A Lahore-bound bus from Quetta has been time-bombed, killing 12. The bomb was placed under a seat near the back of the bus. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, although violence between tribal militants and security forces has recently escalated in the remote areas of the province. The provincial police chief therefore quickly linked it to tribal violence even though several local Baloch and Pashtun citizens were on board the bus. Since state officials have been naming India in such incidents in the past, the interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, thought he should wait until investigations were complete. Down south, six people were killed, including two soldiers, in clashes between security forces and Bugti tribesmen, as another gas well of the Loti Gas Plant had to be closed down.
After two quick-fire derailments, Pakistan Railways announced Sunday that both were actually acts of sabotage, mentally linking earlier acts of terrorism in Lahore with trails clearly running to Dera Bugti. The district officer at Dera Bugti, whose house was rocketed, says that unless the paramilitary are ordered to answer fire and are helped with supplementary forces, gas fields other than Loti, too, might simply shut down. He says Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was up in the mountains directing the attacks in which allegedly hundreds of rockets worth millions of rupees have been lobbed. So as the government observed a well-organised Kashmir Day, telling the people that Pakistan was incomplete without Kashmir, things in Balochistan were coming to a head.
Is a "critical mass" being reached in Balochistan? The government is denying that "military operation" is underway in the province, but are events converging towards a decision to supplement the paramilitary force called the Frontier Corps with "hot troops"? The political consensus so far has been that only negotiations can bring peace to the province. The Baloch themselves seemed to be united behind this option but, as the war waged by the Marri-Mengal-Bugti trio of tribal chiefs escalates, this consensus is undergoing a subtle change. Sub-tribes not in agreement with the chiefs of their overarching tribes are increasingly asking the government to act. The presence of independent TV channels has given fair opportunity to chiefs and the dissenting sub-tribes to express their views and the effect on the opinion in the rest of the country could actually turn against the rebellious chiefs.
The dissenting Bugtis (Kalpar, Masuri) are being allowed by the government to return to their homes after more than a decade of exile in Sindh and Punjab. Their point of view is now being picked up by the TV channels. Many in Pakistan could be hearing about them for the first time. A number of intellectuals have come on talk shows and given a "neutral" point of view, which also doesn’t go in favour of the rebels. The Bijaranis (a Marri sub-tribe) have aggressively put forward their demand for justice between them and the powerful Gazinis led by Sardar Khair Baksh Marri. In an interview on the BBC, the London-based son of Sher Muhammad Marri (a Bijarani), the hero of the 1973 uprising, expressed doubts about the current actions by the tribal chiefs.
The present moment could be the unravelling of the various "incongruous" layers of nationalism in the province. There is the nationalism shared by the rest of the country centred on the grievance of insufficient level of development and representation of Balochistan. Even the much-denigrated Punjab fully supports the Baloch province on this stance. Then there are two strands of separatism - one embraced by the rebel chiefs dating back to 1947 when the Khan of Kalat refused to join Pakistan; and the recent, popular one among the Baloch based on the possession of natural resources - which may actually become redefined through a process of unscrambling. Yet another abiding factor in Balochistan is the Baloch-Pashtun divide with the Pashtuns not completely sharing the separatist nationalism backed by the rebel chiefs.
This is perhaps the time for the rebel Sardars to take a fresh look at the political landscape of the province and see how some of its lineaments are changing. There is still strong political consensus in the parliament (see the Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain parliamentary committee report, 2005) for giving Balochistan unprecedented autonomy short of actual separation. Therefore the representatives of the Baloch in the parliament must win a negotiated victory for the people of Balochistan from Islamabad so that the Baloch nationalism of rebellious Sardars can be steered in productive and not isolated directions. *
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006 2 7story_7-2-2006_pg3_1
Unrest in Balochistan
AS the security forces continue to persist in armed action in Balochistan, the situation has taken a turn for the worse. Rocket attacks and bomb blasts causing deaths and disturbance of life have become a daily feature and as the two train derailments of last week showed, acts of sabotage are ominously beginning to encroach on the rest of the country. Supposedly these incidents are being committed by so-called Baloch nationalist elements. Sunday’s blast in a Quetta-Lahore bus after it had travelled some 18km and was passing near Koolpur left behind 13 killed and 20 injured. Targeting ordinary persons, in this case most of the travellers were reportedly traders from Quetta coming to Lahore on business, would ultimately make the perpetrators of the crime lose whatever support they have in the public. As yet, the situation is not quite clear. Whether a timing device planted in the vehicle had gone off, or a rocket fired from the adjoining hills wrecked the bus, would be established after the results of the inquiry currently under way were known. Both sides must show restraint and the points of contention are thrashed out through peaceful means.
Most likely, the calm that prevailed following assurances given by the parliamentary sub-committee on Balochistan headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain would not have broken, had its recommendations been implemented, had the other sub-committee led by Senator Wasim Sajjad completed its work suggesting constitutional amendments and had the concept of provincial autonomy been sincerely put into effect. It is a great pity that an ideal opportunity to redress the grievances of the people of Balochistan was lost. And as they despaired of the government’s sincerity in this regard, the disturbances began to reoccur.
The sensitive nature of the resource-rich province and its people’s grouses need careful handling. The billions being spent there on executing big projects cannot have any beneficial impact unless the people’s political aspirations are adequately met. It is towards that end that the government should be working. If the government were to take an initiative to put into effect the committee’s recommendations, that sounded quite justified, the violence would automatically ebb away.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/feb-2006/7/editorials3.php |
