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Once Independent, Now Divided: The Political Reality Of Balochistan

What Balochistan is going through is not new; any nation will have diversity of opinions with regard to its struggle and way forward.

Balochistan - New realities

The month of August is significant in South Asia. India got its independence, and Pakistan got created, but even before India and Pakistan, another nation got independence, i.e. Balochistan. On 4 Aug 1947, it was decided between the British, Pakistan and Kalat officials that the Kalat (Balochistan) state would be independent and would enjoy the same status as held in 1838 (before Balochistan became a vassal of the British). Further, a Standstill Agreement was reached between Kalat & Pakistan officials on 11 Aug 1947, wherein Pakistan recognised Kalat as an independent sovereign state and the Khan of Kalat declared independence. However, their independence didn’t last long, as only in 9 months, by coercion, Pakistan took over Balochistan.

Strategic Oversight and Jinnah’s Long Game

But it wasn’t just the British or Pakistanis who sabotaged their independence, but it was also the Khan of Kalat Mir Ahmad Yar Khan Ahmedzai naïveity as well, as he couldn’t understand the shrewdness of M A Jinnah, because Jinnah always wanted Balochistan, as early as 1940, he called for Balochistan to be made part of Pakistan. During the summer of 1943, Jinnah spent several days in Balochistan campaigning for the unity of all Muslims and assuring Nawabs and Sardars that the policy of the Muslim League would be in their favour. In 1944, Mahatma Gandhi held several rounds of discussions with Jinnah on the future of India. During one interaction, Jinnah again reiterated that Pakistan is composed of two zones, north-west and north-east, comprising six provinces, namely Sindh, Balochistan, the North-West Frontier Province, Punjab, Bengal and Assam, subject to territorial adjustments.

With the arrival of the Cabinet Mission Plan, Jinnah, while talking to the New York Times correspondent on 13 February 1946, threatened a civil war if the British did not grant Pakistan six Muslim majority states. He even stated in the Dawn Newspaper on 1 May 1947, Muslim is a nation and we want a national State in our homelands, which are predominantly Muslim and comprise the single units of the Punjab, the Frontier Province, Sind, Baluchistan, Bengal and Assam. Even with so many statements and with such clarity, the then Khan of Kalat appointed Jinnah to plead its case for independence in front of the Cabinet Mission, to which he agreed, and finally the above treaties were formulated which were later sabotaged by manipulating Kalat’s suzern states and finally forcing Kalat to sign the treaty of accession on 27 March 1948.

But since then, Balochistan has been engulfed in several insurgency movements, but as with Khan of Kalat, there seems to be trouble in the Baloch leadership in today’s time as well. This article will try to understand what a few of the problems which Baloch politics is facing today are, and which are affecting its diplomacy and road towards an independent country.

Modern-Day Balochistan: Political Fragmentation and the Quest for Unity

There are three major Baloch political organisations – Free Baloch Movement (FBM), Baloch Republican Party (BRP) and Baloch National Movement (BNM), and one of the major problems among the groups is their lack of coherence with respect to strategy on their independence movement.

After the collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban, FBM has become active in bringing Baloch organisations together to safeguard the Baloch community in Afghanistan and has called for unity among the groups. In 2023, BNM also came out with a common point agenda for Baloch groups to come together for the nationalist cause.

According to FBM sources, after multiple rounds of discussions, there was a breakthrough between BNM and FBM on certain points-

1. Fight for Independence and support the freedom struggle;

2. Both Parties recognise days of national importance in Baloch history and commemorate them together;

3. Not to participate in Pakistani parliamentary politics;

4. Separation in political activities and events. Not to interfere in each other’s affairs. Political ideologies will remain intact.

Certain points delayed the negotiation process –

1. Not to take support or cooperate with those organisations that have political relations with Pakistani parliamentary political parties in occupied Balochistan;

2. Parties should be independent and should have the capability of making their own decisions without any inference from any 3rd party organisation, nation-state or any Baloch armed group;

3. Take support from countries directly involved in the oppression of the Baloch nation in any part of divided Balochistan.

The last two points are the biggest contentions between FBM and BNM, as other than Pakistan, FBM also considers Iran as an opposition to its goal of achieving complete independence, as they consider the Sistan-Balochistan and other Baloch historical territories in the provinces of Hormozgan, Kerman, and South Khorasan in Iran as the occupied western areas of Balochistan, while BNM only wishes to concentrate on Pakistan and not to divert its attention.

As far as BRP is concerned, initially, they had a few meetings and reached some consensus on recognising national days of importance and their commemoration, but BRP didn’t show much interest. BRP’s UK Chief, Mansoor Jan Baloch, when asked about these developments, mentions that we are aligned in principle; however, he fails to state why BRP didn’t show any effort towards an alliance.

While this isn’t the first time a proposal of alliance didn’t work out between the groups, earlier in 2007, an alliance was supposed to be formulated as Baloch Nationalist Front between the following groups – BNM, BRP, BSO Azad and Baloch Bar Council. However, it couldn’t succeed because – People were affiliated with political parties, structural problems and involvement of political parties.  While the current proposed alliance solved these issues, they couldn’t cross the bigger hurdles.

Internal Conflict and Disinformation

Recently, a report alleged that in July 2025, members of Baloch Liberation Army (Azad) and United Baloch Army (UBA) clashed, resulting in the killing of 2 members of each side. While one Baloch journalist has termed this news as true, a Baloch leader has termed this as fabricated news and called it state propaganda to dilute the Baloch struggle.

Lessons from Global Movements

What the Baloch movement is going through is not new; any nation will have diversity of opinions with regard to its struggle and way forward. And the same can be observed across the freedom struggles of the 20th century. In the case of India, several political parties were fighting for independence, but the Indian National Congress was the party which not only had the support of the majority of the public but had tacit approval of the British with regard to having any negotiation. Baloch political parties do have a support base, but Pakistan isn’t willing to negotiate. Further, during India’s struggle, groups such as Azad Hind Fauj, had external support of countries like Japan and Germany, because of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s leadership and mettle. Baloch freedom fighters lack cohesion among themselves, which is also one of the reasons foreign players find it difficult and questions emerge, should we support the Baloch as a group or one of the political parties or one particular leader who can carry this movement and nation together.

Policy Outlook: The Need for Coherence

Baloch groups need to figure out their differences and come to a resolution; otherwise, it will be difficult to attain the status of a nation-state from a freedom movement. The Baloch of the 21st century are better read, educated and understand world diplomacy than the Khan of Kalat of the 20th century. With the ever-changing world dynamics, Baloch need to be united than ever, speak as a nation and strive towards statehood together because division is what their adversaries are already looking for.

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