On August 1, Pakistan's military chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani said the
army and its intelligence agencies were not involved in so-called
"kill-and-dump" operations in the restive province of Balochistan. Kiani was
speaking in Quetta, the provincial capital, where Human Rights Watch said in a
recent report that Islamabad "should immediately end widespread disappearances
of suspected militants and activists by the military, intelligence agencies,
and the paramilitary Frontier Corps".
The report follows similar findings by Amnesty International and the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan. Human-rights
watchdogs have repeatedly called on Islamabad to stop unlawful killings in
Balochistan, where hundreds of political activists have been killed in
separatist and sectarian violence involving both homegrown and regional
insurgents.
Most of the violence stems from the targeting of suspected Balochi separatists.
They are often kidnapped, only to be found dead weeks later, their decomposing
corpses having been dumped by the side of the road. Balochi nationalists accuse
the Pakistani security forces of orchestrating such killings.
Islamabad counters that separatist insurgents are killing ethnic Punjabi
migrants and politicians loyal to Islamabad. Independence-minded Baloch have
frequently clashed with the federal government over the control of resources in
the region, and now even moderate nationalists fear hardline militants who are
pushing them to completely abandon electoral politics as relations with
Islamabad continue to deteriorate.
While Balochistan makes up nearly half of Pakistan's 800,000 square kilometers
territory, its population accounts for less than 5% of the country's 180
million people. Balochi separatist factions headed by young leaders are now
perpetuating their fifth rebellion in Pakistan's 64-year history - Islamabad
crushed earlier insurgencies in 1948, 1958, 1962 and 1973-1977.
Balochistan borders Iran and Afghanistan, and is hemmed in by the restive
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber-Puktunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh
provinces. Rich in hydrocarbon resources and minerals, including one of the
world's largest gold mines, the region also has a long shoreline on the Arabian
Sea along one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, and is home to the
increasingly important strategic port at Gwadar. The region extends into Iran,
where ethnic Balochis make up around 2% of that country's population of 80
million.
The region's strategic location on the crossroads of Central Asia, South Asia,
the Middle East and West Asia has reinforced regional rivalries and insurgent
movements. In Pakistan, thousands of separatist Balochis, soldiers, political
leaders and civilians have died since the onset of the current insurgency in
2004.
Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced, many of whom are ethnic Punjabis who
are only now beginning to return to Quetta after the military targeted
insurgent cells in the city. Iran's Baloch, meanwhile, live under severe
political and cultural oppression as a Sunni Muslim minority under the nation's
Shi'ite clerical regime.
Additionally, despite differences over the end game in Afghanistan, Tehran and
Islamabad appear to be on the same page in dealing with their respective
Balochi populations. Last summer, Iran and Pakistan signed a US$7 billion gas
pipeline project that envisions meeting energy-hungry South Asia's needs for
decades.
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) route even has support from
the Asian Development Bank as well as key Afghan partners (and even some
insurgents), but its viability will remain in question as long as Balochi
insurgents continue to blow up gas pipelines in the region, a factor
influencing current harsh efforts on both sides of the border to suppress the
Baloch insurgencies.
Yet Balochistan also remains a battleground for competing regional interests.
Pakistan is suspicious of an Indian-financed road network linking southwestern
Afghanistan to the southeastern Iranian port of Chabahar, a predominantly
Balochi city.
Tehran invested in the Arabian Sea Port project hoping to attract business from
across Central Asia. Over the past decade, China has invested a hefty $200
million in the development of Gwadar, downstream on the same shoreline. Many
observers believe the project showcases Sino-Pakistani cooperation and may
signal their possible cooperation in the Afghanistan end game, cooperation that
New Delhi eyes with suspicion.
Balochistan is also a key component of the regional rivalries centered in
Afghanistan. Islamabad is fighting the Balochi insurgency with full vigor,
occasionally diverting the resources it gets from the West to fight the Taliban
and al-Qaeda. Washington and its allies have in the past and are likely still
considering ending the Balochistan sanctuary of the Mullah Omar-led Afghan
Taliban as a top priority to salvage their transition plans and force the
Taliban to the negotiating table.
This creates further friction in the already-deteriorating relations between
Islamabad and Washington. And some Baloch activists have told of their belief
that one reason for the increased effort to crush the newest insurgency in the
province is so that the Afghan Taliban's sanctuaries could remain protected.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has publicly accused India of supporting Balochi
separatists, and some officials in Islamabad are privately skeptical about
Iran, too, while Iran has accused Pakistan of sheltering members of the Iranian
terrorist group Jundallah, mostly composed of Sunni Balochis fighting against
the Shi'ite government.
Islamabad has also accused Kabul of sheltering Baloch rebel leader Brahamdagh
Khan Bugti for years. And in the 1970s, Afghanistan supported a Balochi
insurrection and later sheltered the insurgents.
While in Quetta, Kiani advised the Balochi insurgents to talk to Pakistani
political leaders to work towards a solution to the conflict. But these
politicians have no real power, and will look to the all-powerful security
forces and intelligence agencies Kiani controls to begin substantive talks.
Unlike in the past when insurgents followed tribal leaders, Balochi separatists
are now loyal to a new breed of middle-class leaders, and satisfying them will
take much more than offering cabinet slots and amnesty. Balochistan, like
Afghanistan, will need regional cooperation to see development and a permanent
settlement to ongoing conflicts. And more body bags will only push a settlement
further away.
Abubakar Siddique is a senior correspondent for Radio Free Europe/ Radio
Liberty covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Copyright (c) 2011, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of
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