The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) observed the Balochistan Solidarity Day by holding a mass rally in Pakistan capital Islamabad on Sunday. JI's national chief Sirajul Haq has mainstreamed Baloch disaffection by bringing the Gwadar ko Haq do movement to the national capital, posing another challenge to the authority of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, a local Baloch and the general secretary of the JI in Balochistan, has been spearheading the agitation–Give rights to Gwadar–for basic necessities like livelihoods, water and electricity in Gwadar port city for a month now. The agitation found support in other parts of Balochistan and has attracted women and children in significant numbers in Gwadar.
Pakistani newspaper The News reported that senior leaders of the JI led the protest in front of the National Press Club where Maulana Baloch also addressed Jamaat supporters.
Maulana Baloch who traveled from Gwadar to address protestors in Islamabad, reiterated his demand that foreign trawlers indulging in illegal fishing be removed from the waters near the Balochistan coast as these have depleted fisheries for local fishermen. “The government should accept the demands of local fishermen instead of creating problems for them,” he emphasised.
یہ ہے وہ ٹرالرمافیا جو گوادر سے روزگار چھین رہا ہے
آپ ڈیڑھ منٹ کی یہ ویڈیو دیکھیں کہ کیسے گوادر کے حق روزگار پر ڈاکہ ڈالا جا رہا ہے، سمندری حیات کی نسل کشی ہو رہی ہے
اس ظلم کے خاتمے کا ہم مطالبہ کر رہے ہیں۔ یقین دہانی کروائی جاتی ہے، علمدرآمد نہیں#یوم_یکجہتی_بلوچستان_گوادر pic.twitter.com/WDVj9YVD9z— Maulana Hidayat ur Rehman Baloch (@MHidayatRehman) December 12, 2021
The foreign trawlers are mainly large Chinese commercial fishing boats that allegedly indulge in destructive fishing by emptying the seas of marine life. The Baloch, who are mainly small fishermen find it difficult to get productive catch.
Pakistan expert Mark Kinra told India Narrative that the protests in Pakistan are going to get bigger as elections approach in Pakistan. Maulana Hiyadatur Rehman Baloch has given a vent to the issues that the Baloch community has been raising for decades but these remained unheard. Even though the JI is leading a political movement in a surcharged atmosphere, the Baloch people will support it till it lasts”.
Separately, the massive China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), under which China is constructing a port in Gwadar, has restricted the access of the local fishermen to the sea which has impacted their livelihoods. The Baloch people also protest increased security and checkpoints which have come up to protect the Chinese nationals working on the port.
China has taken note of the protests in Gwadar, which is an important end-point for China's CPEC which starts from Kashgar in Xinjiang. The Baloch resistance to the Chinese project is also because of a growing feeling that the foreign presence is leading to marginalisation of the local people.
The Gwadar protests have forced the Imran Khan government to accede to some of the demands emanating from Balochistan, which largely remains a neglected province with exceptionally low human development indicators.
وزیر اعظم پاکستان عمران خان کی ہدایت پر وزارت داخلہ نے گوادر کے مسائل کے حل اور غیر قانونی ماہی گیری کی روک تھام کے متعلق کمیٹی تشکیل دے دی @SaboohSyed @MHidayatRehman @zoyabaluch @MoulanaOfficial pic.twitter.com/vBiKqQ1Ms1
— The Gwadar Post (@thegwadarpost) December 12, 2021
Separately, the students from the University of Balochistan (UoB) have been on a five-week protest asking for the return of two Baloch students, Suhail Baloch and Fasih Baloch, who were reportedly picked up by the Pakistani Army in a raid from the hostel.
The students reiterated their demand that the university will remain closed till the abducted students are released. They have also called for a boycott of the examinations.
Govt officials along with university administration have made agreement with us that UoB will remain close till recovery of students. But yet students have not been released and UoB admin is going to conduct examination. We will not allow any sort of examinations by UoB. pic.twitter.com/u8FWqEOo9k
— Asif Baloch (@Asif_Baloch8) December 12, 2021
The student agitation that has been running in Balochistan capital Quetta has brought up the Pakistani State policy of enforced disappearances in which thousands of people have been kidnapped by the military and intelligence, besides hundreds of mutilated bodies that have turned up all over Balochistan.
Apart from Islamabad, the JI also held rallies in other parts of the province under the Balochistan Solidarity Day. Balochistan itself saw demonstrations staged in Quetta, Dera Murad Jamali, Jaffarabad, Dera Bugti, Khuzdar and other places against the local and federal governments for Baloch rights.
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