THE international outrage at the suspicious death of Baloch activist Karima Baloch in Toronto, Canada on December 20, 2020, is growing. Protests have been held all over Balochistan, in Canada, the US and even in Bangladesh. Her death refocused light on the death of another Baloch activist and journalist Sajid Hussain in Sweden in May 2020. Notably, both were Baloch, both had sought refuge in the west after having escaped persecution and threats in Balochistan from the ubiquitous Pak security agencies, both continued to expose the gross violations of human rights in Balochistan and both died due to drowning.

 

The similarities can hardly be called coincidences. In Sajid Hussain’s case, the police did not find conclusive evidence of foul play and in Karima Baloch’s case, the initial finding is about the same, though a final report has not been made public at the time of writing. The Baloch Diaspora and many others are convinced that the deaths of Karima Baloch and Sajid Hussain were carried out by Pak agencies because their activities, statements and writings were hurting the ‘interests’ of Pakistan as defined by the army. Apart from these two, there are other Pakistanis dissidents who have also sought refuge abroad after fleeing Pakistan where their lives were threatened and some were even kidnapped and physically abused. One example is of Ahmed Waqas Goraya who was attacked in 2020 and threatened outside his Rotterdam house. Another example is of journalist Taha Siddiqui. Having sought refuge in Paris he received multiple warnings about threats to his life.

 

The moot question is how has Pakistan managed to get away with such activities and how does it continue to do so? The answer lies in the culture of impunity that has developed and even nurtured in Pakistan over the decades. If not earlier, it certainly began after the 1971 Indo-Pak war that led to the creation of Bangladesh. 195 Pakistani officers and soldiers had been identified as ‘war criminals’ for their role in the genocide carried out in the then East Pakistan. However, as a result of the ‘Delhi Agreement’ signed between India, Bangladesh and Pakistan these men and the 93,000 other POWs were repatriated to Pakistan. Whatever may have been the larger motives and objectives of the agreement, the one lesson that Pakistan and especially the army drew was that they could indulge in the most heinous of crimes, massacre millions of civilians and rape hundreds of thousands of women, but they would not be held accountable. Reinforcing this was the fact that many of the 195 war criminals prospered on return, including making it to high positions in politics and the armed forces.

 

The Pak army has since then institutionalised the lesson and made it part of their culture that there would be no accountability for their crimes. This was amply demonstrated during the Baloch uprising of 1974-77 when mass killings of Baloch, including of women and children, using helicopter gunships took place under the watch of a civilian government headed by Z A Bhutto. Fast forward to the early part of this century. Since at least 2004, the army has been carrying out a series of operations against the Baloch with the same brutality that it did in the then East Pakistan and with the same impunity. Despite Pakistan’s best efforts to keep its brutality in Balochistan under wraps, it has failed to do so due to the determination of the human rights organisations and the Baloch to bring to light what the army is doing to the people.

 

As a result, the egregious violations of human rights have been well documented. The de-humanising nature of the violence is evidenced not just in the ways people are tortured -- with holes drilled in the head and bodies mutilated beyond recognition -- but also in the way their bodies are discarded. One note accompanying a decomposed corpse said, “Eid gift for the Baloch”. The similarity with the threat that Karima Baloch received is indeed chilling. One such threat warned her that someone would send her a “Christmas gift” and “teach her a lesson”. Given what the Pakistan army has been able to get away within the country, one view is that it has now decided to expand its operations abroad. Sajid Hussain’s suspicious death was perhaps to test the waters to judge the international reaction. The silence of the investigating agencies in Sweden obviously emboldened Pakistan and so Karima Baloch became the second victim.

 

If true, this should start alarm bells ringing because like these two there are many Pak dissidents who have sought refuge in the west with the hope of living out their lives in safety and without fear. If the west, as a bastion of safety, fails in its primary responsibility of bringing to book the perpetrators of these crimes, it will only encourage Pakistan to carry out even more attacks on its dissidents based abroad. If Karima Baloch and Sajid Hussain’s killings are not be in vain then the world needs to recognise what Pakistan has been doing in Balochistan for decades and how it has been flagrantly killing Baloch youth. Pakistan would do well to heed the warning of noted human rights activist I A Rehman who said ‘if we keep treating them (the Baloch) like we treated Bengalis, the consequences won’t be any different either.’ (ANI) (Tilak Devasher is a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India and the author of three acclaimed books on Pakistan. Views are personal)