What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
The focus of AIBA is to facilitate educational support and uplift the Baloch families who are marginalized and do not have the means to support their children’s future.
After rocking the streets of Pakistan for 2 months, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has called off their protest outside the national press club, Islamabad against enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings by the Pakistani Establishment. Dr Mahrang Baloch and other participants got a hero’s welcome in Quetta where she promised to continue the struggle and fight for the human rights of Baloch.
This time Baloch organizations like BYC got due media attention both in national and international press along with several international organizations like Amnesty and Western nations raised concerns on the plight and treatment of Baloch at the hands of Pakistan. Social media and technology have also changed the game in terms of transparency and highlighting the issues of Balochistan which otherwise remains under media blackout. And because of this impact of social media, individuals are also now aware of the happenings in Balochistan including Baloch around the world like India.
Link to the below image – https://twitter.com/BalochYakjehtiC/status/1751259008697086283
Source: Twitter
Yes, there has been a sizable Baloch community living in India for centuries now. While most of them have lost touch with their heritage, some have still kept it intact and because of social media, they are now connected with their long-lost family members and have become aware of the ongoing Baloch genocide by Pakistan. While travelling to Gujarat, I met several Baloch from various walks of life be they politicians or bureaucrats businessmen or working in the private sector, almost everyone is aware of what is happening in Balochistan.
Mr. M K Baloch, ex-Minister of Gujarat Government states, “We have been living in India for hundreds of years, but we are Baloch and we feel for our brethren across the borders who are being targeted by the Pakistani State. We are a community that is known for its loyalty and that is the reason we were employed by the then Princely States but Pakistan fails to understand us. Baloch community in India wholeheartedly supports Balochistan’s freedom movement by democratic means”.
While Mr. Yasin Baloch, a retired Bureaucrat of the Gujarat Government states, “feelings of Indian Baloch are always with the Baloch of Pakistan considering our forefathers came from the same land and will support them”.
Baloch have organized themselves at local and state levels but for the first time they have formed an organization at the national level; All India Baloch Association (AIBA) wherein they are trying to get the Baloch community to come together and participate. The focus of AIBA is to facilitate educational support and uplift the Baloch families who are marginalized and do not have the means to support their children’s future.
Indian Baloch felicitating Naela Quadri Baloch, Source: Twitter
Indian Baloch are also getting first-hand information about Balochistan from various Baloch leaders and representatives themselves. Recently, Dr Naela Quadri Baloch during her tour of India in October 2023 visited Gujarat and met several Indian Baloch and made them aware of the loot of Balochistan’s resources and genocide of Baloch by Pakistan. Indian Baloch community appreciated her efforts and work towards Balochistan and felicitated her.
The interactions of Baloch through social media and a few personal visits will set the ground for the Baloch community across borders but their relationship will only cement when Baloch travel to India and meet their brethren and develop a bond which has been lost because for centuries they have been distanced and further the India-Pakistan visa process makes it even more difficult for people to meet each other. Not only Indian Government need to make the process easier for Baloch across borders to meet each other but Baloch also have to innovate themselves using technology to come together and form groups because it is only then that Indian Baloch can help Pakistani Baloch amplify their voices across the world and support the Baloch cause.
Mark Kinra is a corporate lawyer and geopolitical analyst with expertise in South Asia, particularly Pakistan and Balochistan and holds a degree in Political Science from Tel Aviv University; collaborating with think tanks and academicians in India and Israel.
