Baluchistan conflict
Baluchistan conflict
The Government of Pakistan over Baluchistan, the country's largest province. Recently, separatists have also clashed with Islamic Republic of Iran over its respective Baloch region, which borders Pakistan. Shortly after Pakistan's creation in 1947, the Army of the Islamic Republic had to subdue insurgents based in Kalat who rejected the King of Kalat decision to accede to Pakistan, reminiscent of the Indian Army's operation in the Principality state of Hyderabad. The movement gained momentum during the 1960s, and amid consistent political disorder, the government ordered a military operation into the region in 1973, assisted by Iran, and inflicted heavy casualties on the separatists. The movement was largely quelled after the imposition of martial law in 1977, after which Baluchistan witnessed significant development. After insurgency groups again mushroomed in the 1990s and 2000s, the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the war in North-West Pakistan exacerbated the conflict, most recently manifested in the killings of non-Baloch settlers in the province by separatists since 2006.
Background:-
1. First conflict 1948 (led by Prince Abdul Karim Khan)
In April 1948, Baloch nationalists claim that the central government sent the Pakistan army, which allegedly forced Mir Ahmed Yar Khan to give up his state, Kalat. Kalat was a landlocked British protectorate that comprised roughly 22%–23% of Baluchistan. Mir Ahmed Yar Khan signed an accession agreement ending Kalat's de facto independence. His brother, Prince Abdul Karim Khan, was a powerful governor of a section of Kalat, a position that he was removed from after accession. He decided to initiate an insurgency against Pakistan. On the night of May 16, 1948 Prince Abdul Karim Khan initiated a separatist movement against the Pakistani government. He conducted guerrilla warfare based in Afghanistan against the Pakistan army.
2. Second conflict 1958–59 (led by Nawab Nowroz Khan)
Nawab Nowroz Khan took up arms in resistance to the One Unit policy, which decreased government represenation for tribal leaders. He and his followers started a guerrilla war against Pakistan. Nowroz Khan and his followers were charged with treason and arrested and confined in Hyderabad jail. Five of his family members (sons and nephews) were subsequently hanged under charges of aiding murder of Pakistani troops and treason. Nawab Nowroz Khan later died in captivity.
3. Third conflict 1963–69 (led by Nawab Khair Baksh Marri)
After the second conflict, the Federal government sent the Army to build new military bases in the key conflict areas of Baluchistan in order to resist further chaos. Nawab Khair Baksh marri appointed an unknow shero marri to lead like-minded militants in guerrilla warfare by creating their own insurgent bases spread out over 45,000 miles (72,000 km) of land, from the Mengal tribal area in the south to the Marri and Bugti tribal areas in the north. Their goal was to force Pakistan to share revenue generated from the Sui gas fields with the tribal leaders. The insurgents bombed railway tracks and ambushed convoys. The Army retaliated by destroying vast areas of the Marri tribe's land. This insurgency ended in 1969 and the Baloch separatists agreed to a ceasefire. Yahya Khan abolished the "One Unit" policy. This eventually led to the recognition of Baluchistan as the fourth province of West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) in 1970, containing all the Baluchistani princely states, the High Commissioners Province and Gwadar, an 800 km2 coastal area purchased by the Pakistani Government from Oman.
4. Fourth conflict 1973–77 (led by Nawab Khair Baksh Marri)
Citing treason, President Bhutto dismissed the provincial governments of Baluchistan and NWFP and imposed martial law in those provinces. Dismissal of the provincial governments led to armed insurgency. Khair Bakhsh Marri formed the Baluchistan People’s Liberation Front (BPLF), which led large numbers of Marri and Mengal tribesmen into guerrilla warfare against the central government. According to some authors, the Pakistani military lost 300 to 400 soldiers during the conflict with the Balochi separatists, while between 7,300 and 9,000 Balochi militants and civilians were killed.
5. Fifth conflict 2004 – to date (led by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Mir Balach Marri)
In 2005, the Baluch political leaders Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Mir Balach Marri presented a 15-point agenda to the Pakistan government. Their stated demands included greater control of the province's resources and a Moratorium on the construction of military bases. On 15 December 2005, Inspector-General of Frontier Corps Maj Gen Shujaat Zamir Dar and his deputy Brig Salim Nawaz (the current IGFC) were wounded after shots were fired at their helicopter in Baluchistan province. The provincial interior secretary later said that "both of them were wounded in the leg but both are in stable condition." The two men had been visiting Kohlu, about 220 km (135 miles) south-east of Quetta, when their aircraft came under fire. The helicopter landed safely.
In August 2006, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79 years old, was killed in fighting with the Pakistan Army in which at least 60 Pakistani soldiers and 7 officers were killed. He was charged by Pakistan's government of a series of bomb blasts, killings of the people he professed to protect and the rocket attack on the President Pervez Musharraf.
In April 2009, Baloch National Movement president Ghulam Mohammed Baloch and two other nationalist leaders (Lala Munir and Sher Muhammad), were seized from a small legal office and were allegedly "handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck which is in still use of intelligence forces in front of their lawyer and neighboring shopkeepers."The gunmen were allegedly speaking in Persian (a national language of neighboring Afghanistan and Iran) Five days later on April 8 their bodies, "riddled with bullets" were found in a commercial area.The BLA claims Pakistani forces were behind the killings, though international experts have deemed it odd that the Pakistani forces would be careless enough to allow the bodies to be found so easily and 'light Baluchistan on fire' (Herald) if they were truly responsible. The discovery of the bodies sparked “rioting and weeks of strikes, demonstrations and civil resistance" in cities and towns around Baluchistan.
On August 12, 2009, Khan of Kalat Mir Suleiman Dawood declared himself ruler of Baluchistan and formally made announcement of a Council for Independent Baluchistan. The Council's claimed domain includes "Baloch of Iran", as well as Pakistani Baluchistan, but does not include Afghani Baloch regions,and the Council contains "all separatist leaders including Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti." He claims that "the UK had a moral responsibility to raise the issue of Baluchistan’s illegal occupation at international level."
Alleged Foreign Support for Baluch rebels
Pakistan has repeatedly accused India, and occasionally the U.S., of supporting the Baluch rebels in order to destabilize the country. India has however categorically denied the allegations on its part, stating that no concrete evidence has been provided. The facts are controversial, but Pakistan still continues to insist. Iran has repeatedly accused America of supporting Jundullah. After his capture, Jundullah leader Abdulmalek Rigi confirmed these allegations. The US has however denied this. However, neutral observers have repeatedly noted that the Baloch nationalist groups are poorly-trained in military tactics and strategy, and are currently outgunned by the Pakistani state. The groups are mainly armed with small non-automatic weapons and AK-47s, which are widely available in Pakistan, and they currently are not skilled at using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which is seen as strong circumstantial evidence that they are not supported by outside powers, contrary to the repeated statements of the Pakistani state.
Baluchi rebels in Pakistan are said to receive major support from the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the 1980s the CIA, the Iraqi Intelligence Service, Pakistani Sunni extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and the Mujahedin e-Kalq all supported a Baluchi tribal uprising against Iran. Pakistan has also accused India of giving citizenship to senior Balouch SeparatistSelig S. Harrison of the George Soros funded Center for International Policy has been calling for dividing Pakistan and supporting an independent Baluch province as a means to thwart growing relations between Islamabad and Beijing, as Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar. These views have been separately promoted by Ralph Peters, an zionist strategic affairs analyst and former U.S. Army officer, and an expert on the Middle East and the Islamic world.
Projects in Baluchistan
Saindak Copper Gold Project:
Saindak Copper-Gold Mine is located in Saindak town, district Chaghi Baluchistan, Pakistan. The discovery of copper deposits at Saindak was made in the 1970s in collaboration with a Chinese engineering firm. The Saindak Copper-Gold Project was set up by Saindak Metals Ltd, a company wholly owned by the government of Pakistan, by the end of 1995 at a cost of Rs.13.5 billion.
Pakistan and China signed a formal contract worth $350 million for development of Saindak Copper-Gold Project. The project was leased for 10 year to a Chinese company called Metallurgical Construction Corp (MCC), which is due to expire in September 2012. Under the lease agreement, MCC was to run the project on an annual rent of $500,000 plus a 50 per cent share of copper sales to the Pakistani government.
The project was based on estimated ore reserves of 412 million tonnes containing on average 0.5 gram of gold per ton and 1.5 grams of silver per ton. According to official estimates, the project has the capacity to produce 15,800 ton of blister copper annually, containing 1.5 ton of gold and 2.8 ton of silver.
Reko Diq Copper Gold Project:-
Reko Diq is a small town in Chagai District, Baluchistan, Pakistan, in a desert area, 70 kilometres north-west of Naukundi, close to Pakistan's border with Iran and Afghanistan. The area is located in Tethyan belt that stretches all the way from Turkey and Armenia into Pakistan.
Reko Diq has proven gold and copper reserves worth US $125 billion. It is estimated that area has 12.3 million tons of world class copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold. However, later it has been claimed by several Pakistani scholars that the gold and copper reserves worth is far more than estimated earlier, that is 1000 billion dollars.
The Reko Diq Mining Project is a US$ 3.3 billion capital investment project that promises to build and operate a world class copper-gold open-pit mine at Reko Diq. TCC (Tethyan Copper Company), which is actually Canadian-Chilian based company, is responsible for minning at Reko Diq.
Gawadar:-
Gawadar Port is a developing warm-water, deep-sea port situated at Gwadar in Baluchistan province of Pakistan at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, about 460 km west of Karachi and approximately 75 km (47 mi) east of Pakistan's border with Iran. The port is located on the eastern bay of a natural hammerhead-shaped peninsula jutting out into the Arabian Sea from the coastline.
Background:-
On 8 September 1958, Pakistan purchased the Gwadar enclave from Oman for $3 million. Gwadar officially became part of Pakistan on 8 December 1958. At the time, Gwadar was a small and underdeveloped fishing village with a population of a few thousand.
The Pakistani government integrated Gwadar into Baluchistan province on 1 July 1977 as the district headquarters of the newly formed Gwadar District.
In the 1993, the Government of Pakistan formally conceived the plan to develop Gwadar into a major port city with a deep-sea port and connect it with Pakistan's highway and rail networks. On 22 March 2002, the Government of Pakistan began construction of Gwadar Port, a modern deep-sea port, the first phase of which was completed in December 2005. Gwadar Port became operational in December 2009.
The city underwent major construction from 2002-07. In 2002, Pakistan's National Highway Authority (NHA) began construction of the 653 km-long Makran Coastal Highway linking Gwadar with Karachi via Pasni and Ormara and onwards with the rest of the National Highways of Pakistan, which was completed in 2004. In 2003, the Gwadar Development Authority was established to oversee the planning and development of Gwadar. In 2004, Pakistan's NHA began construction of the 820-km long M8 motorway linking Gwadar with Ratodero in Sindh province via Turbat, Hoshab, Awaran and Khuzdar and onwards with the rest of the Motorways of Pakistan. In 2006, the Gwadar Development Authority conceived, developed and adopted a 50-year Master Plan for Gwadar. In 2007, the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan acquired 4,300 acres to construct a new greenfield airport, the New Gwadar International Airport, on 6,000 acres, at an estimated cost of Rs. 7.5 billion. China has funded 80% of the initial $248 million construction of the city.However China has not announced being requested to operate the port by Pakistan.
Importance of Gawadar Port for China:-
Gwadar Port is being constructed in two phases with heavy investment from China. Technical and financial feasibility studies were commenced by the Government of Pakistan in 1993 but construction did not commence until 2002. The Gwadar Port was built on a turnkey basis by China. It was inaugurated in the spring of 2007 by then Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf. Upon completion of the first phase, the Port of Singapore Authority was hired for the management of the Port. Gwadar Port is now being expanded into a deep sea port and naval base with Chinese technical and financial assistance. Gwadar Port became operational in 2008 with the first ship to dock bringing 52.000 tonnes of wheat from Canada. Pakistan's Minister of Ports and Shipping Sardar Nabil Ahmed Khan Gabol officially inaugurated the Port on 21 December 2008.
China has acknowledged that Gwadar’s strategic value is no less than that of the Karakoram Highway, which helped cement the China-Pakistan relationship. Beijing is also interested in turning it into an energy-transport hub by building an oil pipeline from Gwadar into China's Xinjiang region. The planned pipeline will carry crude oil sourced from Arab and African states. Such transport by pipeline will cut freight costs and also help insulate the Chinese imports from interdiction by hostile naval forces in case of any major war.
Commercially, it is hoped that the Gwadar Port would generate billions of dollars in revenues and create at least two million jobs. In 2007, the government of Pakistan handed over port operations to PSA Singapore for 25 years, and gave it the status of a Tax Free Port for the following 40 years.
Missing Persons In Baluchistan:-
The most pressing and hurtful issue right now, though, is that of the ‘missing’ people. Human rights groups and Baloch political parties claim as many as 13,000 people are missing in the province, while the provincial government acknowledges fewer than 1,000 people have been picked up. Even if the true number lies somewhere in between, these statistics need to be reconciled. After that, a promise needs to be given that no citizen of Baluchistan need ever fear for his life just for exercising his right to political dissent.
Target Killing in Baluchistan:-
According to Baluchistan police records, there were 256 incidents of targeting in Baluchistan in 2009 that killed 200 people and injured 387. In 2010, 231 incidents were reported that killed 255 and injured 498. In the first three months of 2011, at least 39 incidents have occurred, which killed 38 and injured 66. Baluchistan Constabulary Commandant Ghulam Shabbir Shah, speaking in Karachi recently, said that target killings are set to break all previous records in the province.
Various shades of targets
According to Shah, no target killings are reported in the province’s Pashtun-dominated areas, including Musakhel, Zhob, Loralai, Ziarat, Pishin, Harnai and Sibi.
The claim was confirmed by Pakhtunkhwa Awami Milli Party’s senior leader Abdul Rahim Khan Mandokhel but, he said, Pakhtun Baloch have been targeted in two or three cases. “Some unsuccessful attempts have been made to create a wedge between the Pakhtuns and Baloch,” he said.
Most target killing and terrorism incidents are reported in the districts of Quetta, Mastung, Bolan, Noshki, Kalat, Khuzdar, Kech, Gwadar, Lasbela and Panjgur. Four types of target killings are reported in Baluchistan: Attacks on people who have settled in the province, assassinations of policemen and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel, sectarian killings and murders of political workers.
1. Settlers
Settlers in Baluchistan are numbered at least 461,328 and mostly comprise Punjabis, Seraikis and Urdu-speaking people. According to police statistics, based on inquiry and FIRs, at least 180 settlers have been shot dead between 2009 and March 2011.
Officials admit that investigations into most target killings of settlers remain unsolved.
“There is a joke in the province that if you want authorities to stop pursuing a murder case, have it claimed by one of the many rebel groups operating in Baluchistan,” says National Party Vice-President Hasil Bizenjo.
One such case is that of University of Baluchistan’s Professor Nazima Talib whose first death anniversary approaches on April 27.
“These cases are difficult to crack because Baloch people sympathise with rebel groups and, despite knowing who the murderers are, choose to remain quiet,” says Shah.
2. Security personnel
At least 120 policemen and 66 FC personnel have been killed between 2009 and March 2011.
Shah says that despite clear evidence that police have suffered more, there is a severe lack of resources. “It is very easy to blame civilian institutions for failing to curb crime. But the truth is we don’t have the resources to even fight petty dacoits who have more sophisticated arms and equipment,” he said. On the other hand, FC and army units even get food rations for troops.
3. Sectarian
Sectarian killings have been mostly targeted against Hazara Shias, who came to Baluchistan decades ago from Afghanistan and Iran. Police and counter-terrorism officials say that anti-Shia militant groups such as Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are active in Baluchistan.
But Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Secretary-General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who hails from Kalat, says he doesn’t know if the SSP or LeJ are involved. “Experience shows that the state and intelligence agencies are the ones behind groups that instigate sectarian violence and ethnic strife,” he said.
4. Political
Political party workers allege that they are being targeted not only by the state but by rebels as well.
Bizenjo, whose party has lost three senior leaders, says the heavily-armed rebels are against nationalists because “they say that you talk about federation when we are here up in the mountains waging a battle against the state.”
Baluchistan National Party-Mengal’s (BNP-M) Dr Jehanzaib Jamaldini says the party lost one of their best leaders Habib Jalib last year in a target killing. “All evidence points to state elements being behind the murder,” he said.
Hundreds of Baloch men, including political workers, have gone missing in the province.
Bizenjo believes Baluchistan’s security situation is interconnected with Fata and Afghanistan and violence is bound to continue unless things improve there. “Until it is decided that nowhere in the country will anyone be allowed to hold a gun, the state will not be able to establish its writ and target killings will continue,” he said.
Haideri says the government should either accept failure and step down or admit that it is involved in target killings in the province.
Analysis:-
It has long been an open secret that paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies have been holding sway in Baluchistan. This was finally acknowledged by the province’s advocate general, Salahuddin Mengal, in front of the Supreme Court, when he revealed that the Frontier Constabulary (FC) was picking up and even killing people. Although not a surprise, this revelation is important because the Supreme Court is the only institution in the country that has shown the courage to take on the army. The court must now haul up senior officers of the FC to explain the role it is playing in Baluchistan.
However, the Supreme Court alone cannot solve Baluchistan’s problems. The utter lack of confidence the Baloch have in the army and the federal government requires much greater action. Separatist sentiment is now running deep in the province and the provincial government lacks legitimacy because most political figures have boycotted mainstream politics. Bringing them back into the fold should be an immediate priority. This would require the army to recede and take a low profile, and an accounting of all those who went missing in the province. Following that, a far greater share in the spoils of Baluchistan’s economic development needs to be given to locals. From the development of a deep-sea port in Gwadar to royalties in mining projects, the Baloch feel they have been deliberately cheated out of profits from their resources. Only after this is rectified, will the separatist parties begin to tone down their rhetoric.
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