By: Ashar Azeem
I’ve spent most of my life mocking the phrase “foreign hand.” Whenever something went wrong in Pakistan, people would conveniently blame outsiders instead of holding themselves accountable. I believed we needed to take responsibility first.
But after witnessing what’s unfolding in Balochistan today, I can say this with conviction: yes — there is a foreign hand, and it’s not even subtle anymore. The fingerprints are everywhere — in the funding, in the propaganda, in the weapons, and in the carefully crafted chaos.
Take the recent tragedy in Kalat: a bus was attacked, and innocent artists — Qawwals — were slaughtered. No, they weren’t soldiers. No, they weren’t spies. They were musicians traveling to share their art, and they were murdered in cold blood.
And then came the cover-up — the classic spin. The same militants who carried out this act began claiming these victims were tied to security forces. It’s the same old playbook: kill the innocent, label them something else, and expect the world to believe the lie.
Let’s be clear — this isn’t resistance. This is terrorism.
I’ve heard people compare Baloch militants to the Kurdish insurgents or the Tamil Tigers. But those stories don’t end in glory — they end in bloodshed, broken communities, and absolute failure. And here too, nothing is being gained — except for those sitting safely abroad, raking in foreign funding and pushing an agenda that has nothing to do with the average Baloch.
Who loses? The poor man who drives the bus. The artist. The laborer. The real sons and daughters of Balochistan who are caught in this cycle of violence. While handlers tweet from safehouses in Europe, ordinary people bleed on the roads of Kalat.
I grew up in Balochistan. I know our culture — we respect our women, protect our children, and never attack unarmed civilians. Even if someone’s a suspect, we never disgrace them in front of their family. What these militants are doing today is not just inhumane — it is un-Baloch.
And who benefits from this bloodshed? Certainly not the people of Balochistan. It’s the regional powers who want to sabotage CPEC. It’s those who fear China’s growing influence. They use our land, our youth, and our pain to fight their proxy wars.
It’s time to call this what it is: not a freedom movement, but a foreign-backed terror campaign. And we — the real people of Balochistan — must stand against it.
Also Read: India Can’t Hijack Baloch Voices
Let’s not be fooled by slogans. Let’s not romanticize murder. We deserve peace, not perpetual victimhood. And that peace will only come when the lies stop — and the truth is finally spoken aloud.
