Deadly assaults in Balochistan, Pakistan, upend the fragile migrant-local dynamic

For 15 years, pick-up truck driver Qadeer Aslam had been transporting goods across Pakistan. Most of his trips were to Balochistan, about 400km (250 miles) west of his village near Burewala city in southern Punjab province.

Over the years, Aslam, 32, was able to save enough money to buy his own truck, a Hyundai Shahzore, in which he hauled fruit, vegetables and other goods to cities in Balochistan, a mineral-rich province and Pakistan’s largest by area. It has also been home to a violent separatist movement for decades.

On Sunday night, Aslam was on way to the province when armed fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the main separatist groups, stopped his truck and killed him.

Twenty-two other men were also dragged from their vehicles that night, all singled out for being ethnic Punjabis, and shot dead on the highways.

Within 24 hours, at least 70 people were killed in six such attacks across Balochistan, including 35 civilians, 14 security personnel and 21 BLA fighters.

Aslam’s friend and neighbour Muhammad Tanveer told Al Jazeera he had recently paid the last instalment on his truck and was looking forward to improving his family’s living conditions.

“He was focused on earning enough to support his wife, two children and ageing parents. He had been travelling to Balochistan for years and never felt any danger,” said Tanveer, who runs a grocery store in Burewala.

He said Aslam was the only person from his village who sought economic opportunities in Balochistan. “He worked all over Pakistan, but Balochistan offered more work,” he said.

Migration despite risks of violence

After Balochistan became a part of Pakistan when the country became independent in 1947, the southwestern province bordering Afghanistan became a hotbed of a secessionism.

Home to nearly 15 million people, Balochistan is rich in natural resources, including oil, coal, gold, copper and gas. But it is also Pakistan’s most impoverished, and residents say the government in Islamabad exploits the province for its minerals but never transfers the benefits to its people.

The anger has fuelled separatist sentiments with Balochistan witnessing at least five rebel movements since 1947. The latest rebellion began in the early 2000s to demand a larger share of the province’s resources and even calls for independence from Pakistan.

The government’s military operation to suppress the movement resulted in widespread human rights abuses against Baloch dissenters, including disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings. Thousands of lives have been lost in the decades-old rebellion.

Most of the government response was aimed at securing Chinese interests. Nearly a decade ago, China announced the $62bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project as part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Balochistan’s Gwadar deep-sea port was the project’s crown jewel.

The Chinese investment created jobs and other economic opportunities in the region, causing the migration of workers from other parts of Pakistan. Baloch separatists have resisted such migrations and have frequently targeted Chinese professionals and Pakistani law enforcement officials and civilians.

A majority of the nearly 30 civilians killed in Sunday and Monday’s attacks were from southern Punjab, an area bordering Balochistan, where a majority of the population is of Seraiki ethnicity.

Senior journalist Shahzada Zulfiqar, who has extensively written on Balochistan, told Al Jazeera that economic opportunities draw people from Punjab and other parts of Pakistan to the province. Many traders in Balochistan have also settled here from neighbouring Iran.

“Despite the risks, people continue to come here for work whether they are traders, masons or barbers,” Zulfiqar said.

One such labourer, Muhammad Habib, a barber from a village near Rahim Yar Khan town in southern Punjab, moved to Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, a year ago. His business is on Prince Road, which is lined with barbershops, mostly run by people from Punjab.

“Despite the risks, I chose to work in Balochistan because wages are better here,” Habib said, adding that he makes an average of 1,200 rupees ($4.31) a day in Quetta as opposed to about 400 rupees ($1.44) back home.

Like Habib, many others from Punjab’s cities, such as Lahore and Gujranwala, moved to Balochistan for better economic opportunities. “Our parents know about the previous attacks on Punjabi labourers in Balochistan and tried to stop us, but we need to earn for our families,” Habib said.

Zulfiqar said many Baloch people are also moving to other parts of Pakistan – a process of opening up to other communities that is changing social attitudes in Balochistan.

“They are sending their children to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to study. Family dynamics are changing, and there is a growing awareness and eagerness for upward social mobility,” he said.

But many others in Balochistan retain a deep-seated resentment over perceived exploitation of their region and its resources, analysts said.

Imtiaz Baloch, researcher at The Khorasan Diary, a nonpartisan platform run by journalists, said large projects in Balochistan, particularly the CPEC and mines, are all labour-intensive.

“These projects attract workers who come here to seek income for their families. However, these projects are also the prime targets for Baloch separatist groups, which view them as plunderers of their resources without their consent, leading to attacks,” he said.

Baloch rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch, whose father has been missing for 15 years, acknowledged that this week’s bloodshed has created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the province, particularly for those who believe in peaceful protests against the federal government.

Deen also feared a heavy-handed response by the government, saying past operations have led to rights abuses.

“After every major attack, the state has killed people in custody in fake encounters, claiming they were terrorists. This approach will only worsen the situation, pushing the people of Balochistan into further deprivation,” she told Al Jazeera.