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Another incident of ethnic-profiling and homicide of people hailing from Punjab in the restive province of Balochistan is alarming. This barbarism has come close on the heels of a similar killing episode in Noshki and another one way back in October last year in Turbat. Read together these gruesome incidents indicate a pattern of hate-mongering with a nefarious agenda to bleed the fellow citizens and that too by flagging the dynamics of regionalism at a time when marginalisation is picking momentum, and people are in a struggle for two square meals. It is also pertinent to study as to why Balochistan is the theatre of action, and as to why none are coming forward to claim responsibility. This disgusting sketch of bloodshed must surely have been scripted by forces that want to sow the seeds of separatism and harm the soaring tide of geo-economics.
The killing of seven barbershop workers in Surbandar, near Gwadar, in the wee hours during their sleep is not just an act of terror. That they all belonged to different districts of Punjab, and their remains were supposed to be transmitted to their hometowns, comes as a plot of abhorrence embedded in hostility. The poor men were no harm, neither to the economy of the province nor to the fundamental rights of its inhabitants. They were mean workers but what seems to have mattered is the mindset of criminality to frame the backward province of Balochistan as an unsafe destination, and also to create bad blood with the populous province of Punjab. The pattern of wrongdoing is an extension of terror activities in vogue in the province against Chinese interests that are busy building it as a hub for regional connectivity.
A stereotype response for ‘resolving’ to apprehend the culprits is not enough after every such tragedy. It is unfortunate that no crime-sheet is accounted for, and inquiries are dumped. It’s high time to connect the dots and act ruthlessly by putting aside petty interests. The enemy is very much around, and is posing a challenge right in our face. Let it not have the last laugh.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2024.
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