Pakistan backs off
Balochistan By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Given the intense local backlash
against Pakistan sending troops into the South
Waziristan tribal area to find foreign militants,
Islamabad has called off military operations in the
troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, and will
attempt instead to initiate dialogue with key leaders.
At the same time, while Pakistan has announced
categorically that it will not send its troops to Iraq,
backroom preparations are still being made for just such
an eventuality.
In Balochistan,
Pakistan's biggest but least-populated province,
nationalist insurgents are conducting an ongoing campaign for
more control over the area's vast natural-gas and mineral
resources, as well as for increased political and
economic rights. They also strongly oppose government
plans to build three military cantonments in the
province, saying that the government should allocate
funds for development instead.
Over the
past months there has been a series of rocket attacks
and bombings in various Balochi cities and towns,
mostly targeting natural-gas supply pipelines, but also on
Quetta cantonment, and other strategic installations.
Last weekend, gunmen attacked a government vehicle in
the province, killing at least six people, including
five soldiers, and wounding two, police reported.
Meanwhile, back in Waziristan With
the flow of information from South and North Waziristan
agencies restricted by the army, Asia Times Online has
learned from local contacts that insurgent tribesmen are
still active, while the army is virtually restricted to
its camps. But when they do emerge for patrols, they are
attacked. Unconfirmed reports indicate between five and
seven casualties from both sides every day.
On
Thursday an army helicopter flying from its base in
Rawalpindi to Bannu in North Waziristan crashed in the
Karak area of the agency. The army's Inter-Services
Public Relations said that the Mi-17 helicopter went
down after developing a "technical fault", killing all
13 troops aboard. However, there is widespread
speculation that the chopper had been shot down.
Operation Balochistan Asia Times
Online contacts close to the army say that the
government will not go on the offensive in Balochistan
in an attempt to by time by talking to tribal leaders.
It is generally believed that the present
insurgency is spearheaded by the Baloch Liberation Army
(BLA), an underground organization that traces its roots
to the leftist Baloch Students Organization at
Balochistan University during the Cold War era. In an
attempt to counterbalance US influence and Pakistan, the
former Soviet Union funded the BLA with money, arms and
logistics. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, not
much has been heard of the BLA.
However, after
the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan at the end of
2001, when many of them fled to the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border, the US thought it prudent to establish its own
spy network to keep a check on the validity of the
information it was being fed by Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence. Anti-Taliban nationalist
elements, whether Pashtun or Baloch, were thought to be
the best tool for this.
It was not a surprise,
therefore, that Baloch nationalist leader Sardar
Attaullah Khan Mengal returned to Pakistan after a long
exile in London, and soon several hundred youths were
trained under the banner of the BLA. This was done at a
base in Kohlu, near Dera Bugti in Balochistan.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Afghan and Indian
governments played a role in this. Apart from this
group, powerful tribal chiefs, such as Nawab Akbar
Bugti, Mengal and Nawab Khair Bux Mari incited their
tribes to revolt against the Pakistan army.
According to Asia Times Online's sources the
army believes that if it launched a major offensive it
could crush the insurgents in Balochistan as the terrain
is nowhere near as harsh as South Waziristan's. But it
is reluctant to become involved on two fronts, and there
is also the danger of a serious backlash, both on the
province and beyond. Pakistan's political opposition
parties are already making loud noises about stopping
military intervention.
Instead, a number of
local leaders have been arrested or warrants issued for
their arrests. The aim is that while in captivity they
can be persuaded to influence their followers to stop
the unrest.
Still troubled over Iraq
With a Saudi proposal to raise a Muslim army to
help with security in Iraq rejected by most Arab and
Muslim countries, Pakistan has also officially announced
that it will not send troops to Iraq.
However,
Asia Times Online has learned that in the backrooms of
General Headquarters (GHQ) preparations for sending
troops are still under way.
Former Corps
Commander Rawalpindi and presently military secretary in
GHQ Rawalpindi, Lieutenant-General Arif Hasan has been
assigned to work on different options:
Send a selection of servicemen from the army reserve
corps.
Offer officers and soldiers who are on the verge of
early retirement, and then send them as a separate unit,
not as a part of the Pakistan army.
Raise a separate volunteer force comprising retired
army officers and soldiers.
In the meanwhile, a
very limited number of the last group could be sent soon
to guard United Nations premises in Iraq - Pakistani
Jehangir Ashraf Qazi has been appointed as the new UN
envoy to Iraq.
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