Genocide is not limited to direct mass killings alone, but it can also be a slow, systematic and silent process in which a nation’s identity, existence and way of life are gradually erased. When a nation is targeted because of who they are, they are not only killed through executions and erased with enforced disappearances, but also through deliberate neglect, diseases, unsafe living conditions, economic deprivation and psychological terror. The genocide of the Baloch people began from the very first day when targeted because of their national identity.
In January, 2024, at a historic gathering at Saryab’s Shahwani Stadium, January 25 was formally designated as “Baloch Genocide Remembrance Day”. The purpose of this day is to inform the world about the ongoing genocide of the Baloch people and highlight the urgent need for collective struggle for the survival of Baloch nation.
Basically, January 25 commemorates the tragic incident of January 25, 2014, where more then 100 mutilated bodies of forcibly disappeared Baloch persons were recovered from an abandoned secret area in the Tootak area of Balochistan’s Khuzdar district. This horrific discovery became a permanent wound in the national memory of the Baloch people. Even today it continues to haunt every Baloch family. The mass graves of Totak remain a symbol of this tragedy, while families still await identification of their loved ones and justice.
Beyond Tootak, several other mass graves have been discovered in Balochistan. Countless bodies have been returned to the soil while the families of thousands of forcibly disappeared Baloch continue to wait, sometimes for decades with fading hope. These unidentified bodies and the endless waiting have become part of the Baloch collective identity. This is why January 25 symbolically represents all these acts of genocide Baloch are facing. The bodies recovered from mass graves share only one identity: they are Baloch. And every year, the same bodies renew the lain of waiting for hundreds of families.
After this declaration last year, the Baloch nation organized a massive gathering in Dalbandin, a resources-rich region of Balochistan, and sent a clear massage to the world: the Baloch nation is being subjected to genocide for the exploitation of its land and resources but we stand united against it. The state made every effort to suppress the Dalbandin gathering. Participants were harassed, communication networks were jammed, false cases were registered and after the event, a wave of arrests and FIRs followed. Internet and phones services remained shut for three days to prevent people from returning home. Some were imprisoned for providing a container others for arranging sound system and personal belongings were confiscated.
Apart from this, the state has been targeting the Baloch scholars and intellectuals to stop the intellectual growth of the society. We can take the very instance of Allah Dad Wahid, a young scholar who was martyred last year on February 4 in Turbat. All these are nothing but ways to eliminate Baloch national existence.
These repressions have been occuring because the Baloch people refused to remain silent any longer. January 25 is not only the renewal of the Baloch national commitment to struggle, but it is also a call to awaken the conscience of the world so that the Baloch genocide is recognized internationally and ceased immediately.