The death of hope

The process of murdering professionals from other provinces in Balochistan continues unabated. The manner in which the latest killing of a woman professor of the Balochistan University was carried out, with the 50-yearold victim dragged out of a rickshaw and shot at point-blank range, is shocking. The crude efforts at a kind of ethnic cleansing, claimed this time round by the shadowy Balochistan Liberation Army, adds to the disputes between various groups that threaten to turn our country into a veritable killing field.

Chaos has increased so rapidly that anarchy prevails in many places. In Quetta, and other parts of Balochistan, the authorities seem helpless and frankly speaking it seems as if nobody cares. For years this kind of violence has been going on -- although its intensity has increased in recent months. The people targeted are killed in broad daylight but their killers are never found. The people are left wondering what kind of state they live in where security of their life and property is not guaranteed -- and the result is the death of hope.

The element of revenge that underlies the killings adds to complications. The BLA says Nazima Talib was killed in revenge for the murder of two Baloch women and the torture of others. This of course does not justify the gunning down of an academic who had taught in her adopted province for over 20 years and was also a talented writer and poet. She deserved greater hospitality in Balochistan than what she received. But at the same time it is important to keep in mind that the situation we have today in Balochistan is partially the result of many years of unrest and resentment in the province caused by a sense of alienation from the rest of the country.

It has been the failure to tackle these issues that has allowed them to assume such dangerous proportions. A lot of injustices of the past need to undone -- and only then can we hope to see the situation change for the better.