Word: quetta
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Life among the Baluch is in many ways the same as it was in the days of the British raj, although camels are now less prevalent than the gaily painted trucks and triwheeled scooters that chug asthmatically around the streets of the province's capital, Quetta (pop. 250,000). Purdah (seclusion of women) and arranged marriage are accepted practices in this strict Islamic society. The chief source of relaxation is bung, a finely ground concoction of high-powered local marijuana that is chewed like tobacco or drunk as a herbal infusion. Tribal values revolve around honor, which the Baluch...
...Baluch feel that their land is being colonized. Every year hundreds of settlers from the Punjab and Sind are assigned to the province's bureaucracy. Of the twelve provincial secretaries in Quetta, only one is Baluch. There are no Baluch on the staff that administers martial law. Among 1,120 students at the provincial university, only 269 are members of Baluch tribes...
...India. Since then, continued martial law has provided a focus for the historic nationalism of the warlike Pathan and Baluch tribesmen. Russian-supplied automatic rifles are being smuggled across the frontier from Afghanistan, evidently destined for the 6,000-strong Zalme Pakhtoon (Pathan Youth). A bloody riot erupted in Quetta, a city in Baluchistan, after Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed governors for the two provinces from his own party, despite the fact that the National Awami Party holds majorities in the provincial assemblies...