Balochistan, a region that should be celebrated for its rich natural resources, breathtaking mountainous terrain and distinctive culture has been in the spotlight for severe human rights violations by Pakistani forces, insurgency and freedom struggle over the past several decades. The largest and sparsely populated among Pakistan’s four provinces has hardly ever had peace or progress.
The area is at present in the news after separatists hijacked the Jaffar Express, a passenger train carrying more than 450 people and killed at least three individuals as well as 37 others received injuries. Afterwards, Pakistani security forces launched an operation and rescued more than 155 people and killed 27 assailants.
The insurgency in Balochistan can be traced back to the betrayal of the Baloch people by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan and the situation only deteriorated with the Punjab-dominated politics of Pakistan. Nevertheless, a multitude of factors played a role in leading to this unfortunate development in the region including a fabricated report from “All India Radio” regarding the possible accession of the region which catalyzed its acquisition by India’s hostile neighbour.
The Balochistan conundrum unfolds
When the British left the subcontinent, Kalat, which included almost all of Balochistan was a sovereign state. Interestingly, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the lawyer who assisted the Khan of Kalat in drafting his argument for Balochistan’s independence. “In 1946, Jinnah, the legal adviser of the Khan of Kalat, submitted a Memorandum to the Cabinet Mission that, inter alia, demanded the separation of Balochistan from British India on geographical grounds,” informed Tilak Devasher in his book “Pakistan: The Balochistan Conundrum.”
Pakistani author Rizwan Zeb in “The Friday Times” pointed out that the Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, also asserted that Muhammad Ali Jinnah wholeheartedly endorsed his stance and deeds during the time of the Khan of Kalat’s independence declaration. The issue between Kalat and Pakistan remained unresolved despite this. Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam and Ahmed Yar Khan were to meet in October 1947 to talk about the area’s future. Ahmed Yar Khan met extensively with Kalat’s foreign minister and prime minister to deliberate on potential alternatives for their country’s future in advance of the meeting.
Inayatullah Baloch detailed this conversation in his book. Five options including “accede to Pakistan, accede to India, join Afghanistan, join Iran or apply to the UK for a protectorate status,” were discussed in the meeting. Ahmed Yar Khan maintained that joining Pakistan was challenging because of public and political opposition. The delegates allegedly agreed that becoming a part of India would not be feasible as Pakistan would view this action as very aggressive and even London was unlikely to support it, along with the fact that Kalat and India have no clear geographic connection.
Ahmed Yar Khan reportedly claimed that Nehru detested him and that the “All India Congress” had never trusted him. Douglas Yates Fell, Kalat’s foreign minister was in favor of joining Iran. He made the case that it would benefit the Baloch and their unity, citing the historical connections between Iran and Balochistan as well as the fact that a sizable portion of the community also resided there.
The Khan of Kalat and several of his relatives had a favourable opinion on the prospect of joining Afghanistan. Douglas Fell opposed it, highlighting Afghanistan’s status as a close ally of the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its already precarious status. The recommendation was also turned down by Ahmed Yar Khan. He was allegedly quite interested in the prospect of requesting protectorate status from the United Kingdom.
However, Fell asserted that this plea would never be granted by the British and there was no agreement reached at the end of this discussion regarding Kalat’s future course of action. Unfortunately, Ahmed Yar Khan’s goal of ruling Kalat as an independent state was all but dashed when Kharan, LasBela and Makran joined Pakistan. With no direct connection to the outside world, Kalat transformed into a landlocked state.
Ahmed Yar Khan responded to the development by announcing that he might file an appeal with the United Nations and that Kalat’s accession would not be voluntary. Meanwhile, the Khan of Kalat was accused by the Pakistani government of conspiring against it and requesting British support while also contacting India through an agent. These accusations mirrored the conversation in diplomatic circles and the prior interactions Ahmed Yar Khan had with his foreign minister and prime minister.
The accession of Kharan, Las Bela and Makran to Pakistan, according to Ahmed Yar Khan’s biography “Inside Baluchistan,” hurt the country’s regional relations. He enumerated four main negative effects: first, relations with Afghanistan soured; second, the Nizam of Hyderabad was persuaded to accept accession with India due to the “humiliation” of the Baloch; third, the Maharaja of Kashmir changed his mind about joining Pakistan and instead joined India; and fourth, the sheikhs of Gulf states that had previously supported Pakistan sided with India.
Notably, the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, ultimately joined India in October 1947 after an invasion from Pakistan after which he requested Indian military support against Muslim marauders. He initially wanted to keep the state independent rather than join either India or Pakistan.
Balochistan’s desperation and Nehru’s rebuff
The oversight by India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru regarding Balochistan may not be familiar to many, yet it is historically and strategically as significant as the infamous Himalayan blunder and the Kashmir fiasco. The government of India at the time, impacted by a misguided sense of urgency and strategic blindness, opted not to back the Baloch state of Kalat which was desperate to reach an agreement with New Delhi to avert Pakistani control.
Ahmed Yar Khan attempted to get the All India Congress leadership to support his argument on the independence and sovereignty of the state of Kalat during his campaign to persuade the British to acknowledge his position.
Samad Khan, a well-known Pashtun chieftain from Balochistan who supported the Congress, spoke with the party’s high brass about Kalat’s predicament in 1946. However, Jawaharlal Nehru reportedly had little interest in endorsing it. According to the British think tank Foreign Policy Centre, he even returned the 1947 accession documents that the Khan of Kalat had signed.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the president of the All India Congress in New Delhi at the time, met Baba-e-Balochistan Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, a prominent member of the Kalat State National Party. Azad believed that Kalat would need to seek British protection since it could not exist as an independent state and in his wisdom declared that such a move would severely cast doubt on the Indian Subcontinent’s sovereignty.
For India, it was a case of a lost chance. Perhaps the geopolitical importance of an independent Balochistan was not understood by the Nehru administration.
A shocking “All India Radio” broadcast and a confused Indian leadership
Given the limited alternatives, Baloch historians have maintained that the Khan of Kalat had two options at this point: either join Pakistan or reject it and prepare for the worst situation, including military resistance. However, the countdown to Balochistan started before he made a decision with an All India Radio (AIR) broadcast on 27th March 1948 which declared that the Khan of Kalat had approached New Delhi in January of the same year to discuss accession with India.
VP Menon, secretary to the government unveiled that the Khan of Kalat was pressing India to accept Kalat’s accession, but India would have nothing to do with it. Gul Khan Naseer’s “Tahreekh-e-Balochistan (History of Balochistan),” also verified the same and reported that on 27th March 1948, “All India Radio” broadcasted a press conference wherein Menon stated that two months prior, the Khan of Kalat had submitted a request for accession to New Delhi, but the offer had been turned down.
All India Radio did actually broadcast Menon’s statement, confirmed Hakim Baluch, a former chief secretary of Balochistan, author and historian who has authored multiple books on the region. Gul Khan Naseer who allegedly cited Ahmed Yar Khan expressed this was a white lie to incite animosity between Kalat and Pakistan as well as aimed to provoke the Pakistani leadership into taking hasty action which would allow India to advance against the Hyderabad Deccan. During the negotiations between Pakistan and Ahmed Yar Khan, there were several rumours in Pakistani diplomatic circles that he was using the possibility of joining India as leverage.
“There is good reason to believe that he (Ahmed Yar Khan) has been flirting with both India and Afghanistan,” the British High Commissioner allegedly conveyed to Pakistan. An upset Ahmed Yar Khan also denied that he had made such a request. He protested this allegation by sending a telegram to the Governor-General of India, asking them to divulge any communications they possessed, if he had actually approached them.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Home Minister at the time, clarified the next day that no such request had been made, although, the harm had already been done. All that India could do was stand by and watch the takeover of the Balochi state as the Pakistani army overran Kalat. The troops of Pakistan stormed the region while Indian politicians and officials were making conflicting claims. The Pakistan Navy had reached the coastal towns of Pasni and Jiwani when the Khan of Kalat was carried by force to Karachi, the country’s former capital and forced to sign the accession document.
Balkrishna Sharma brought up this matter on the floor of the house and requested that the administration provide more information on the matter to which Jawaharlal Nehru responded:
“I am glad to have this opportunity to clear up a misapprehension that has unfortunately arisen. I greatly regret that owing to an error in reporting, the All India Radio announced on the night of the 27th March that His Highness, the Khan of Kalat, had approached the Government of India about two months ago through his agents to seek permission to accede to India, but the Government of India did not agree. This statement is incorrect. No mention had been made at any time either by the representative of the ruler of Kalat or by the Government of India to the accession of Kalat state to India. In view of the geographical position of Kalat state, the question did not arise at all. I might also add that certain reports, that have appeared in the foreign press about political negotiations between the government of India and Kalat state, are also completely without foundation. The statement that any sum of money has been paid to Kalat state on behalf of the government and that the government have sought airbases in Kalat are also wholly without foundation. The facts are as follows: In August last, soon after the declaration of independence in India, the government of Kalat drew the attention of the government of India to a press communique in which it was said that the government of Pakistan had recognized Kalat as an independent sovereign state, in treaty relations with the British Government, with a status different from that of the Indian states. They invited the government of India to make a similar declaration. Sometime later, a request was made on behalf of Kalat state for permission to establish a trade agency of the state in Delhi. No formal reply was sent to either of these requests. Informally, the representative of Kalat state was informed that these requests could not be considered then. No further communication of any kind has been passed between the government of India and the government of Kalat.”
According to accounts, the comment ascribed to VP Menon was a misrepresentation of his remarks, and he did not make any such claim or statement when the matter was considered in a meeting of the Indian cabinet on 29th March 1948.
An alienated Balochistan
According to Tilak Devasher, Balochistan is alienated in two ways. The first is the “Baloch narrative,” which “rests on the deeply ingrained historical memories of independence and the injustices the people feel they have endured since they were forced to accede to Pakistan.” He quoted Baloch political leader Abdul Hayee Baloch and outlined, “The establishment has never accepted the fact that Pakistan is a multi-national country. Pakistan came into existence in 1947, but Balochs, Pathans, Sindhis, Punjabis and Seraikis have been here for centuries. They have their own cultures and languages.”
The second factor is a phenomenon that emerged after the Baloch were subjected to organized economic exploitation, discrimination, and even persecution. “The province has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates, the highest poverty rate and the lowest literacy rate in Pakistan. Within Balochistan, an average Baloch is twice as poor as an average Punjabi, Pashtun or Hazra resident of the province,” Devasher stated.
Balochi problems have intensified even with the massive projects being carried out with China’s assistance, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Gwadar port. The residents worry that foreigners will take advantage of the jobs and other advantages these initiatives generate because of their prior experiences. “For the Baloch, development is linked with the creation of employment opportunities and consequent improvement in their standard of living. For Pakistan, development means obtaining Balochistan’s mineral wealth and expediting the development of the Gwadar port and the CPEC,” he added.
There were talks in the diplomatic community, per Gurmeet Kanwal, former director of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, about how Gwadar was run by India on behalf of the Sultan of Oman because the two nations had good relations. According to reports, the Sultan first promised Gwadar to India but the country’s leaders refused the gift and the Khan of Kalat requested him to return it to Pakistan.
“This offer was probably made verbally. While senior diplomats confirm that such an offer was made, its authenticity could not be verified independently. Oman then sold Gwadar to Pakistan for $3 million on September 8, 1958. Since December 1958, it has been an integral part of the Balochistan province of Pakistan,” Kanwal revealed in an article.
Former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Vikram Sood voiced that the new Delhi rulers were too preoccupied with Hyderabad and Kashmir to recognize the strategic importance of a sovereign Balochistan, in a February 2006 piece. “While the Pakistan Army occupied Kalat, India stood by silently; Lord Mountbatten, Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru or Maulana Azad said nothing about the rape of Baluchistan,” mentioned Indian scholar Deepak Basu.
When probed about the insurgency in the province that made up nearly half of Pakistan’s land area but only had 6% of its population, Henry Kissinger, former United States Secretary of State responded, “I wouldn’t recognise the Balochistan problem if it hit me in the face,” during a visit to the country in 1962. The political class in India had a similar attitude and narrow mindset.
The Khan of Kalat made every effort to keep his state independent. He tried to woo London to sign a pact along the same lines as the UK had with Oman as well as with Iran and Afghanistan. Moreover, he constantly implored for India’s assistance in 1948 while Pakistan waged jihad in Kashmir. However, New Delhi lost out on the opportunity to gain control of yet another lever to control Pakistan, with its leadership, under Nehru, blissfully unaware of the chronic conflict it had ignited with its repudiation of the Khan of Kalat.
