Latest news with #Balochis
The Print
28-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Uprising in Pakistan, hope in Agra's ‘mini Balochistan' where families still dream of a freed homeland
Most of these families live in Balaji Puram area of Kamala Nagar, which is also called 'Mini Balochistan'. A cultural center, Balochi Panchayat Dharamshala also known as Balochistan Bhawan, hosts festivals, social events and cultural programmes. These Hindu families bear the pangs of Partition, which hurt every time they hear news from the distant land and by the agony of displacement and the soul-stirring memories of separation even after seven decades. Agra: Home is where the heart is. For about 100 families whose roots lie in Balochistan and living in Agra for two-three generations, it is a bitter-sweet part of their lives—a yearning for ancestral connection from the past while acknowledging the safety and warm embrace of the present. The Balochistan Bhawan is not just a building, but also a symbol of unity and culture for these families. Every year, on 13 April, a Baloch festival is celebrated here, in which Baloch tradition is lived through dance, music and food festivals. This is a medium to connect the new generation with its heritage. Shravan Nagpal, a resident of Awas Vikas Colony, said that his grandfather lived in Sibi city of Balochistan. At the time of Partition, the Balochis were punished for not supporting Pakistan. This, he said, led to many arriving in India and settling in Agra, leaving behind business, property and prosperous lives. 'Now there is a wave of change, we are eagerly waiting for Balochistan's independence,' Shravan says. Lakshman Das Khatri, the head of the Baloch community in Agra, asserts that the decision by the elders to leave Balochistan was correct. 'Balochis are being oppressed in Pakistan. Taking up arms has become a compulsion. Now, the limit of patience has ended. When the news of an uprising in Balochistan comes, hope arises that there will be change. The people there are constantly struggling for their rights. Pakistan does not give them equality, this is the sad thing,' Khatri says about the reports of 'resistance' against the Pakistan Army. 'The Balochis who came to India are not well-off, as they had to leave everything that they had, and flee from Balochistan. Some of them settled in Indore and are barely making a living compared to the riches they had in Balochistan.' The arrival of Baloch people precedes much before the Independence of India and Pakistan, one that dates back to the Mughal period. 'Emperor Akbar was a visionary ruler who invited people from all over the country to settle in Agra. In the same sequence, people from Balochistan were also settled here. The area where the Baloch people settled was called 'Billochpura',' Prof Sugam Anand, who heads the history department at B. R. Ambedkar University, told ThePrint. 'Although with time most of the Baloch families moved to other places, this area is still alive with Baloch culture and name,' he added. The Billoch Pura railway station in Agra and its surrounding area are historically associated with the presence of Balochis. The writings of Naseer Durrani, a historian from the Durrani dynasty in 1700s, are said to have records of the Balochis helping Akbar's father Humayun in his fight against Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri. Humayun, he wrote, rewarded them handsomely with land and property after the war ended. The second wave of Balochis arrived in India when Pakistan began persecuting the citizens of Balochistan after 1947. Ghanshyam Nagpal, a senior member of Baloch Bhawan who runs a small business, considers himself fortunate that his elders reached India at the right time. 'If we had missed it, we would have also been facing persecution there today and probably been forced to convert to Islam,' he says. The day when Balochistan gains independence will be like Diwali, he says. 'Baloch should get justice. Our people were treated as second class citizens in Pakistan; we got a sense of belonging and a safe life in India. The Balochis who were left behind were forced to accept Islam by Pakistan.' The families have relatives in Balochistan but they do not try to contact them due to the sensitive situation between India and Pakistan, he adds. Cultural outfit Hindustani Biradari vice-chairman Vishal Sharma draws a parallel between the exodus of Tibetans and Balochis. 'The current opportunity before India is similar to the one that came during the Tibet crisis in 1959. India should provide space to the exiled Baloch government by creating a special refugee force for Baloch refugees,' he says, and adds that this will increase diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, give strategic benefits to India and boost its image of a nation supporting human rights. 'These Baloch descendants still cherish the dream of independence of their native land. They want that one day they can go to their land again, bow their heads in the temple of Hinglaj Devi, and kiss the soil of their ancestors,' Sharma adds. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: Curious case of Agra woman who, on paper, gave birth 25 times in 30 months
Hindustan Times
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
BLA militants release detailed video on Pakistan train hijack to rebut claims by military
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militants released a full video to give a detailed account of their hijack of Jaffar Express in March this year to rebut claims by the Pakistani military that the group launched an indiscriminate attack on women and children. According to official estimates, 31 soldiers and civilians were killed in the attack as the Pakistan army launched a 'full scale' operation to rescue over 300 hostages held hostage by BLA gunmen who blew up the railway track to hijack the Peshawar-bound train with over 400 passengers. Also read | Video shows how Baloch militants attacked, hijacked Jaffar Express train in Pakistan The insurgent group, fighting the Pakistani State to gain independence for Balochistan, had demanded the government to release its jailed members as a key demand to release the hostages. The recent video is the first comprehensive account of how the attack, named 'Operation Darr-e-Bolan', was planned and executed by the group. It begins with visuals of alleged repression of ethnic Balochis being repressed by Pakistan's security forces and families grieving the loss of their members. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. A BLA fighter then explains the motivation for the attack. 'Our struggle and war has come to a point where we are to take such critical decisions. Our young people are equipped to take such steps, for they are aware that except such decisions there are no other options left. A gun is needed to halt the gun. The sound that comes out of a gunshot may reach a point,' the man said. 'Baloch young men have taken the decision today to attack the enemy without any hesitation and care about their lives. Today if a son is leaving his father behind to sacrifice his life, so is a father leaving his son behind to sacrifice himself for the cause,' he added. The video shows armed men receiving 'fidayeen training', final combat briefing and how they executed the attack by 'adhering to the standards of international warfare.' The group claimed that it held only Pakistani military personnel as hostages and released civilians, including women and children.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pakistan Jails Baloch Human Rights Activist
Activists from Baloch Yakjehti Committee and civil society hold portraits of Mahrang Baloch, one of Pakistan's most prominent human rights advocates, during a protest demanding her release, in Karachi on Mar. 24, 2025. Credit - Asif Hassan—AFP/Getty Images Pakistan has again arrested Mahrang Baloch, a prominent champion of human rights for the country's ethnic Baloch minority, and barred her lawyer from visiting her in jail. 'She was looking weak and stressed,' her sister Nadia Baloch told TIME on Monday after being allowed a few minutes with the activist in Quetta's Hudda District Prison, where she has been held since Saturday. Mahrang Baloch's lawyer was not allowed in; nor was the food her family had brought. 'Our greatest fear is that she will be given contaminated food—or worse, something harmful,' Nadia Baloch said. The circumstances of Mahrang Baloch's arrest illustrate both the complexities and the risks of her work for the Balochis. The ethnic group, whose population is often put at between 10 and 15 million, resides on arid lands divided by the borders of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Like the Kurds, whose historic homeland was arrayed among several Middle Eastern states when nation states were being drawn, many Balochis want more autonomy, if not a state of their own—and some have taken up arms. Pakistan's Balochistan province has seen decades of conflict between the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and a heavily militarized state. The latest clash, on March 11, appeared to mark a dramatic new level in its guerrilla and terror operations when a BLA force hijacked a train, resulting in scores of deaths. Pakistan's response to the insurgency has been a decades-long 'dirty war' that has left thousands of Balochi citizens missing and presumed dead. Mahrang Baloch founded the Baloch Yekjehti [Solidarity] Committee to advocate for a political future grounded in recognition of human rights, including ascertaining the fates of the disappeared. The state has not engaged, however. After the hijacking of the Jaffar Express, state security forces ramped up pressure on Balochi human rights advocates, detaining several Solidarity activists in Quetta, the Balochistan provincial capital. On Friday, state forces opened fire on protesters who had assembled to demand their release, killing three. Mahrang Baloch was arrested the next day at a sit-in where protesters had assembled with the bodies of the victims. 'She is quite strong. She will not give up on this,' said Imran Baloch, her attorney, who like many Balochis uses Baloch as a surname but is no relation. The lawyer said the state clearly feels threatened by Mahrang's increasing prominence, noting that it escalated against her in October after she was included in the TIME100 Next list of the world's emerging leaders. Mahrang learned that she had been placed on a no-fly list and her passport had been suspended only when she was turned away from her flight to New York to attend a TIME event. Her lawyer said she also felt 'pressurized' by the state after she was nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. 'There is a complex web of violence and human-rights violations in Balochistan that creates a very challenging environment for human-rights defenders, particularly women human-rights defenders, working on issues of enforced disappearance,' Sarah de Roure, the global head of protection at the advocacy group Front Line Defenders, told TIME in October, after Mahrang was detained at the Karachi airport. 'She is being targeted as a woman, she is being targeted as a Baloch woman, because of the work that she's doing, which is publicly speaking on the issue of enforced disappearance—initially around her own family, and then as part of a broader movement.' Following her latest arrest, prominent human rights advocates, including Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders, called for her release. Nadia Baloch, the sister, said family members were turned away the three previous days they went to the jail. 'So today we said that we will be on hunger strike if you will not allow us to meet her. Then they just allowed me to visit her for few minutes,' she said. 'She did not know the reason that she was arrested. I must say that is illegal, that they have not allowed her lawyer to meet her. They have isolated her in a room separate from the other prisoners.' Contact us at letters@
