THE gruesome trend of killing people on the basis of their ethnic or religious affiliation in this country shows no sign of abating. The latest incident in this regard is the killing of over 20 individuals in Balochistan’s Mastung district on Friday.

As reported, gunmen stopped two Karachi-bound coaches and pulled out the passengers; after checking their CNICs to determine their identities, the victims were taken to the nearby mountains and massacred. The victims hailed from district Pishin and almost all of them were Pakhtun.

Such atrocities have occurred previously in Mastung; last year a bus carrying Shia pilgrims was bombed in the district while in 2011, Hazara passengers were pulled off buses and butchered in a similar manner.

Elsewhere, in April a number of non-Baloch labourers were shot as they slept in Turbat. There has also been an upsurge in the targeted killings of Hazaras in Quetta over the past few days.

At the time these lines were being written, no group had claimed responsibility for the carnage.

Of course, in Balochistan there are multiple strands of violence: sectarian death squads have remained active; Baloch separatists have been censured for targeting ‘settlers’ while the security establishment has come down heavily on Baloch political activists in the name of crushing the insurgency. External actors have also been accused of fuelling unrest in the province.

The provincial home minister has pointed to the possible involvement of RAW in this incident, while other political leaders have voiced concern that the violence could be linked to destabilising the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

What is clear is that the Mastung carnage is an effort to inflame ethnic discord in the province by pitting the Baloch and Pakhtun communities against each other.

While non-Baloch have been killed in the past, this is perhaps the single biggest incident in which local Pakhtuns have been targeted. In this regard, Balochistan’s political leaders did well on Saturday by calling for calm and communal harmony.

The provincial chief minister has said a multiparty conference will be convened in the days to come to discuss the situation. In fact, the entire debate needs to be shifted to the national parliament in order to find long-lasting solutions to Balochistan’s security and political problems.

Moreover, further investigations need to be carried out to determine who is responsible and if solid evidence of external involvement emerges, Islamabad must take up the issue through diplomatic channels. The perpetrators of this brutal crime must be brought to justice; but this latest carnage must not be used to justify a more intensified crackdown on Baloch political activity.

Balochistan needs a political solution, not a militarised one. While security concerns are key, the political alienation and sense of deprivation that is felt by significant portions of Balochistan’s population must also be addressed by the state to prevent further violence.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2015

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