Ethnic tensions: Where being skilled is a sin

thank you ET, your are the only one who has bothered to highlight the plight of punjabi settlers who have been killed in balochistan and over a lakh have been forced to flee balochistan selling their properties at pennies.The militant groups in balochistan have killed over 1200 punjabi civilians in balochistan and have forced the rest to run away.Why our news channels deliberately remain silent over this genocide i do not understand.But still you have done this first article,let’s hope more media groups follow suit and give fair coverage,not just keep on giving all the coverage to the missing people while staying dead quiet about settler’s murders.Recommend

The history dates back to the time when THE HOLY PROPHET had to leave Mecca in the middle of the night, evading KAFIRS.
Imam Hussain had to leave Madina ,fearing muslims themselves..
Imam Khomeni had to live in exile for a decade and leave his family behind.

what is special about AHMER“s story ?Recommend

God Bless You Express Tribune for Finally Finally building the Courage to Write about this Ethnic Cleansing of Punjabi and Urdu Speaking Settlers in the province of Balochistan. Baloch nationalist and seperatist groups along with their sympathizers have the last 7 years have been brutally targeting settler communities. No one in the media has had the courage to bring it up, the whole Pakistan broadcast and print media has been a Pro Baloch Propoganda, all they can do is talk about suffering of the Baloch people, and they are only doing this because of their Anti Govt attitude, the Baloch in reality are suffering far more due to fuedalism in that province as opposed to the Govt of Pakistan. I myself have met dozens of families that have fled ethnic cleansing in the Province. Please do more to high light the suffering of settler communities in Balochistan.Recommend

I am surprised that ET has only highlighted one-half of the story. Since early 1950s, the Baloch have been repeatedly subjugated through army (comprising of mostly Punjabi) and subsequent governments support for such actions (also often dominated by Urdu Speaking and Punjabi elements while in case of Bhutto the Sindhi elements too). In the wake of such military actions, settlers from other provinces come and start living there, not caring to learn local language, understand local customs and cooperate with the locals to improve their living standard.
How else do you suppose the more Proud Balochis will behave? When the army will open fire on them, they will see Punjabi men firing on them with permission from government that is also full of Punjabi and other ethnic people. Other than firing back on them it is the Punjabi civilians they will see as another target and go after them if they felt the need. The mistakes are of our own making that led the Balochis to this level, so painting them as the bad guy will continue to hurt Pakistan.Recommend

NOW BALOCH ARE ALSO IN ARMY SO COOLRecommend

The only people who are targetting other Pakistanis in Baluchistan are anti state agents on the payroll of India and Afghanistan. These agents are sent via Afghanistan to cause trouble in Pakistan. I don’t believe for a second that any Baluch would wish to deprove his or her child of an education by killing all the non Baluch teachers- be they Pashtun, Sindi, Kashmiri or Punjabi. This is all an orchestrated plot to hurt Pakistanis and the border between Afghanistan / Pakistan should be sealed. Then the government can track down these criminals and bring them to justice.Recommend

Punjabi settlers are bieng killed bcause Baloch take them as the representative of Punjabi establishment and secondly in the past they were hired by agencies to collect information about Baloch seperatests since being panjabi they were more trustworthy.The reason of their killings should be laying in abara chock rather then in Quetta.As long long as missing person are being surfaced as mutilated dead bodies.can any one support punjabi settlers in Balochistan?Recommend

You may feel hurt, since Punjabis are blamed for many issues, correctly or incorrectly, you need to analyze it. Rather than feeling hurt, what have you done, did you ever speak to the ppl of other provinces? Did we ever try to sort out the issues? Unfortunately it has been mostly politicians, Feudal or army officers, bureacrats of Punjab that have played their role to create this ill-will. I am not saying that such ppl from other provines have not done the same, but with bigger population, it has been mostly from Punjab. The problem is incorrect distribution of wealth b/w the people of provinces and within the provinces. The common person of Punjab may not have benefitted but army men, bureacrats , policemen, judges, politicians did, and most of them were from Punjab. It looks worst when these from Punjab did it in other provinces. Even within Punjab, why only northern Punjab was developed or the cant areas? I may be wrong in my analysis, but go and check what happened in East pakistan, even though it had more population. With a bigger province it is obvious that you will have more ppl of Punjab in different federal organizations, but when you don’t get them on merit, are corrupt and more interested in making money, it makes matter worst. Every common person of every province have same issues, like the Islami Ijtamah at Raiwand we should have gathering of new generation to sit together and sort out the issues. Also if we love Pakistan and think that every person have equal rights then having more provinces should not be an issue.Recommend

@Ali:
Hey yar, no offense but your arguments are vague. Well, it is true that in Punjab, everybody irrespective of ethnicity finds a safe-haven but your other arguments for Punjab being a total ‘innocent goat’ are a little too much to agree. Considering the revenue generation from Karachi and other provinces, the allocation of funds and resources is unjust. The establishment which comprises of the Army and civil bureaucracy are the ones who have robbed the country, not Muhajirs or anyone else for that matter. And it is incumbent here to say that most of the establishment is from Punjab and their open support for Punjab is visible for all to see. The Muhajirs have given this land a lot, and it might be wrong to say that Punjab stands firm for one Pakistan. Does anybody need reminding ‘Khalistan’ here?
Also it is necessary here to say that what happened in Quetta was totally unjust. Everyone should be able to live wherever he/she desires irrespective of ethnicity. Punjabis contributed in Quetta, and the treatment meted out to them or to any settlers in Quetta was totally hilarious.We are all ‘one’ and unless we don’t realize that, this place is going nowhere. But to address grievances of all, everybody will have to be open at heart and be ready to accept their mistakes. For the Baloch people, it is no doubt that injustices have been ushered onto them. Like for instance, the native Baloch have been deprived of Sui Gas Supply since antiquity while a pipeline was laid from Dera Bugti to Murree a long time ago. Where would we put this act as? At least the locals should have got what they owned before any other province.Recommend

@ Ali – I think it’s obvious to most that on both sides of the border, Punjabis have an outsized influence, both positive and negative, on each country’s culture. In India, Punjab has some negative aspects: one of the worst male-female baby ratios due to female infanticide and awful water table due to poor farming techniques yet Punjabis in India are the wealthiest people, most successful large community (smaller communities like Parsis, Jains, and Bohras are more successful) and now dominate the culture of India. Bhangra is massively popular as is Punjabi food and clothing. It’s because Punjabis are fun-loving people. Even South Indians want naan served at their wedding while dancing to Jazzy B, Imran Khan, and Punjabi MC.

I think many Indian Punjabis believe that Pakistani Punjabis have preserved the Punjabi language better than it has been preserved in India and hope that long-term peace between India and Pakistan can allow Punjabis on both sides of the border to help preserve their unique and proud culture.

That being said, it shocks many Indian Punjabis to see that Southern Punjab has become such a hotbed of terrorism. We always thought of Pakistani Punjab as being the home of Pirs and Sufi Saints and of moderate Islam that our forefathers remember fondly. What went wrong? Zia and the Sharifs but it seems that much more has gone wrong in Punjab.Recommend

the writer has given just one side of the story. the actual side that truly matters has been completely left out. balochis have suffered for more than 60 years because of punjab government and the army in particular, the army being controlled by punjabis through out our history. from what i understand, the balochis shouldnt be blamed at all for their anger towards other ethnicities specially punjabis. but because we pakistanis are so messed up and have become wild animals, it is truly sad that innocent people are being blamed and hurt for our masters’ mistakes.Recommend

I understand that there is a debate going on here regarding punjabi, balochis, sindhi etc. This story was done more to highlight the ethnic divide we live in and need to get ride of. We are all Pakistanis, and I feel that our political class, the army, the judiciary and the bureaucracy who compose of us the public need to erase these lines of ethnicity. Let us be Pakistanis. And get on the same page – it is time that we unite. Otherwise, it may just be too late.Recommend