Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province, which has been battling a separatist insurgency for years. Before the partition of India and Pakistan, Balochistan consisted of four princely states under the British Raj. These were Kalat, Lasbela, Kharan, and Makran.

Two of these provinces, Lasbela and Kharan, were fiduciary states placed under Khan of Kalat’s rule by the British, as was Makran, which was a district of Kalat. Three months before the formation of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had negotiated the freedom of Balochistan under Kalat from the British. It is a misfortune that some external and internal entities have still been misleading the Baloch people in order to fulfill the hidden agenda of some powers.

In this regard, the central representative of Baloch National Movement in his statement says that BNM will observe 27 March as Black Day. All zones of BNM in Balochistan and Germany, UK, South Korea, Australia, and Greece will hold references and protests with respect to 27 March. While the Instrument of Accession was signed by the Khan of Kalat on March 27. It came before Jinnah on March 31, 1948, who accepted it.

There was no kind of resistance to the accession until the middle of July 1948, when the brother of the Khan returned from Afghanistan, where he had fled with a body of armed followers. The Pakistan Army later on engaged and arrested his followers.

AFIA AMBREEN,

Rawalpindi, March 25.