World Affairs Board - View Single Post - Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

indianguy4u · 01-07-2006, 10:54 AM

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This time Baluchs have hit hard

MK Dhar, Political analyst

Instead of deploying Air Force helicopters to ferry relief to the frostbitten and dying earthquake victims of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, General Pervez Musharraf has chosen to arm them with lethal rockets and missiles to bomb revolting Baluch tribals demanding self-governance and a share in the natural resources, including gas, so wantonly exploited by the government.

Pent up Baluch insurgency has assumed the dimensions of a revolt against the military regime, which has launched a full-fledged Army operation against the fiercely independent, but extremely poor, tribals crying for their democratic rights and end to economic and social exploitation. It seems the military junta is, once again,taking Pakistan towards possible civil war and secession.

However much Musharraf may blame other countries for the trouble in Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest province constituting 43 per cent of its territory, the truth is that successive military regimes have wantonly suppressed the democratic aspirations of the Baluchs, denied them their share in government services, police and the military and deliberately left the province undeveloped.

Even some major projects, including the Gwadar port, which is being built by the Chinese for their own strategic reasons to gain direct access to the Arabian Sea, have been cornered by businessmen from other provinces, notably Punjab. Thousands of acres of land around Gwadar have been gifted to Punjabi developers for building port infrastructure and housing colonies, without involving locals. Even staff and labour are imported from other provinces.

Military operations have been going on for days and more than 200 tribals, including women and children, have been killed and hundreds more wounded. The Marri tribals inhabiting Kan, Mamund and Babbor areas of Kohlu and Kahan districts are being specially targeted because they killed some Frontier Armed Constabulary men in ambushes and rocket attacks on their camps. Presently some 18,000 troops are deployed in the area and another two brigades are guarding the Sui gas installations, which supply nearly 50 per cent of Pakistan's energy needs, and Dera Bugti, the stronghold of the Bugti tribes.

This is the fifth insurgency against Islamabad's rule and is better organised and equipped to take on the Army. Though The Army is usually able to inflict higher casualties with the use of tanks and helicopter gunships, the rebels are in no mood to give up. In the areas controlled by the principal tribes, the government does not exist and it is the writ of the tribal chiefs which runs. The federal government messed up the situation from the very beginning and by meting discriminatory treatment to the Baluchs antagonised them permanently. The Baluchs have retaliated, from time to time, by disrupting the Sui gas pipeline, holding up Army convoys,attacking cantonments and destroying communications. General Musharraf justifies the Army action as retaliatory for attack on his soldiers who exercise their "right of self defence".

The rebels and their leaders chide the General for talking endlessly about the right of self-determination and human rights of the people of Kashmir, but denies the same to the oppressed people of Baluchistan and suppresses their democratic urges by the use of brutal force. The grievances of the people were allowed to pile up over the decades. Baluchistan generates so much revenue by supplying gas to the rest of Pakistan, yet very little money is spent on its development.

It is the poorest among Pakistan's four provinces, with the lowest per capital income and literacy. The people resent China being allowed to build a strategic naval base at Gwadar, which would pose a threat to the country's security. The developing port is a thorn both for the Baluch and the US. Moreover, the port will benefit "outsiders" more than the local people, who are not associated with it in any way.

Another, and more serious, problem is that of demographic invasion, as more than a million non-Baluchs have already settled in Baluchistan from Pashtu-speaking areas and Punjab, diluting the political influence of the indigenous population. Pakistan's rulers have exploited Baluchistan since 1947, but refuse to admit this fact. The Baluch fighters enjoy wholehearted support of the people; the tribal chiefs wield great influence and virtually rule the province. The Baluchs are a fine martial race, but there are no Baluchs in the Baluch Regiment of the Pakistan Army because they are not trusted. Not one Baluch is employed in the sprawling Sui gas installations that supply energy to Pakistan.

The rebellion is gathering momentum day-by-day, but the Generals show no sign of meeting the legitimate demands of the population and depend solely on a military solution. The junta needs to stop construction of new cantonments and massive induction of troops to suppress the people. Control of all mineral and gas installations should be transferred to the provincial government and these should be manned overwhelmingly by the local people.

That alone will ensure protection of Baluchistan's oil and gas reserves and not the Pakistani Army. All major projects, including Gwadar, must be assigned to the local population and outsiders not allowed to make profits at the expense of the locals. Influx of outsiders into Baluchistan must be stopped and all those who have migrated should be denied the right to contest elections, or even vote in elections.