Dr Tara Chand, president of the Baloch American Congress, has called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to support the Baloch people’s fight for independence from Pakistan, describing it as a cause that aligns with India’s values and interests.
In a letter shared on social media, Dr Chand urged Modi to “lend meaningful support for a free Balochistan,” warning that the region’s people are enduring “oppression and genocide under Pakistan’s regime.”
He added that “a free Balochistan would be a blessing for peace-loving India” and appealed directly:
“Stand with us for justice.”
This public appeal to India follows earlier high-level engagements in the United States. In January 2025, Dr Chand wrote to President Donald J. Trump, highlighting widespread human rights abuses in Balochistan and calling for urgent U.S. intervention.
In his letter, he detailed that since 2006, more than 5,000 Baloch activists, students, intellectuals and ordinary citizens have been forcibly disappeared by Pakistani security forces, with over 1,500 reported extrajudicially killed.
“Thousands have been abducted, and the region is in crisis,” he wrote.
“We must advocate for justice and support a fact-finding mission.”
He warned that Pakistan is conducting a war “without witnesses” by sealing off Balochistan from international media and human rights organisations. He argued that many actions of the Pakistani state fit the UN’s definitions of genocide and crimes against humanity.
In addition to state violence, he condemned the growing influence of religious extremism, stating that “religious extremists produced by Islamic schools are threatening the socio-cultural traditions of Baloch society,” and accused the state of using them as “proxy death squads.”
In March 2025, Dr Chand addressed another appeal to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stating that the Pakistani occupation of Balochistan, which began on 27 March 1948, was in violation of international laws against colonialism. “The Baloch conflict with Pakistan is one of the most protracted conflicts since World War II,” he wrote, blaming the Pakistani military for unleashing “unprecedented brutality” in recent months and specifically targeting the Baloch intelligentsia, including political activists, journalists, engineers, and doctors.
He also cited the recent arrest of human rights campaigner Dr Mahrang Baloch and members of the Baloch Yekjahti Committee as further evidence of Pakistan’s attempt to crush Baloch civil society.
“Their history has been distorted, their language is on the brink of extinction, and a fundamentalist Islamic social outlook is overshadowing their secular beliefs,”
he warned.
Dr Chand also raised alarm over China’s growing footprint in the region, particularly through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said the handover of the port city of Gwadar to Chinese control represents “a new manifestation of socialist colonialism” and poses a grave threat to Balochistan’s autonomy, culture, and demographic balance.
A graduate of Bolan Medical College in Quetta and a former provincial minister, Dr Chand has been involved in Baloch politics since his youth. He now lives in exile in the United States, where he continues to campaign for Baloch rights and independence.
Balochistan, once a sovereign region before British colonisation in 1839, is now divided between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Despite its vast reserves of natural gas and minerals and over 600 miles of strategic coastline near the Strait of Hormuz, the majority of its population lives in poverty. The Baloch nationalist struggle—fought through political resistance and five armed uprisings since Pakistan’s annexation in 1948—continues to this day.
Dr Chand’s call to Prime Minister Modi reflects the growing effort among the global Baloch diaspora to internationalise their cause and secure diplomatic support for a peaceful, sovereign Balochistan.
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