AMERICAN BIAS

 

T HAT the United States is more than eager to appease Pakistan at any cost becomes clear from its latest decision to designate the Balochistan LiberationArmy and one of its wings Majeed Brigade as terror groups. This action of the Trump Administration shows that the US does not recognise the freedom struggle of the Baloch people right since 1947-48 when Pakistan illegally occupied Balochistan, then an independent country, and included it in its map as a province. The Baloch people never accepted this occupation and celebrate Independence Day of Balochistan every year. They have also tried to establish demidiplomatic relations with several countries urging them to recognise their freedom movement as well as the right to exist as a independent nation.

 

In the past few decades, the struggle of the Baloch people is getting increasing international support and recognition. The American action, however, militates against all this -- which is surprising and shocking. When a country like the US that often brandishes itself as a champion of freedom and democracy and human rights indulges in such a one-sided political decision, then the question-mark on its integrity starts getting bigger and louder. For, in the past seven-plus decades, the Baloch people have faced terrible repression from Pakistan -- in addition to their deprivation of basic rights that include also the right to be privy to the natural resources that Nature has bestowed on Balochistan. The Pakistani Government has never given the Baloch people any advantage of the gifts of Nature and has diverted all that wealth to other parts of Pakistan. As a result, Balochistan has all along reeled in utter poverty and absence of facility of any kind. The Pakistani Government did place some of its Baloch stooges in positions of power, but the common Baloch people understand those actions only as a political ploy that actually means nothing. In the past some years, the freedom movement of the Baloch people has assumed greater intensity.

 

The Balochistan Liberation Army and the Majeed Brigade are two manifestations of that freedom struggle -- which now the US has designated as terror groups (obviously to please its Pakistani friends). This is very unfortunate -- and unbecoming of the US, a self-professed champion of freedom. dared the Pakistani establishment in every which the way. Some of its actions also included a hijack of an entire train, the first-of-its-kind event in world history. The region of Balochistan has also seen the BLA and its associate groups taking a virtual control of most parts of the province where the Pakistani Army does not even dare to enter. There are reasons to believe that the Pakistani establishment now feels fully frustrated that it has no clue how to handle the challenge of the freedom struggle of the Baloch people -- whose voice has reached the United Nations as well. It must be admitted that the Baloch people have built a very strong case for the freedom of their country from the illegal Pakistani clutches.

 

The world also knows the expansionist habit of Pakistan -- which is indicated also in its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir. The international community also knows that freedom movements are going on in Gilgit-Baltistan areas which, too, Pakistan had occupied illegally after 1947. What is shocking that the US has known all such shenanigans of Pakistan yet has chosen to overlook all those sinful acts of commission. The designation of the BLA and its wing Majeed Brigade by the US as terror groups is nothing but an act of brazen disregard to struggle for freedom of oppressed people whose suffering have extended over decades. This is unbecoming of the United States of America. By indulging in such acts, the US is only demeaning itself.