So, it is official. According to the United States, a State genocide against a population – the Baloch – does not deserve to be sanctioned, punished or even, acknowledged. Mass graves, enforced disappearances and bombing of civilians by the Army – that in theory is supposed to protect their citizens – are legal and not even remotely objectionable.

On the contrary, if and when that same population takes up guns and tries to resist the systematic exploitation of their lives and their resources, it is labelled 'terrorist' and added to a blacklist. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), one of the Baloch militant organisations fighting in the region, has been classified as a global terrorist group by the US State Department – all of this, without taking any notice of the situation, despite repeated reminders by international humanitarian organisations and by the Balochi people themselves.

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