Pakistan considers its South-Western Province of Balochistan as a region knit with problems, mainly because of the local rebels! Most of the people there prefer to call themselves residents of Balochistan than Pakistan. Unlike most of the other Pakistani nationals, the Balochi maintain cordial relations with the Sikh community, adherents of a monotheistic religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent around the end of the 15th Century. The Provincial Government of Balochistan recently arranged to return after restoration, a 200-year-old Gurdwara, a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs to them!

The Baloch Government has been running a Girls’ School at the Siri Guru Singh Gurdwara, on Masjid Road in Quetta for the last 70 years. After renovating the Gurudwara, the Government handed it over to the Sikhs for religious purposes…

Danesh Kumar, the Secretary of the Provincial Assembly, has confirmed the news, saying that the Local Government renovated the Gurudwara after making arrangements to transfer the Girls to another school in the locality. For his part, the Chairman of the Sikh Community Committee in Balochistan, Sardar Jasbeer Singh, has stressed that the restoration of the Gurdwara as a place of worship is a gift from the Government. He has claimed that around 2,000 Sikh families live in different parts of the province and for them, the ancient Gurdwara had a special significance…

Meanwhile, Political Analysts are of the opinion that the Baloch Government made the move in an attempt to normalise ties with neighbouring India. For long, the Baloch rebels have been urging India to back their struggle against the authoritative Government of Pakistan. Although India has raised the Baloch issue at various UN meetings, New Delhi is yet to support the rebels, openly! A couple of days ago, Imran Khan Niazi – the Prime Minister of Pakistan – assured the Baloch population that his administration would try its best to end the sense of deprivation amongst them by launching a series of development projects, and undoing the neglect of decades towards the province.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das