History is changing its course in Iran. Once again, Iranian masses—including exiles and members of the diaspora—women and men chanting “Marg bar mullah” (death to the mullahs), ‘Zan, Zindagi,  Azadi’ (‘woman, life, freedom’) singing and dancing, have taken to the streets of major Western capitals. At the same time, Iranians in big and small cities and towns inside the country, including Tehran, have also taken to the streets.

While  Iran is volcanic with uprise, its tremors are being felt across neighboring  Pakistan. It has sent waves of shock, awe, and even festivity across the Baloch population and their pockets in Pakistan, specifically in its southern province, which Baloch separatists call “Occupied Balochistan.” by Pakistan. Meanwhile, pro-Pakistani establishment pundits, analysts, and commentators claim that the situation increases their heartbeats regarding Pakistani Balochistan, given the present war scenario. However, for their claimed palpitations, the Baloch people are not responsible. Rather, it is the Pakistani state and its apparatuses that have been in a state of full-fledged war against their fellow countrymen and women for decades. Thankfully for them, in scenarios similar to the one currently unfolding in Iran—something they dread—the capital of Pakistan is Islamabad, not Karachi, Tehran, Manila, Bogotá, or Istanbul.

Balochistan itself bifurcates the Baloch population: Eastern Balochistan lies in Pakistan, while Western Balochistan—also called Iranian Sistan—lies in Iran.

The Baloch are often described as cousins of the Kurds. Ethnically, racially, and culturally, Kurds and Baloch share many similarities. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, they are related peoples. Just as the Kurds stretch across Iran, the Straits of Hormuz, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, and up toward the Alps, the Baloch extend from Bolan, Kharan, and the Makran coast to Chabahar and Zahedan in Iran, and even toward Muscat, Bahrain, and parts of Iraq. Some accounts trace their origins to regions around Halab (Aleppo) in Syria. Even their fate appears similar: their persecutors differ little in their oppression and, at times, genocidal tactics against them. “No friends but the mountains,” the Kurds famously say.

But the question remains: where does Iranian—or Western—Balochistan stand in the current volcanic situation in Iran?

Unlike neighboring Pakistani (Eastern) Balochistan—where secular, separatist nationalist politics and armed movements claiming to fight for the national liberation of the Baloch dominate the scene—in Iranian or Western Balochistan, religious parties hold far greater........

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