Mutual trust and a will to talk needed to end violence

When unidentified gunmen stormed two buses in Balochistan and killed 22 passengers, the message they were sending out was that they were still capable of attacking at will.

Baloch separatists have been demanding greater autonomy for many years and the province has been ravaged by strife. Inhabitants of the resource rich province have long complained that they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth. Human rights groups have alleged that security forces commit abuses, torture non-militant separatists and torture them.

But whatever the reason, holding innocent passengers hostage and then killing them with automatic rifles does not serve any cause. A search operation is underway to find the killers, but more importantly the country must search for a solution to the violence.

In protest against the killing, 800 relatives of the passengers carried the victims’ bodies and staged a sit-in protest in front of the provincial chief minister’s official residence.

As has been seen on numerous occasions, violence begets violence. The cycle of distrust, abuse and killing can only be broken when the two sides show mutual trust and come to the negotiating table.