The young Dr Mahrang Baloch is returning home, not defeated but to fight
another battle, long and arduous, against the forces which consider her as an
enemy.
Along with her, hundreds of men and women, and children, sitting in severe
cold, on bare minimum comfort and food, too will return, carrying, as the
young leader said, “with us the narratives of cruelty, and we will share each
story with the households of Balochistan.”
The state has been abysmally cruel. It threatened, blackmailed and spoke of
untold cruelty if Mahrang did not stop her protest. The caretaker Prime
Minister, Anwar ul Kakar, is a Baloch, but he is with the establishment and not
the people he claims to represent. He refused to speak to his community
members sitting outside the Islamabad Press Club. He called them agents of
enemies.
His patron, Pakistan Army chief, General Asim Munir, thought below his
dignity to find out why Baloch and her people were camped in open space, in
cold, without any support from the state. They wanted their missing brothers,
fathers and sons to be returned. Munir could have learnt a few lessons of
humility and dignity from the young Mahrang.
But as a power-drunk General, who had no interest in the welfare of its
people, Munir was more interested in ordering the local police to spray cold
water on the protesters, snatch away their mikes and blankets. He ordered
his goons to surround the women quietly sitting in protest, threatening them,
asking them to go back. Mahrang was slapped with treason charges. A rival
Baloch team, patronised by the state, sprung up near her camp.
Addressing a news conference before returning, Mahrang articulated how she
and her people were hit by a violent attitude of the state which, she said,
was another chapter of hatred and disgust among the Baloch people.”
Mahrang explained how the media, judiciary, social media activists, political minions, at the behest of the army, propagated divisions within the gathering, raising fake concerns about religion, tribal affiliations, regional distinctions, and gender. She said there were no such differences among the Baloch nation.
Baloch is a cohesive and united community, and the traditional propaganda of
the state has been debunked,“ a truth which rattles Generals like Munir.
When every machination failed to deter Mahrang, Islamabad Press Club was
compelled to withdraw the permission given to camp. Mahrang was left with
no choice but to return home but not before she said: “The Baloch mothers
will recount the story of your behaviour, abuse, and violence, sharing this
painful narrative with Balochistan’s homes, passing down the tale of your
oppression through generations in the form of lullabies”.
Mahrang and her team of men and women sat without any support from the
civil society. Some journalists who wanted to highlight their plight were
prevented from meeting her. Others had no interest in Baloch protesting in
Islamabad. Only rabid Islamists like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, through
their violence and proximity to ISI, could attract media attention. Not the
peaceful Mahrang Baloch and her determined but quiet team of men and
women who would now march back to Turbat for another protest to free their
sons from the clutches of General Munir’s secret prisons.