AN OVERVIEW OF BALOCH STUDENTS ORGANIZATION:

The Baloch Students Organization had played an appreciable role in Baloch politics. As early as 1968, it was in the mainstream of national politics, the BSO approach to national issues and its stand on matters concerning Balochistan. About the role of the students BSO leader ship considered that students movement an integral part of the democratic struggle in the country. ‘The students of the smaller provinces have given a lead in the struggle for provincial autonomy and recognition of their languages as national languages.’ the BSO think tank, mindful of the riches of Balochistan being exploited by other provinces while the Baloch were being denied their share, they claimed openly that income from natural resources in Balochistan was pocketed by foreign and internal monopolies. ‘Even employment in Sui Gas installations is reserved for people from outside Balochistan.

The determination of Baloch youth to follow the course chalked out by their leaders to achieve a rightful place for their people. They demanded the inalienable right of sovereignty for the subject nationalities of Pakistan.

The BS0 was in the vanguard of the nationalist movement launched by the NAP (National Awami Party) and its Baloch leaders. The NAP greatly valued the organization and its spirited youth in the struggle. In their speeches before BS0 gatherings they would asks them to work selflessly in the interest of their people. The BS0 workers, addressed by Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo and other Baloch leaders on 18th March 1969 in Karachi, were asked to be ‘’true to their great traditions’. Sardar Ataullah Mengal and Nawab Bugti in their speeches demanded national right of self-determination for the people of Balochistan. Addressing the BS0 workers at Mastung in 1970, Sardar Mengal praised the students for their historic role in. achieving provincial status for Balochistan.

The Baloch students were given highest consideration by the NAP. The BSO leaders were taken into confidence in arriving at major policy decisions. One of its leaders, Dr. Abdul Hai, was nominated to contest the National Assembly on the NAP ticket. He defeated Prince Yahya, the son of Ahmed Yar Khan, the ex-ruler of Kalat. The selection of Dr. Abdul Hal was recognition of BS0 sacrifices and their appreciable role in the Baloch political movement.

Since its inception in 1967, the BSO0 worked closely with the National Awami Party. But the students were by no means mere camp followers. They were a vocal faction in the party. In spite of its close association with the NAP, the BS0 retained an independent posture and acted with more fervor than expected from a students’ body. The NAP rapprochement with the Peoples Party in 1972 was severely opposed by a strong faction in the BSO because of inadequate guarantees of provincial autonomy in the PPP sponsored constitution

The government and many other elements outside the government started manipulating the organization and courting its leaders in order not only to confuse the rank and file of the BS0 but also to secure an estrangement with its main, political ally, the National Awami Party, and its successors, the NDP and then The Pakistan National Party. The division in the BSO earlier war also-aimed at weakening the Baloch movement but since the breakaway faction did not come up to their expectations, efforts were made to penetrate the main organization. The BS0’s influence in political circles made some of its leaders regard themselves as indispensable. Some of the BS0 top brass believed that the students could provide an alternative leadership to the people. Some muhajir ideologues and pseudo-communists did play a despicable role in confusing the minds of some of the ambitious students leaders.

In all developing countries the role of the students as agitators and as pressure group is always recognized. Even in countries like France the students played a significantly unexpected role in the downfall of General Charles de Gaulle in 1968. Such a role of the student’s organization is always acknowledged in Third—World countries but nowhere have such organizations superceded the political parties. A similar pattern was discernible in the BSO’s relations with the NAP. Both organizations worked in unison to achieve the common goal of bringing greater benefits to the people. As mentioned earlier, many elements were at work in the student groups including government groomed intelligentsia and non- Baloch ideologues often with dubious connections.

Calling off the armed struggle in Balochistan was the culmination of relations between the BS0 and the NAP. The BSO threw its weight into the war and its chairman, Khair Jan , Abdul Nabi Bangulzi and other important members were actively involved in the movement. Many more suffered in jails.

The BSO stand opposing the end of hostilities was however vindicated by later events, which showed that the Baloch politicians were clearly mistaken about government intentions. The great sacrifices of the people achieved nothing. The struggle had not only added further miseries to the people’s burden but also brought a defeatist psychosis on the nation. At first, the BSO was hesitant in its opposition. They were selective in their campaign. The students thought that Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, because of his Maoist leanings, was perhaps closer to them. During the conflict Khair Bakhsh’s relations with certain Maoist elements from the Panjab and Sind, who wanted a struggle for the ‘people’s liberation to start from Balochistan, made him the only hope and gave the impression that he was opposed to the calling off of war. When the Baloch leaders arrived in Quetta after their release, the BSO received them and showed considerable enthusiasm towards Nawab Khair Bakhsh and Mir Sher Mahmad Marri. The students, under the leadership of Aslam Kurd, took these leaders in a procession to the Jinnah Road office of the organization, where they talked to BSO workers. But the students were soon disheartened when Khair Bakhsh Marri started negotiations with government. The BSO now openly criticized the leadership. This suited not only the government whose agencies for many years have been cultivating many of the student activists in the organization but a lot of other extremists in the country and an influential faction in the provincial beaurocracy;

The BSO did not call off the struggle officially though their members could not do anything more than issue strongly worded statements against the Baloch politicians, putting them in the same category as the exploitative class in the country. The BSO annual report referred to earlier put the NAP and its Baloch leadership at par with other right-wing political parties in the country. The report said that by aligning themselves with the reactionary and conservative political grouping, the PNA (Pakistan National Alliance), the NAP had exposed itself as an anti-people organization. Now the BSO and the government by implication were co-operating with each other in maligning the National Awami Party and its successor, the National Party. The government-controlled media carried the BSO statements against the Baloch leadership prominently. The elements which masterminded the rift between the BSO and the Baloch politicians also encouraged the BSO top brass to make frequent calls for student agitation on the slightest pretext in order to heighten the atmosphere and create an air of continued active hostility between the Baloch and the Pakistan government. When the Baloch students tried to agitate at the call of their leaders, they found themselves in jails and their leaders in hiding. Without political backing, the BSO, for the first time since its inception, was reduced to an insignificant faction in Balochistan politics. They found themselves without direction and without any support in the masses. While their leaders went into hiding, many of the members of the organization suffered immensely.

SHAEED HAMID BALOCH;

The most significant event in the history of BSO was the execution of one of its active members, Hameed, on the charge of the attempted murder of one Colonel Khalfan, a foreign delegate from the Sultanate of Oman, in Turbat in 1979. The 880 opposed the recruitment of Baloch youth into the Omanian army, which had been fighting a war against the Dhofari dissidents in southern Oman bordering Aden. The 880 believed that recruitment would earn notoriety for the Baloch in the eyes of progressive elements throughout the world and weaken the Baloch nationalist movement in Pakistan. Secondly they saw it as aiming to pervert the younger elements in society by offering huge salaries for their services in a mercenary army. Hameed was trilled by a Special Military Court and condemned to death. The death sentence was carried out on 11th June 1981 in Mach prison. . Hameed, in his last will before his execution, had appealed to the students to shun their differences and work united for the great Baloch cause.

SHEED MAJEED BALOCH:

Abdul Majeed Lango, gave his life while trying to kill Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto with a hand-grenade in Quetta on 12th August 1974.

(JANMAHMAD DASHTI)

BALOCH NATIONAL STRUGGLE IN PAKISTAN.