Pakistanis are adept in the art of being aggressors and playing the victim card simultaneously. Even their naked acts of mass slaughter are sold upon as ‘terror attack on Pakistan’ that eventually helps Rawalpindi continue with its nefarious activities. The butchery of Shia Hazaras, in a new year on January 3, at Bolan in occupied Balochistan is the latest in this series.
Pakistan Army directed its proxies in Islamic State (IS) to slaughter unarmed Hazaras in the Mach area of Bolan district in an effort to divert world attention from its ongoing military operations across occupied Balochistan, where it continues to kill unarmed Baloch people.
Let’s recount the sequence of events. The attack on unarmed Shia Hazara coal miners took place on Sunday morning at Machh in Bolan. This attack was swiftly condemned by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and almost immediately the Islamic State (IS) took responsibility for this attack on Shi’ite Hazara community. Media across the world reported it as a terrorist attack in Pakistan.
The real story is entirely different, however.
Over the last fortnight entire Balochistan had erupted in protests after the cold blooded murder of Baloch human rights activist Karima Baloch by the ISI in Toronto, Canada. When Pakistan’s usual tactics failed to deter Baloch people from holding massive rallies and protests against the killing of Karima Baloch it deployed its regular armed soldiers to fire upon unarmed Baloch people at Bolan.
Pakistan Army has been using helicopter gunships and sophisticated weapons to shoot and kill unarmed people at Bolan. Pakistani security forces also burnt vast forests of Gharbog Sujawal in Sarawan. A couple of days ago Pakistan Army demolished the entire Mehi village at Mashkay. Mehi village is the birth place of Balochistan’s pro-independence leader Dr Allah Nazar Baloch. Dozens of people from these areas have been picked up by the Pakistan Army and transferred to an unknown location. The Baloch National Movement (BNM) in its latest statement has confirmed these attacks.
The spokesperson of Baloch National Movement (BNM) said that ground and aerial operations of Pakistan Army has been going on for several days in different areas of Bolan and gunship helicopters have been shelling continuously. “This operation is being further expanded. Most areas of Bolan and Machh are under heavy siege by the Pakistani Army and all means of transportation are closed. So far, dozens of people have gone missing by the Pakistani military,” said the BNM spokesperson. He added that Pakistani barbarism has intensified across a wide area. “…the operation has been expanded in different areas of Bolan including Cheesan, Pod, Mian Kaur, Shahrag and surrounding areas in Mach and Bazgar, Jambro, Talang, Kaman, Jhalawan, Loni and Mejdari.”
Despite internet blockade and a gag order on media all these news had begun to trickle to the outside world. Coming on the heels of Karima Baloch’s cold blooded murder Pakistan would have found it hard to defend itself on international forums.
It was in this situation that Pakistan decided to play its victim card and pulled its sympathizers in the Islamic State (IS). The hapless Hazaras around Bolan in Balochistan became the soft target for Rawalpindi. Hazaras were chosen as they are Shias and the slaughter of Shias would not garner much sympathy from the majority Sunnis, and so their killing would surreptitiously be labeled as a terrorist attack on Pakistan. This would then justify Pakistan Army’s atrocities in Bolan and other areas of Balochistan.
Shia Hazaras have always been the soft target of ISI’s Islamic jihadis that have killed Hazaras earlier at Quetta, Mustong and Bolan. Even earlier while on their religious pilgrimage to Iran, the Shia Hazaras had been slaughtered by Pakistanis.
It’s time the world wakes up to these shenanigans of Pakistan and labels it as a terrorist state. The Pakistani regime, Pakistan Army and its rogue intelligence agency ISI have fooled the civilized world for too long.
This is not the first time Shia Hazaras have been murdered by Pakistanis in occupied Balochistan and if the world stays mum then Shia Hazaras may be targeted yet again by Rawalpindi.