Quetta-The lawmakers in session of Balochistan Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, condemning statement of Indian prime minister, Narendar Modi over Balochistan and demanded of the federal government to take up the issue of statement with the United Nations and global community. “I am grateful to them”.
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In addition, the United States favouring India over its arch-rival Pakistan is expected to continue. “But, the way the honourable Prime Minister of India supported the people of Balochistan for their freedom movement…it is but natural that the people in Balochistan are thanking and supporting him”, he added. “It is genocide of (the) Baloch (people) in Pakistan going on”, he said.
Pakistan has seized on Modi’s speech as evidence that India has a hand in a decades-long Baluch separatist campaign, in which insurgents in the resource-rich yet impoverished region have launched sporadic attacks and demanded independence. Baloch people living in Germany staged a protest in Leipzig city accusing Pakistan Army and the Sharif government of committing atrocities on the people of Balochistan.
Since his statements, many Baloch leaders have expressed gratitude to Modi for bringing to worldwide attention the excesses on the hands of the Pakistan security forces being suffered by the people of Balochistan. The Modi government muted its reaction to the January 2016 terror strike at the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot, in the northern state of Punjab, in the hope that dialogue with the Pakistani civilian establishment was key to management of a turbulent border.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar “rejected these ideas”, while Home Minister Rajnath Singh supported Mr Parrikar by saying “we should do everything to silence Pakistan”, the official said.
On its part, Indian ministers have blamed Pakistan for fomenting the troubles from across the border, a claim that most observers in Kashmir dispute.
The five separate cases were booked under sections 120, 121, 123 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
While Pakistan continues with its Kashmir agenda, PM Modi has brought the spotlight on Balochistan once again. But it is not Kashmir which is recognized as an worldwide dispute by the United Nations.
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The overseas Baloch protesters raised slogans against the Pakistani establishment. “We directly ask all free nations of world to allow us open offices in their countries so that we could tell the world about Baloch plight in an organized and effective manner”. But the real issue might be sustaining a policy beyond rhetoric as India navigates its already tricky ties with China and Pakistan.
