New Delhi: A deadly blast in Balochistan killed at least 20 people, including children, on Tuesday, but the Pakistani media has almost blacked it out. Barring a lone report in Dawn, which only mentions an ISPR note on ‘terrorists’ being killed, the killing of children has found no space in any mainstream media outlet whatsoever. The following day, Balochistan Governor Sheikh Jaffar Khan Mandokhail was attending a Youth AI Summit in New York, even as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif kept himself busy sharing songs about Balochistan on X.
Pakistani civil society has erupted in anger on social media. Baloch political figures and activists accused the Pakistani government of ignoring a deepening security and humanitarian crisis in the region, while engaging in meaningless symbolism and public-relations.
“The images coming out of Surab, Balochistan are horrifying. Local reports claim that 20-27 civilians (including children) have been killed in a military operation & many more injured. However, due to the media blackout, even such a large-scale tragedy will not become news,” sociologist and activist Nida Kirmani wrote on X.
Protests erupted in Surab on Tuesday after reports emerged that a Pakistani military airstrike in the Gidar Goandhan area had killed more than 20 people and injured at least 16 others, according to The Balochistan Post.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal, leader of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), questioned the reported targeting of civilians and children.
“The foundation of this country’s construction was laid in 1948 with the blood of the Baloch, and this chain continues unbroken to this day, no matter which government it is—democratic or undemocratic, constitutional or unconstitutional—they only want the blood of the Baloch and control over the coast,” he said in an X post.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee, a rights movement that has repeatedly protested alleged abuses in the province, accused the government of Balochistan of committing what it called the “Surab massacre”, saying that the authorities had raised the flag of a “tyrannical non-human beast” over the people.
“This is how they martyr Baloch voices,” the committee said in a post on X. “Yet Baloch identity will not be martyred by this.”
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An ‘ISPR formula’
The absence of independent reporting has also become a central concern surrounding the latest incident. Activists say restrictions on information from Balochistan make it difficult for the public to establish the scale of violence or independently verify competing accounts from the authorities and local residents.
Shah Meer Baloch, a journalist with The Guardian said that the incident might never have become widely known without social media.
“No one would have known about this horrific incident or talked about it, if there was no social media,” he wrote on X.
The latest reports come against a backdrop of longstanding conflict between Pakistan’s security forces and Baloch separatist groups, alongside a broader Baloch nationalist movement that has accused the state of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and collective punishment. Pakistani authorities have repeatedly described militant groups operating in the province as a major security threat.
Meanwhile, Pakistan PM Sharif on Monday shared a “patriotic song from Balochistan” on X ahead of the country’s Independence Day celebrations on 14 August. The irony is not lost on the Balochis.
Journalist Kiyya Baloch wrote on X that the tragedy was not simply that Balochistan’s people were repeatedly required to prove their patriotism.
“The real tragedy is that the army, the Prime Minister, and the members of the Balochistan Assembly are also busy day and night proving that Balochistan is patriotic,” he wrote in response to the song.
Another journalist Niaz Baloch took aim at what he described as the familiar communications strategy of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
“It seems the ISPR formula is still the same old one: Problem getting bigger? Release a new song,” he wrote. “This time, a tune has come in Balochi, perhaps with the hope that reality too will change by changing the melody. Experience tells us that whenever ISPR feels the need to release songs, understand that the situation in the field is not in its favor”.
What was worse was that while residents transported the dead and wounded, the province’s political leadership was attending a youth summit. Seventy-year-old Sheikh Jaffar Khan Mandokhail chose to attend the summit instead of looking after the youth of his region.
“At this stage just accept, those in government are trolling you. What a circus every day,” Pakistani X user Hajraa Khan wrote.
“Is he going to highlight how the use of AI can help covering the massacre of Youth (and children, and old people) in his province? Is he not ashamed to be there when civilians have been brutally murdered by the government he is in bed with?” journalist Francesca Marino asked on X.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)