The Baloch struggle and killing of Punjabi laborers

While the killing of laborers from Punjab is a blatant act of terrorism and it can’t be rationalized in any way and it also needs no iteration that those laborers were killed because they were Punjabi, but that doesn’t make Punjab oppressed in any way. It becomes hard when treading the line of not trivializing the pain of few or specific families and at the same time negating that the pain of the few families can’t be exploited as a victimhood argument or argument for being at the moral high ground for people of a province which has benefited asymmetrically and unjustly and unconstitutionally for 70 years from the legal and political arrangement of the federation.

The class division is a reality and there are tens of millions in Punjab living in abject poverty, but I have said it already that people of Punjab have one existential advantage over people of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa i.e. guarantee of their lives. No one can come and kill randomly people at Punjab through bombings and terrorism and even if an act of terrorism happens in Punjab, all of the state machinery will come into full swing and all the media will start talking about the lives lost in a way that implies that those lives had actual value and meaning. The same can’t be said for people of Baluchistan and KP. But this in no way takes away the pain from the families of the laborers or other Punjabis killed in Baluchistan. Killing anyone is an act of terrorism-simple and straightforward.

Another important thing is that the killing of laborers doesn’t benefit the Baloch or their struggle in any way. This act doesn’t even represent their struggle. You can’t say that people from Baluchistan have been in Punjab for decades and they have enjoyed no discrimination. People from Baluchistan are in Punjab not because they like being there but because the state have exploited them and have directed all development to Punjab and they have no other recourse but to go to Punjab for labor. Gas is from Baluchistan, electricity is from KP, raw materials are from these two provinces but industries are all in Punjab. It is not that Punjab has shown open-heartedness in accepting people from these provinces but instead has forced people from these provinces to leave their homes and go to Punjab. This is how the system is arranged and the political parties of Punjab have never challenged this system. I don’t need to go into details of the strategic core and strategic periphery doctrines which still guide the military mindset of the country.

This act is not a revenge for the injustices which are faced by Baluchistan. Saying it will imply that all the Baloch people are standing in its support and that it benefits them in any way. Terrorism is nihilistic. And this was act of terrorism. If you are inserting the decades of history of Baloch exploitation before coming to this act of terrorism you are an apologist for terrorists.