The bullet-riddled bus in Kalat, its shattered windows lit by dawn, did more than end three lives. It tore through an already fragile cultural memory.
\nThese were musicians en route to a wedding, carrying harmoniums, not weapons. However, in Balochistan, where silence is often imposed rather than chosen, their visibility marked them for death.
\nWe have seen this before. In 2009, Shabana, a young dancer in Swat, was dragged to Mingora\u2019s Khooni Chowk and executed by militants bent on erasing public performance. Later, in 2016, Amjad Sabri was gunned down in Karachi: his assassination was not only a personal tragedy but an attack on qawwali itself.
\nSince 2007, the heart-wrenching extremist wave has claimed more than a dozen artists: singers like Ghazala Javed, folk poets in Balochistan, and countless unnamed female performers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Easy to threaten, easier to kill.
\nBalochistan\u2019s cultural decline is particularly stark. Folk singers and poets either disappear, are shot, or flee. Kill-and-dump operations leave families broken and questions unanswered.
\nChief Minister Sarfraz Bugti called the Kalat killings \u201ca direct strike on Pakistan\u2019s cultural soul.\u201d But the state\u2019s response has been limited to statements. No coordinated security plan has been introduced. For militants, culture is a battlefield, and we allow them to fight on it unchallenged.
\nEach silenced voice chips away at the nation\u2019s identity. Have we forgotten how the Pashto theatre scene in Peshawar collapsed under militant threat, only to revive cautiously once the ground was retaken? Without active protection, public art risks another retreat, and with it, a deepening cultural void.
\nThis is not just terrorism. It is cultural warfare. And we are ceding ground.
\nThe state must treat artists not as fringe beneficiaries of policy, but as frontline defenders of pluralism. Yes, we need security details for touring musicians and a real investment in cultural infrastructure.
\nMore urgently, we need a government that signals, unequivocally, that there will be no impunity for anyone who dares to terrorise those who give this country its voice. Because if Pakistan cannot defend its storytellers, it has already lost the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The bullet-riddled bus in Kalat, its shattered windows lit by dawn, did more than end three lives. It tore through an already fragile cultural memory. These were musicians en route to a wedding, carrying harmoniums, not weapons. However, in Balochistan, where silence is often imposed rather than chosen, their visibility marked them for death. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-491545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"yoast_head":"\n