When it could provide succor to the suffering
Awaran and Kech, the godforsaken region was already a sensitive and backward one – a combustible combination at the best of times. An insurgency and sectarian violence were already queering the pitch, then the high-intensity Sept 24 tremors further wrought devastation and misery in this neck of the desert in vast expanse of Balochistan. The aid has gone there but by no means enough to alleviate the despair and deprivation of an already estranged and endlessly suffering citizenry. Since the place is in the back of beyond, not holding any lure for ‘disaster tourism’, a la Attabad Lake on the Karakoram Highway, being out of the intense media focus too has not been of any help.
Curiously, the bugbear of security has made both the government, effectively the security agencies that have had the run of the entire province for the best part of the last decade, and the BLF insurgents to keep the foreign NGOs and even the UN relief agencies out of the region. The garrisons obviously want to keep things under wraps while the BLF too does is wary of its hideouts to be discovered. Both do not want foreigners to be snooping around – by default or by design. The unstated agreement between the agencies and the BLF has meant that the UN and many other foreign NGOs, including the credible Medicines Sans Frontiers that have the capacity and the willingness to help the affected people were barred from the area. Such has been the environment, that the suffering Baloch also spurn the hand that wants to help them. In several instances, the Pushtuns and Punjabis providing succor have been snubbed. This underscores fear of reprisals from the BLF, but all of it can by no means be ascribed to that. And that reflects alienation having now been rooted deep.
Locking out the foreigners whose intent is to provide assistance is not good for anybody. Regardless of a tacit agreement between the agencies and the BLF, the foreign NGOs must be allowed into the ravaged region to provide relief to the people. Hiding the atrocities by the agencies, or instances where the BLF is holding the Baloch people hostage to its agenda, needs to be exposed. The governments, both at Quetta and Islamabad, must take it as an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the Baloch, without allowing shortsighted considerations to hold their hand. And denying foreign assistance definitely falls in that realm.
