alochistan is not a secondary concern in Pakistan’s political landscape. However, the region has been frequently overlooked in popular discussions. The challenges facing Balochistan are partly due to our neglect; it hasn’t been a priority for all governments.

Some of the economic and social issues in this area have been consistently ignored. It’s important to ask whether the people of Balochistan have ever been properly consulted before major decisions affecting their interests are made. This question should be a significant concern for all responsible citizens.

Balochistan, located at the eastern end of the Iranian plateau, spans Pakistan’s Balochistan province, Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province, and parts of Afghanistan’s Nimruz, Helmand and Kandahar provinces. This region, rich in natural resources such as oil, coal, gold, copper and gas, has long faced neglect by federal governments, leading to persistent unrest among the Baloch population. The resentment has sparked at least five rebellions since 1947.

Balochistan is currently a focus of major geopolitical events. Pakistan has struggled with almost constant turmoil in the region since its independence, attempting to secure and develop it with Chinese assistance through projects like the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The latest tensions flared up in Gwadar, a key port city on the Arabian Sea that is crucial to China’s emerging transportation network across Asia. Meanwhile, across the border in Iran, India is trying to complete the Chabahar port, its strategic answer to Gwadar, aiming to establish a trade route to Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan. The Iranian Balochistan, a predominantly Sunni region in a mostly Shia country, remains vulnerable to external actors like Saudi Arabia, which an imaginably incite unrest using radical groups, such as Jundallah.

The Baloch Yakjehti Committee is an advocacy group dedicated to defending the rights of the Baloch people against alleged state oppression. Established in 2020 as the Bramsh Solidarity Committee, the group was initially named after Bramsh Baloch, a girl injured in an incident of violence incident in Turbat that claimed the life of her mother, Malik Naz.

Under the leadership of Mahrang Baloch, the BYC is focused on human rights abuses in Balochistan, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. On several occasions, the BYC has faced crackdowns from the administration. It continues to organise protest demonstrations against alleged human rights violations including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Some of the demonstrations have resulted in deadly clashes, arrests and blockades.

Amidst this unrest, prominent BYC leaders Sammi Deen Baloch and Sabiha Baloch were detained. The detention sparked more protests across Balochistan. The protesters demanded the opening of highways leading to Gwadar and the release of people arrested on account of the demonstrations. Some of them highlighted alleged state oppression and unfair exploitation of Baloch resources.

The government’s response, criticised by the likes of Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, included mass arrests and the suspension of mobile and internet services. These organisations have condemned violence and called for the immediate release of detained protesters. They have urged the government to address the underlying issues through dialogue rather than repression.

Balochistan, named after its Baloch inhabitants, has a unique and underexplored history. Sandwiched between the Persian and Indian empires, unlike their mountainous Afghan neighbors to the north, the people of Balochistan lacked natural defences. This led to the region’s division and rule by others.

The largely Sunni Muslim population speaks Balochi, a northwestern Iranian language closely related to Kurdish, distinct from the eastern Iranian Pashto and southwestern Iranian Persian. Despite its rich cultural and linguistic heritage, Balochistan remains a region marked by neglect, exploitation and obscurity.

In ancient times, Balochistan was part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Later various Persian and Indian empires and local kingdoms ruled it. It was inhabited by a mix of Iranian and Indian peoples practicing Hinduism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. The region gained notoriety when Alexander the Great’s return march to Babylon from India led to thousands of his soldiers’ deaths in its deserts. In the 600s, Balochistan was loosely under the Sassanid Persian Empire. As the Sassanids faced the Arab onslaught, control of the region, then known as Makran (after its coastal area), passed to the Rai Dynasty of Sindh. The Arabs defeated this dynasty in 644 at the Battle of Rasil, conquering Makran, which converted to Islam but remained a sparsely populated and peripheral region.

In the 11th Century, the Seljuk Turks invaded Persia, prompting the migration of nomadic tribes from central Iran and the area south of the Caspian Sea into Balochistan. These tribes, ancestors of today’s Baloch people, found the move to the arid Balochistan less challenging than competing for resources with the invaders in Iran.

During this time, the Brahui people, who speak a Dravidian language like those in South India, also migrated from central India to Balochistan. They formed a symbiotic relationship with the Baloch, many of whom settled and began farming in oases, establishing various kingdoms and tribal confederations that were sometimes independent and sometimes under the control of external empires.

In the 1500s, Balochistan, like Afghanistan, was divided between the Safavid Persian Empire to the west and the Mughal Empire to the east, a division that roughly mirrors the current Iran-Pakistan border. Iran’s Sistan province, being a frontier area, had loose control and its people had leverage over the central government, allowing them to avoid the imposition of Shia Islam.

The Mughals initially ruled Balochistan from Multan. Eventually, they delegated control to a local vassal who established the Khanate of Kalat in 1666. Kalat ruled over the vassal states of Las Bela, Kharan and Makran, which constitute most of Pakistani Balochistan today. In 1783, the Khan of Kalat granted control of the port of Gwadar to a man who later became the Sultan of Oman. Pakistan bought it back from Oman in 1958.

During the 18th Century, Balochistan briefly united as the Safavid and Mughal Empires, followed by Nader Shah’s rule, collapsed. This led to a period of independent principalities, Kalat being the most significant of those. Some areas fell under Afghan control, but most remained autonomous. Within a century, the Qajar dynasty in Iran and the British in India began asserting their influence. The British attacked Kalat in 1839 during their invasion of Afghanistan and installed a friendly ruler.

By 1854, Kalat was an associated state of the British. In 1877, they established the Balochistan Agency to manage the Baloch princely states and directly rule northern Balochistan, including Quetta. Meanwhile, Iran re-conquered western Balochistan, which has remained part of the country ever since, except for a brief period in the 1920s when it had its own “king.”

The British and Iran demarcated the boundary in 1871-1872. Some adjustments were made in 1895-1896. Kalat acceded to Pakistan on March 27, 1948. The boundary with Iran was re-confirmed with minor changes in 1958-1959. These agreements established the modern frontier between Iran and Pakistani Balochistan. However, the division has left ethnic Baloch on both sides feeling marginalised.

The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan led to a revolt by his brother, Prince Abdul Karim. In July 1948, Princes Agha Abdul Karim Baloch and Muhammad Rahim started guerrilla warfare against the army that went on until 1950. Despite these conflicts, Jinnah and his successors permitted Ahmad Yar Khan to retain his title. The province was dissolved in 1955 to create the West Pakistan One Unit. It was far from a smooth process.

(To be continued)

The writer is a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore