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| India-Pakistan | ||
| Balochistan - seething under sardars and subversion | ||
| 2003-11-07 | ||
| Balochistan is seething again. Apart from sustaining the fallout of the war on terrorism, parts of Balochistan have become a hotbed of hostilities between the establishment and some two dozen big tribal sardars (chieftains) and nawabs. The latest series of rocket attacks on various parts of Quetta city â two rockets fell on November 1 in Quetta cantonment and three on the Frontier Corps camp in Kohlu â underline the intense inter-play of the lobbies at war with one another: Baloch and Pashtun nationalists versus conservative religio-political forces; tribal chiefs pitched against one another, and most of them locked in incessant confrontation of interests and territory with the provincial authorities as well as segments of the armed forces. Rockets and even mortar shells are not uncommon; small-arms fire exchanges are a normal occurrence. âIt is a very, very fragile situation and extremely difficult to deal with,â a very senior bureaucrat in Quetta told TFT during a visit to the city in the backdrop of attacks on FC posts in Kohlu and Sui, about 440 kilometres south of Quetta. Tensions also heightened after the arrest of some 35 suspects from Dera Bugti following an attack on a police post in the area in mid-October. While the police is investigating the incident and the tribesmen remain incarcerated, rocket attacks have increased, as has the threat from the tribesmen. âOur predicament is that only about 5 percent of the province falls within the police jurisdiction and that means the writ of the government remains very weak,â says a senior police official. A similar statement was given last July by the Balochistan IG following an attack in Quetta on a Shia imambargah. Police officials told TFT that regional sardars and nawabs constantly undermine the governmentâs writ in most areas. At times the government courts one or the other sardar or nawab out of political expediency. Such exchanges also revolve around vested interests of political personalities. But the end result is always the same: it prevents the law-enforcement agencies from doing their job. Economically important regions like Dera Bugti, observers point out, are even today without proper roads, schools and medical centres. âIt all looks like a medieval village, you need strong political will to establish basic facilities for the people there,â said a senior government officer in Quetta. Local analysts think the sardars are part of the malaise that has kept the people of Balochistan subjugated and deprived of fundamental rights like education and health. âThe system has to change. It is increasingly becoming unsustainable,â says an observer in Quetta. The Baluchs are a lot like the Pashtuns culturally, however they are much, much less extremist in their Islam, with hardly any presence in Jihadi outfits. Observers in Quetta believe that the combined number of police and militia for a population of 6.5 million spread across 347,000 square kms is very small, especially, if one were to also take into account the number of law enforcement personnel at any time employed in providing security to important officials. A fairly large number is also deputed at religious places to guard them against sectarian terrorists. âThis has become essential since the July 4 deadly attack on the imambargah,â says a police officer. The attack left 50 people dead and over 100 injured. Two months ago, the ISI pointed the finger at young men in Khuzdar from the Baloch National Party who were said to be distributing posters that show the army in various anti-people situations dating back to the 1970s. Several people were arrested, including a journalist by the name of Rashid Azam, and charged with sedition. It is not clear why there is so much anti-army nationalist feeling in the province all over again. There was a seperatist insurgency in Baluchistan in the 70âs, with a leftist orientation, it was eventually crushed. Many Baluchs are angry at becoming a minority in their province because of a huge influx of Pashtuns. They are also angry about the building of a major sea port, claiming that all the benefits are going to workers from other provinces. Sectarian Dimension: The Quetta police claims it has arrested all the terrorists responsible for the imambargah massacre and says they belong to the outlawed terrorist outfit Lashkar-e Jhangvi. The Shia leaders had accused the LJ of the attack immediately after the incident. Interestingly, the MMA leaders have continued to blame the Indian intelligence agencies of perpetrating the crime. The police is searching for more suspects and has begun to tighten the noose around those who are still at large. It is also looking for one of the prime suspects in the case, a certain Dawood Badeeni, the son of the local Jamiat-e Ulema-i Islam (JUI-F) leader Maulana Badeeni. In fact, one Shia-Hazara leader speaking on a private channel pointed a clear finger at LJ and, addressing Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the JI, even said that Qazi Sahib should go to the MMA and ask some of the parties in the Alliance to stop protecting the killers of Shia. Evidence now proves who he was referring to. There is also proof now that just before the killing of Shia police recruits and later the attack on the imambargah, certain elements were distributing sectarian literature in and around Quetta. The theory that the Indians got this done does not hold much water, though this is not to say that the Indians do not want, or will not, exploit the vacuum created in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban â or even that they may not want to create trouble for Pakistan by using Afghanistan as a jumping off ground. Iâm not aware of any proven role of Indian intelligence in any sectarian terrorism in Pakistan, but they beat that drum an awful lot. However, the provincial government does worry deeply about other activities of the Indian consulate in Kandahar. It is interesting to hear almost every government functionary â be it the chief secretary, Ashraf Nasir or the inspector general of the FC â playing on the theme of âthe hyper activities by the Indian consulate in nearby Kandahar.â âWhy should India choose to open a mission in a city that is neither Hindu-friendly nor are there any Hindus there, unlike Kabul,â Ashraf Nasir asked TFT rhetorically. FC officials at Chamman, for instance, claimed to have seized some 11,000 fake Pakistani ID cards from people pretending to be Pakistanis. âWe believe the Indian consulate is involved in producing fake Pakistani IDs to help its agents infiltrate into Pakistan,â Ashraf Nasir says. This argument looks quite feeble when one notices that scores of Pakistanis have been involved in the fake ID cards and passports business for decades. Although the new system has made it difficult, yet the acquisition of these documents is just a question of money and finding the right contact in the registration office.
The Indian âinfluenceâ in Afghanistan is the biggest fear among the Pak Army, and seems to be the primary reason they are allowing the Taliban resurgence to act out of the border provinces. I also wonder at the Indian intelligence presence in Afghanistan; either they are a lot more subtle in their operations that the ISI (but then again, so is a marching band), or they arenât really doing a whole lot at the moment. | ||
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #5 The Baluchistan Post may be printed in Baluchistan, but that doesn't mean that most of it's readers are ethnic Baluchs. As far as I know, a majority of Baluchs are illiterate, and even if they aren't, it is only the Pakistani 'elite' that can read English. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-11-7 8:40:01 PM |
| #4 If the Baluchis are less "extreme" in their Islam than the Pashtuns, then how do you explain the psychotic rantings of the Balochistan Post? |
| Posted by: Joe 2003-11-7 7:38:13 PM |
| #3 Pretty much, Quetta has a Pashtun majority.. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-11-7 5:23:29 PM |
| #2 so the pro-jihadi support in Quetta comes from Pashtun in migrants, not from ethnic Baluchis? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-11-7 10:04:26 AM |
| #1 Has Balochistan ever not been seething? Is this the weather report? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-11-7 10:02:12 AM |