed on Baloch land, local communities have been systematically excluded from its economic and developmental benefits. Indigenous businesses, workers, and entrepreneurs have been bypassed in favor of Chinese firms, with little to no involvement of Baloch civil society, community leaders, or tribal elders in planning or decision-making processes. Large tracts of land have been appropriated for infrastructure development, housing, and security zones—often without adequate compensation or consultation.

This exclusion has prompted grassroots resistance movements, most notably the “Gwadar Ko Haq Do” (Give Rights to Gwadar) campaign, led by Maulana Hidayat ur Rehman. Protests by fisherfolk—whose livelihoods depend on unrestricted access to the sea—have been met with heavy-handed crackdowns, arrests, and increasing militarization, particularly around Chinese-guarded installations. Many residents now find themselves alienated from both their land and their livelihoods.

Erosion of Sovereignty and Civil Liberties

The development of Gwadar under CPEC is less a process of democratic development than a militarized transformation. With areas under tight surveillance and military restriction, local residents must often obtain clearance to access parts of their own city. Baloch activists have described this as the creation of “walled enclaves”, where security takes precedence over sovereignty. As one commonly voiced sentiment puts it: “We are aliens on our own land.”

Militants and activists increasingly frame the conflict as a struggle over resources cloaked in the rhetoric of development, where the economic and geopolitical interests of Pakistan and China come at the cost of local autonomy and basic human rights.

Information Blackouts and Media Censorship

For decades, Pakistan has tightly controlled narratives about Balochistan, limiting both domestic and international awareness of the region’s realities. Journalists reporting on state abuses, enforced disappearances, or civil resistance have faced intimidation, FIRs under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, job loss, or worse. Many journalists have been forcibly disappeared, killed, or exiled, leading to a chilling effect on press freedom.

The national media frequently omits or misrepresents protests, military operations, and human rights violations in Balochistan. In the absence of mainstream coverage, local reporting increasingly relies on social media and community networks to document and disseminate information.

Ahead of major community-led events—such as Baloch Genocide Remembrance Day (January 25) or protests in Gwadar and Dalbandin—authorities routinely suspend mobile networks and internet services to disrupt communication and prevent the spread of documentation. In March 2025, following the arrest of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and a series of civilian killings, Quetta was placed under curfew, internet access was blocked, and military blockades were imposed to stifle nationwide awareness and international scrutiny.

CPEC, while framed as an economic lifeline, has become emblematic of a new form of internal colonialism—where development is secured through exclusion, surveillance, and coercion. For the Baloch people, the project has not brought progress, but further marginalization. As protests grow and voices of resistance strengthen, CPEC stands not only as a contested economic venture but as a symbol of the profound disconnect between state priorities and the aspirations of its own citizens.

The Human Cost:

There are hundreds of stories in Balochistan which lost their voice to get justice and hundred of people suffer from the government cruelty and inhumanity.

Following the March2025 hijacking of the Jaffar Express, protests exploded across Balochistan. On March20, 2025, thousands marched in Quetta demanding identities of victims and release of disappeared persons. Police opened fire, killing three protesters, and arrested activists including MahrangBaloch.

On May6, 2025, AbdulLateef, a public-health employee in Turbat, was abducted in a pre-dawn raid at home. His disappearance intensified student protests at the University of Turbat, already enraged by the wave of kidnapping.

In January2025, AnsAhmed, a schoolboy, was forcibly taken from Khuzdar by security forces. His case sparked protests led by activist MahrangBaloch and the group Paank, denouncing this as the kidnapping of a child. Authorities had already taken six others in late January2025, including Kech, Awaran, and Khuzdar.

In March2025, a military “counterinsurgency” sweep razed a remote village near Nushki. Homes were bulldozed fields burned, and families fled into barren hills with nothing. Many now live in fragile tents, reliant on NGOs for water and medicine their fields forever scarred and their ancestral link severed.