Daily Times July 17, 2021 Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his recent visit to Gwadar, announced that he would initiate talks with the Baloch nationalists to end the long festering insurgency which has devoured thousands of precious lives and weakened national unity impeding social and economic development in the province. This initiative should have been taken long ago in the presence of Balochistan National Movement of Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal in the ruling coalition. The BNP would have been possibly helpful in facilitating the talks. Nevertheless, one is never late for a good deed. However, the prime minister should keep two facts in mind. First, the unrest in Balochistan has a chronic history beginning with the annexation of Balochistan into Pakistan by force in the early 1948; its merger into the infamous One-Unit in 1954; the arbitrary dismissal of the elected government of National Awami Party in July 1972 and the tragic murder of Sardar Akbar Bugti in the mid-2000s. Through all these insurgencies, the Baloch have suffered untold miseries facing bullets, deaths, executions and jails.