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Pakistan’s strategically located western province of Balochistan was once again in the eye of the storm for two weeks, before a deal with the government broke an impasse on Thursday. For days, angry protesters disrupted life in parts of the province, which has long been a center of discontent. They were protesting enforced disappearances, alleged extra-judicial killings and demanding democratic political rights for the Baloch people. They want their people to get their due share of development and local economic resources, from what they see as unfair exploitation of their province’s wealth.
These are long-standing demands of the Baloch people. But instead of addressing these very real grievances, the state resorted to force to suppress cries for justice. Coercive measures however, have failed time and again to crush the peoples’ power. Defying the government’s ban and with an Internet blockade that lasted a fortnight, thousands of protesters from all over the province gathered in the Gwadar coastal town- the location of the key seaport and a flagship project of the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
This was not the first time the Baloch people came into the streets for their demands. But the latest wave of protests had much greater political implications given the massive public support they mobilized in this highly sensitive........

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