Baloch
youngsters ride their motorbikes along the dry bed of the Helmand
River. The total lack of economic and social opportunities pushes them
to illegally migrate to neighbouring Iran, seeking a better life.
Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
- Balochistan, divided by the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a vast swathe of land the size of France. It boasts enormous deposits of gas, gold and copper, untapped sources of oil and uranium, as well as a thousand kilometres of coastline near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite the wealth under their sandals, the Baloch people inhabit the most underdeveloped regions of their respective countries; Afghanistan is no exception.
“Against
all odds, our national identity is [growing]. We just need the rest of
the world to know about us.” -- Baloch intellectual and historian Abdul
Sattar Purdely
Often overlooked, the
Afghan Baloch count as just one among the many groups that make up the
colourful ethnic mosaic of Afghanistan. And like the Pashtuns, the
Tajiks and the Uzbeks, they have also seen their land divided by the
arbitrary boundaries in Central Asia.Baloch historian and
intellectual Abdul Sattar Purdely tells IPS there are “about two million
of us in Afghanistan, but only those living in the southern provinces
of Nimroz and Helmand speak Balochi.”In his late sixties, this former MP during the rule of Mohammad Najibullah (1987-1992) is today a professor, writer, and a leading advocate for the preservation of the Baloch language and culture in Afghanistan.
In coordination with the Afghan Ministry of Education, Purdely has written textbooks in Balochi that go as far as the 8th grade, which are already being used in three schools.
The Baloch in Afghanistan make up just a tiny portion of a people scattered throughout the Iranian Plateau, but they are united by the experience of religious, linguistic and ethnic persecution in a region increasingly marked by Islamic extremism.
A
shepherd and his family walk their cattle in Zaranj, capital of
Afghanistan’s Nimroz Province. In the absence of comprehensive census
data, the Baloch intellectual Abdul Sattar Purdely tells IPS that Afghan
Balochs number about two million, though not all speak the Balochi
language. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
The
Baloch people, who hail from the Iranian plateau, have settled for
centuries alongside the banks of the Helmand River in Afghanistan. But
severe droughts and the excessive use of the river’s water for opium
cultivation in Nimroz have lead to the collapse of agriculture in the
province, affecting scores of Baloch families. Credit: Karlos
Zurutuza/IPS
The
majority of the Baloch people are Sunni Muslims but their moderate
vision of Islam has turned them into victims of growing Islamic
extremism in the region. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
The
neglected village of Haji Abdurrahman, in Afghanistan’s Nimroz
province, is a hub for Afghan and Pakistani Baloch people, the latter
seeking shelter in Afghanistan. Dozens of families struggle to survive
in this cluster of mud houses without electricity or running water.
Baloch
youngsters ride their motorbikes along the dry bed of the Helmand
River. The total lack of economic and social opportunities pushes them
to illegally migrate to neighbouring Iran, seeking a better life.
Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
A
Baloch teenager poses next to his portrait inside his house in
Nasirabad, another mud-hut village in Afghanistan’s Nimroz province.
Like the majority of the local population, he is also illiterate.
Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
This Afghan-born Baloch tells IPS that an independent Balochistan is a “life dream” for him – but under current political conditions in the region, this dream is a long way from reality.
Currently, Zaranj hosts the only TV programme in Balochi in Afghanistan for one hour a day between five and six pm. Although the first TV channel in Balochi was set up in 1978 preceding the printing of the community’s first books and newspapers, the fall of the Communist government led to a sharp cultural decline in Afghanistan.
Historically a nomadic group, the Baloch people have endured years of brutal repression for their moderate vision of Islam. Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, even issued a fatwa, an Islamic edict, against the people of Nimroz, calling for the ethnic cleansing of the Baloch and Shia population.
“Against all odds, our national identity is [growing] bigger despite the ongoing chaos in the country,” proclaims Abdul Sattar Purdely from his office in downtown Kabul. “We just need the rest of the world to know about us.”
A
Baloch family from the Taliban-stronghold of Kandahar stand for a
photograph. While millions of Afghans have fled to Pakistan over the
past four decades, Pakistani Balochs are taking the opposite route,
fleeing to Afghanistan to avoid repression by the Pakistani government.
Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
This
Pakistani Baloch elder and his two sons are today hiding in
Afghanistan. Rights groups have criticised the Pakistan government’s
crackdown on the Baloch people. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
Baloch
fighters from the Balochistan Liberation Army crouch at an undisclosed
location along the Afghan-Pakistan border. There are several Baloch
insurgent groups fighting for independence in Pakistan. Some of their
fighters often cross the border to evacuate the wounded and treat them
in Afghan hospitals. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
Karim
and Sharif Baloch, both of them from Pakistan, show the portraits of
their lost brother and father at their current residence in Zaranj. They
tell IPS their relatives were killed in 2011 during a Pakistani
military operation. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
A
truck travels down a lost road in Nimroz, the only Afghan province
where the Baloch minority form a majority. In the country’s remote
southwest, Nimroz shares a 500-kilometre border with both Iran and
Pakistan. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
A
truck pauses at the Afghan-Iranian border in Zaranj, the administrative
capital of Afghanistan’s Nimroz Province. Pakistani writer Amhed Rashid
tells IPS this province is a smuggling hub through which heroin goes
out and weapons come in. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS
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