Pakistan has branded an underground militant group operating in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan a "terrorist" organisation, officials said yesterday. "The federal government has declared Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) as terrorist organisation over its involvement in sabotage and subversive activities," provincial police chief, Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub, told AFP. He said Baluchistan police had arrested an unspecified number of militants who confessed they had been receiving money and weapons from the group for attacks on government installations. "BLA itself had been claiming responsibility after almost every incident," Yaqub said. He said now the group was officially a terrorist organisation, its name could not appear in the Pakistani media. The police chief said the group was allegedly led by a provincial deputy, Balach Marri, who was facing several criminal charges including landmine blasts and bomb explosions. "He will now lose his seat in the provincial assembly," he said.
The BLA leader's brother Gazin Marri, who served as provincial home minister from 1993-96, was arrested in Dubai late last month on charges of money laundering, he said. "This confirms our belief that the group had been receiving funds from abroad," Yaqub said without giving details.
Along with some nationalist tribes the BLA has been waging a sporadic revolt in recent years in sparsely populated Baluchistan to win more political rights and a greater share of profits from the region's rich natural resources. The government launched a fresh crackdown in Baluchistan after militants fired rockets in the town of Kohlu during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf last December.
| Firing up Perv was a move of singular brilliance, since I don't think they came within a mile of him. Whether they're a terrorist organization or not is another matter. As I've pointed out on a few occasions, there are differences between terrorists and guerrilla organizations, and the BLA fits the latter to a tee. They don't as a matter of policy make war on civilians, keeping for the most part to attacks on military targets and infrastructure. There's a qualitative difference, even given that they're Bugtis and Marris and suchlike primitives, between them and the genuine terrorists infesting North and South Wazoo. They're not the ones lopping off heads and organizing roving bands of fascisti and hanging people. Akbar Bugti's probably got a black belt in evil, but I wouldn't call him a terrorist. A perfidious bastard, yes; a tyrant, yes; a terrorist, no. |