After the coordinated attacks by rebels across as many as 14 towns and cities in Balochistan last week, Pakistan’s authorities are in sore need of a reordering of priorities in the restive province. With each passing day, the armed cadres of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) grow increasingly bolder in confronting Pakistan’s security forces, especially the army. A reality that cannot be ignored is that for the first time in Balochistan’s troubled history, the struggle for self-expression by its people has seen an intensification in recent times.
In the latest attacks by the BLA, scores of people have lost their lives, though the exact figures have not been released by the Islamabad authorities. But Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, has made it known that in the aftermath of the rebel assault, 145 of the armed group opposed to the government --- he referred to them, as does the establishment, as terrorists --- had been killed by the security forces.
The picture is as clear as can be, which is that the bloodletting in Balochistan not only goes on but shows no signs of abating. Indeed, it became clear last year, when the BLA caused mayhem on the Jaffar Express train in Quetta, the provincial capital, that more such attacks would be on the way.
The coordinated attacks in 14 towns and cities should be a grave reason for worry among those who preside over Pakistan’s fortunes at this point of time. It hardly makes any difference whether or not the army and its supporters denigrate the rebels as Fitna al-Hindustan, a pejorative term that would have one believe that Balochistan’s anti-government elements are actively supported by India.
The larger reality is that there are individuals and organizations in the province who would like to see the back of the Pakistan government and go forth in the job of setting up an independent republic in Balochistan. In fact, it came to public knowledge last year that some individuals had indeed undertaken measures to have Balochistan declared a sovereign state, though not much traction to the move has been observed.
For Pakistan’s military, which holds sway over every aspect of social and political life in the country, Saturday’s militant attacks ought to be cause for reflection. Balochistan has turned into extremely dangerous territory, with citizens throughout the province unable to envision better and peaceful times ahead for themselves. The BLA may be a proscribed organization; it may be for Pakistan and its western friends a terrorist outfit.
But then there is the history of such organizations in the past subjected to similar odious treatment before they successfully emerged victorious in their struggle to ensure freedom for their people. The Islamabad authorities cannot afford to carry on with their belligerency any longer, for when the army in a country finds itself in a situation where it is being targeted by unhappy armed men in a part of the country, there is a serious need for proper reflections on the situation.
Pakistan’s military and the federal government in Islamabad need to engage themselves in introspection on the long history of Balochistan’s struggle for self-expression. The Baloch are a proud people who have suffered at the hands of the Pakistan state since the days of Ayub Khan in the 1960s. Baloch have not quite forgotten the manner in which the province was pulled into being part of Pakistan at the time of the partition of India in 1947.
Home to a plethora of tribes, the province has always been a hotbed of trouble for successive Pakistani governments, whose responses to the growing crisis have lacked wisdom. Baloch politicians have seen their elected governments dismissed without any respect for the constitution. Many of these politicians, all of whom are now dead, spent long years in detention.
The Pakistan state cannot look away from the grievances of the Baloch anymore. Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but sparsely populated province. It is rich in mineral resources and for decades these resources have been exploited by such government bodies as Pakistan’s geological survey. Its gas resources have benefited the state.
And yet the unfortunate truth is that despite all such apparent wealth beneath its soil and in its mountains, Balochistan has remained trapped in impoverishment. Where in the 1960s jute and tea, grown in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), earned foreign exchange that was largely spent in what was then known as West Pakistan, thereby depriving the Bengalis of their rightful share of resources, today it is Baloch resources that are not reflected in Baloch lives.
Pakistan, of course, has always been a complex country. Its politics has always been undermined by moves to keep democracy at bay. Its rulers were never able, following partition, to delineate the nature of the federation in relation to the provinces. Worse, the predominance of the army in state affairs has been an endless embarrassment for Pakistan’s people. The embarrassment now grows deeper with Balochistan’s armed rebels adopting such desperate measures as suicide attacks to make their message heard. The message ought to be listened to by the authorities in Islamabad even if too much water has already flowed under the bridge.
Hundreds, perhaps more, of Baloch young men have been victims of enforced disappearances by the security forces. The corpses of many of them were discovered much later and that too in several states of decomposition. There are the children of the disappeared who have grown into youth without knowing what happened to their fathers and brothers and sons. When Mahrang Baloch, the vocal young woman demanding that the state respond to Baloch concerns, galvanizes her fellow citizens into stirring up resistance against the manifest injustice perpetrated in Balochistan, she is taken into custody.
When Baloch scholars and journalists are hounded to death in the countries where they live in exile, no explanation comes forth from the ruling classes in Islamabad. Nawab Akbar Bugti is killed in a cave by the Pervez Musharraf regime and no inquiry into the crime is initiated. Today, it is Brahamdagh Bugti, an exiled grandson of Akbar Bugti, who plays a public role in disseminating the message of Balochistan’s aspirations before the world.
For Pakistan’s politicians, whose authority to handle the army is as good as zero, the time has clearly arrived for them to assert authority over the soldiers. Trigger-happy soldiers always muddy the waters in any country where no law can keep them in check and no rules of accountability can restrain them. Balochistan’s situation will worsen in the days ahead. The military has obviously failed to defeat the BLA. It is a war Pakistan’s army has not been winning and the Baloch rebels have not lost.
Pakistan’s establishment therefore must go for a political resolution of the crisis. The hubris so far demonstrated by the army needs to be subsumed to the urgency of measures to engage all stakeholders in Balochistan in a purposeful political dialogue as a way of ensuring not only a stable Pakistan but, more importantly, a Balochistan whose people and leaders will have full and unfettered autonomy to conduct their affairs.
The government in Islamabad as well as the opposition must together reach out to the Baloch rebels and to the tribes --- Marri, Bugti, Mengal, Raisani, et cetera, --- in the search for a settlement. But that will presuppose the suspension of all military activities against Baloch citizens and a readiness to investigate the deaths, disappearances and arrest of all Baloch that have occurred over the decades.
Balochistan’s voice must not be suppressed any longer. A reconfiguring of the Pakistan state is necessary. The rebels control the villages and mountainous regions in Balochistan, a truth the soldiers can ignore at their peril.
Syed Badrul Ahsan writes on politics, diplomacy and history.
