The Baluchi place of origin is a point of contention, although many Baluchis hold that that their lineage can be traced back 2,000 years to Aleppo, Syria – one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities.[1]  As a nomadic people, Baluchis have resided in modern-day Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan for the last 1,000 years in remote and underdeveloped areas along the Oman Sea.[2]  The culture and language of the Baluchi have been endangered by tensions with state authorities, who often have limited exposure to the traditions of the group.[3]  The Baluchi have been forced to struggle for their livelihoods throughout centuries of discrimination. 

Traditionally, Baluchis are nomadic, and many today still practice subsistence agriculture along with semi-nomadic pastorialism.[4]  The Baluchi live in a tribal society, which is highly segmented and centrally organized under chieftains, or sardars.[5] 

While some Baluchis have moved to cities, many continue to practice subsistence agriculture in rural areas, where women play the lead role in the household.[6]  Baluchis are predominately Sunni Muslim and practice a tribal form of the religion, in which tribal allegiances and familial authority carry much weight.  The Baluchi speak an Indo-Iranian language that is related to Farsi and Pashtu.[7]

Demography

Accurate demographic data is difficult to obtain due to a lack of continuity in census reporting and the effects of discrimination.  Many Baluchis face discrimination and therefore do not necessarily formally label themselves as Baluchi.  Current data, though, suggests that the Baluchi in Pakistan today number an estimated 4.9 million.  Large populations can also be found in Iran (around 1.3 million) and in Afghanistan (around 637,798).[8]

Geographic Distribution

The Baluchi occupy an area known as Baluchistan, a large region covering western Pakistan, southwestern Afghanistan and southeastern Iran.  Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan Province is home to the greatest number of Iranian Baluchis, although there are also significant communities in Kerman Province.[9]  Many Iranian Baluchis have moved away from these regions in recent years in search of work, though, migrating to Tehran and other areas within the country.  Several hundred thousand Iranian Baluchis have also migrated to other Gulf nations.[10]    

What is today the transnational Baluchistan region is home to one of the world’s earliest human settlements.  It was inhabited by cave-dwellers and fishermen around 15,000 years ago.[11] 

Historic Hardship

Due to the remoteness of residing in a mountainous region, the Baluchi people have lived autonomously for most of their history.  Even today, their isolation limits the extent of government control in their region. However, although isolated, the Baluchi are not without interference.  Their autonomy was first disturbed by the British in the second half of the 19th century.  The Baluchi subsequently regained and protected their autonomy until Iran’s Reza Sha came to power in the 1920s.  As part of a campaign to centralize Iran’s government and economy, Reza Sha launched a series of pacification campaigns against the Baluchi; and by 1935 no tribal chiefs were able to oppose him.

Under Iran’s revolutionary government, other documented instances of rights violations against Baluchis have been reported.  The 1980s and 1990s saw executions after unfair trials.  Credible claims of extrajudicial killings by Iranian authorities have also been made.  Amnesty International, for instance, pointed to the suspicious death of the Baluchi leader Molavi Ahmad Sayyad in 1997, who had been previously detained for his Sunni beliefs and had opened a Sunni school in Sistan-Baluchistan[12]. 

Historically, Tehran and Islamabad have collaborated in suppressing Baluchi nationalism through brutal military crackdowns.  Both countries see such a movement as a serious threat to regional stability and the territorial integrity of their respective countries.[13]  Iranian Baluchis see themselves as heirs to an ancient and proud tradition separate from the ethnic Persian heritage.  Due to tribal and family lineages that cross all three countries, Iranian Baluchis identify with the larger Baluchi communities that reside in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The Baluchi historical narrative has and continues to be shaped by a collective sense of oppression and victimization by regional and colonial powers, leading to vulnerability and internal divisions.

Ongoing Hardship

Ongoing negotiations over the construction of a proposed pipeline through Iranian and Pakistani Baluchistan to deliver Iranian natural gas to Pakistan and India is another point of convergence that has brought both countries together on the threat posed by emerging Baluchi nationalism and armed groups such as Jundallah and the Baluchi Liberation Army.[14]  With the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, the availability of arms through Pakistan has also contributed to instability in the region. 

In March 2006, Jundallah militants in the Sistan town of Tasuki captured 23 Iranian officials traveling as part of a convoy.  A number of the victims were killed, while others were taken hostage.  Since the “Tasuki incident,” as it is known in Iran, Tehran has stepped up its military presence in Sistan – there are currently over 20,000 troops there, according to Amnesty International.  Other incidents in 2006 and 2007 linked to Jundallah, such as the May 2006 killing of 12 civilians in Kerman Province, have prompted Iranian authorities to crack down on Baluchi activities.  Amnesty International has documented recent cases of unprovoked killings and unlawful detentions of Baluchi civilians, and executions of Baluchis have risen drastically since May 2006.  (Amnesty recorded over 50 executions that may have involved Baluchis for 2006, compared to only six for 2005.)[15] 

Baluchistan is both Pakistan’s and Iran’s most neglected and underdeveloped province.  The provincial per capita income, literacy rate, and life expectancy are national lows in both countries.  Huge swaths of the region still lack electricity and consistent access to running water.  Additionally, Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan Province is said to be the site of most of the trafficking in girls and women that occurs in the country.  A 2006 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, says that women in the border towns with Pakistan and Afghanistan “are kidnapped, bought or entered into temporary marriage in order to be sold into sexual slavery in other countries.”[16]

In Iran, Sunni leaders of Baluchi origin have reported bans on religious literature and Sunni teachings in public schools located in Sunni areas.  The Baluchi language is neglected in the press and in radio and television broadcasts.  Baluchis are also kept from serving in a representative body and holding senior government and military positions. 

Inhabitants of Sistan-Baluchistan claim that a systematic plan has been carried out by Iranian authorities to pacify the region by changing the ethnic balance in crucial Baluchi cities (Zahedan, Iranshar, Chabahar, Kahsh) by forcefully relocating Baluchis from fertile rural lands to desert areas.[17]  Today, Sistan-Baluchistan is seen as particularly crucial for Iran’s national security, as it borders Sunni Pakistan and U.S.-occupied Afghanistan.  Being located in such a sensitive area makes the Baluchi people susceptible to continued discrimination.

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