According to reports, a statue of the founder of Pakistan, ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was destroyed by The Baloch Republican Army in Pakistan’s Gwadar on Sunday. However, this move by Baloch fighters clearly reflects the resentment of the Balochis towards the Pakistani government.
Baloch fighters blew up Jinnah’s statue
On Sunday, a statue of Pakistan’s founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah installed on Marine Drive in Gwadar, was blown up by unknown miscreants with a grenade. However, The Baloch Republican Army, later, claimed responsibility for the same. In an official statement, The Baloch Army informed that some of its activists destroyed Jinnah’s statue at Marine Drive in Gwadar with explosives. The Baloch fighters also slammed Pakistan for portraying Muhammad Ali Jinnah as a ‘hero’.
Reportedly, the organisation’s spokesman, Babgar Baloch, took to Twitter to claim the responsibility. He tweeted that the organisation’s veterans had demolished the statue because Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s ideology had no place in Balochistan.
In a statement, Gwadar’s Deputy Commissioner Major (retired) Abdul Kabir informed that the Baloch activists who blew up Jinnah’s statue had disguised themselves as tourists to gain access to the area. The attack took place on Sunday around 9.20 am. Authorities have started an investigation into the attack, but no arrests have been made so far.”
However, Baloch fighters also attacked Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s residence ‘Ziarat Residency’ in Ziarat, a tourist destination in Balochistan with a grenade setting the building on fire in 2013. The Pakistani government later reconstructed the Ziarat Residency and reopened it to tourists.
Baloch Republican Army slammed Pakistan and Jinnah
The Balochistan Republican Army has claimed that Muhammad Ali Jinnah occupied and encroached the Baloch land. In addition to that, they have also referred to Jinnah as an agent of British imperialism involved in ‘cunning politics’. The statement read, “We accept the responsibility for blowing up the statue of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, installed on Marine Drive, Gawadar. This morning, our Sarmachars destroyed with explosives the statue of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, an agent of British imperialism, in Marine Drive, Gwadar.
It added, “The way Muhammad Ali Jinnah occupied and encroached the independence of Baloch land with deception on 27 March 1948 with occupying Pakistani army, Baloch nation views the life of Jinnah with hatred and contempt because of his cunning politics.
The statement further informed, “Muhammad Ali Jinnah was appointed by Khan Baloch as his lawyer to fight the case against the British imperialism for the geographical status of the independent Baloch state, but this deceitful man ended the independent status of Balochistan by invading the Baloch homeland with the army of Pakistan, a country established by the British Empire, a year ago, and forcefully incorporated Balochistan into the unnatural newborn Pakistan. Since then, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is remembered as a deceitful and cunning ruler in Balochistan.”
Moreover, hitting out at Pakistan to reject its propaganda, the statement said, “The way Pakistan is trying to present Muhammad Ali Jinnah as a hero in front of our generations in its false curriculum, Baloch children are well aware of such insidious curriculum and the reality of Jinnah because this generation is growing up in a turbulent time where the external enemy has made its homeland a no-go area for the natives.”
Baloch struggle to seek independence from Pakistan
The Baloch freedom fighters have been waging a brave battle against the terrorist state in order to get rid of illegal Pakistani occupation and atrocities. The heavy-handedness of the Pakistan military has led to the death of hundreds of civilians and has also caused mass displacements. There have been reports of Pakistan Army personnel raping, kidnapping and killing Baloch people. “Baloch nationalists, militants or even innocent bystanders are picked up, disappeared, tortured, mutilated and then killed” says a report by BBC.
Read more: Balochistan mange azadi: India voices concern and extends support at UN
In addition to that, over 5,000 people have been reported missing in the last five years from the region with most of them are yet to be found to date, according to official government estimates. However, the number of people who have mysteriously disappeared is way over 20,000 as per the independent estimates, as Pakistan continues to deprive the region of basic human rights, forcing the locals to flee from their homes to accommodate the Chinese.
It is shameful that Pakistan has the audacity to blame India for Human Rights violations when its own country and regions are in tatters with civil unrest reaching a tipping point and the outcries of independence increasing day by day. Given Pakistan’s atrocities that have led Baloch fighters to take action for seeking independence, the world needs to recognize Pakistan’s brutal behaviour and take note of it.