By Shazia Anwer Cheema
The killing spree goes on in Pakistan as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is ruthlessly assassinating innocent people and taking responsibility blatantly. Ironically, several foreign-funded human rights and political groups in Pakistan are justifying BLA’s actions, claiming that its killings are a kind of resistance movement.
There is no doubt that resistance movements have been important in modern human history and have been glorified in folktales and literature. However, several movements in history were documented that had been launched to destroy social order under the guise of resistance movements. The majority of these tailored-made resistance movements are part of studies for students of Philosophy of Communication because they are built on cognitive manipulation. The primary work in manipulation is coining new meanings of “Occupation” because under no law does any group of a modern state have the right to launch armed resistance against the state while the state has prerogative of use of violence to maintain the security and the law in the country.
Armed resistance or the use of violence by any group other than the state operative is “Only” justified when there is a “Foreign Occupation,” such as in Indian Occupied Kashmir, Palestine, and in the past case of same for Afghanistan. It must be remembered that the cognitive process of “Resistance” and Liberation works only when the mind is provided that actions are against Occupation. I am sure our intellectuals and academia know what I am referring to, but I am amazed how they are directly or indirectly supporting this manipulation and are trying to justify the BLA’s terrorist acts. Besides, even under a justified armed resistance, the killing of civilians is prohibited by almost all international laws. A review of international laws, treaties, conventions, and norms confirms that violence against the lives of civilians, including murder, is illegal even under UN-recognized armed resistance (when foreign forces occupy the country of the armed group).
The prohibition of the murder of civilians was also recognized in the Lieber Code. Murder of civilians and prisoners of war was included as a war crime in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds” of civilians and persons hors de combat. All four Geneva Conventions list the “willful killing” of protected persons as a grave breach. The prohibition of murder is recognized as a fundamental guarantee by Additional Protocols I and II. The murder of civilians is also specified as a war crime under the Statute of the International Criminal Court. Violations of international rule have been condemned by the UN Security Council, UN General Assembly, and UN Commission on Human Rights. The murder of civilians is also prohibited under international human rights law, albeit in different terms. Human rights treaties prohibit the “arbitrary deprivation of the right to life”. This prohibition is non-derogable under these treaties and, therefore, applicable at all times. The UN Human Rights Committee, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have stressed the use of force to the degree strictly necessary and not against the civilians even under the bona fide armed resistance.
After reviewing the international stated position on violence against the civilians now we should now review what is happening in Balochistan. By using an available understanding of international norms, it is categorical that the ongoing violence against civilians is nothing but an act of terrorism and a violation of human rights. The terrorism on Jaffar Express and the timely response of the security forces caused considerable damage to the banned terrorist organization BLA. This event also exposed the politics of different civilian groups such as the Baloch Solidarity Committee (BSC) that straightforwardly stood with BLA terrorists and tried to snatch the bodies of terrorists who were killed in the Jaffar Express hijacking clearance operation. The protest of BSC in Quetta caused the death of three persons, and Dr Mahrang Lango was arrested, and a case of murder was registered. If the facts are weighed, it is understood that sit-ins, processions, and protests in Balochistan are facilitating the terrorists. Attacks on buses are also taking place every day, and once again, a terrorist incident took place in the Gwadar district of Balochistan in which 6 people were killed. The incident was carried out on passengers going from Gwadar to Karachi, which once again makes it clear that terrorists want to achieve two objectives through these attacks: on the one hand, to spread fear and panic by killing innocent people, and on the other hand, to incite the fire of racism by attacking Pakistanis who have come from other cities. It should be remembered that a firing incident also took place in the Mangchar area of Balochistan in the past few days, in which 4 laborers belonging to Punjab were killed.
There are many theories in the market, and one of them is that BLA and Mahrang Baloch are foreign-funded projects. Without commenting on the reliability of such theories, one can comment on the immediate support of Western media and Western personalities like Malala Yousafzai who have jumped into the situation. A series of articles, documentaries, and op-ed pieces are appearing in Western media in support of Baloch resistance. An we look at these developments in vacuums or link them with theories of greater Global North games in proximity to China?
The so-called organizations that are linking these issues with human rights should be asked whether killing poor laborers and passengers from buses by taking them off and killing them is an act of human rights. Is bringing the terrorists and their facilitators to justice a violation of human rights? Don’t these terrorists want to achieve their nefarious goals by targeting innocent and defenseless people, especially the Baloch people?
Shazia Anwer Cheema is an author, geopolitical analyst, writer, and educator with 10-plus years of international experience in research, teaching, and strategic analysis. Expert in media, linguistics, and cognitive semiotics, with a strong focus on political discourse, global narratives, and strategic communication.
The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News.
