Friday January 6, 2006
’Oppression in Kashmir’ is a must for all bulletins of the Pakistani electronic media round the year,regardless of the health of our bilateral relations,says Atul Cowshish India had allegedly committed a diplomatic faux pas when the spokesman of the external affairs ministry said that New Delhi was watching with ’concern the spiralling violence in Balochistan and the heavy military action, including the use of helicopter gun ships and jet fighters by the government of Pakistan.’ It led to a sharp reaction from the Pakistani foreign office, which asked India to ’mind its own business’ and questioned the ’motives’ behind the concern over Pakistan’s troubled western province of Baluchistan.
Of course, diplomatic niceties demand that sovereign countries refrain from commenting on the internal affairs of each other. But does this rule apply in the present context? How much of nicety does Pakistan exercise in its dealings with India?
Hardly a day passes when the Pakistani media as well as its rulers are not commenting on what is an ’internal affair’ of this country. ’Oppression in Kashmir’ is a must for all bulletins of the Pakistani electronic media as well its print media round the year, regardless of the health of our bilateral relations. Often the language used against India borders on abuse and vulgarity.
It is possible that the Pakistanis are rattled by the Indian ’interference’ in the affairs of Balochistan because of its proximity to the Kandahar region of Afghanistan where the Pakistanis allege India is establishing a ’strong’ presence.
The large presence that scares Islamabad is not the arrival of Indian Army there but ’army’ of Indian aid workers who are engaged in the reconstruction of Afghanistan that was destroyed by Taliban, a Pakistani creation. Nevertheless, the Pakistani retort was hardly surprising, given their trait of blindly hitting back at India.
Balochistan may be a part of Pakistan but India has some reasons to be concerned about the state of affairs in that neglected province which shares its border with Afghanistan and Iran and has been in a state of boil for close to two years. The proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India will be passing through Balochistan. Though its future still does not look certain in view of the stiff US opposition to it because of its animus towards Iran, this multi-billion dollar pipeline is going to be crucial for India’s energy security in the coming years.
If there is any reservation in India about the gas pipeline from Iran it is solely on account of the security concerns, which in simple terms means fear of sabotage and damage to it in the Pakistani territories to block the flow of gas to India. Whether the pipeline from Iran enters from Multan or any other point in Pakistan, it is sure to enter that country
from Balochistan.
Only a few and sporadic details filter through to the Indian media about the conditions in Balochistan. One strong reason for that is that the military rulers of Pakistan have clamped a virtual ban on independent entry of the media in that remote Pakistani outpost as it does not want the world to be aware of the heavy handedness with which it has been dealing with the local tribal leaders.
Thanks to the new alignment between Pakistan and the US, the West too has been generally indulgent towards the excesses and flaws of the Pakistani military, be it in the matter of its rampant corruption, inability to handle rescue and relief mission in the quake-hit Occupied Kashmir or gunning down and hounding critics of the regime at home.
Balochistan is by far the largest province of Pakistan though its accounts for only about 7 percent of the country’s population. It is an arid land but rich in resources, including natural gas. Yet, it is also the most neglected state.
The only thing that has grown in Balochistan is the presence of the military with a number of cantonments set up and more due to come up. Gwadar, a small town on the Makran coastline, is being converted-- by the Chinese--into a hub port for Central Asia. The people of Balochistan are not impressed, as they want greater political and economic rights denied to them since the formation of Pakistan in 1947.
They want autonomy that the (military) rulers are not willing to give them. They have been fighting for their rights and demanding that they should get a fair share in the development pie a disproportionate proportion of which goes to the Punjab province.
The first time the people of Balochistan rose against the federal authorities was in the 1970s when Islamabad had quelled the rebellion with a strong arm with ample support from Iran, which has a Baloch-speaking minority on its eastern border with Pakistan. Then, about two years ago trouble erupted again in Balochistan. Islamabad responded by sending its troops and paramilitary forces. When it evoked protests, a promise was made that the troop deployment would be reduced and the people’s grievances would be redressed. But nothing of the sort happened and now the rulers in Islamabad are accusing its critics in
Balochistan of being anti-progress.
The systematic attempts to subjugate the Balochis has led to the creation of a strong rebel force known as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) which, much to the discomfort of the Generals at the GHQ in Rawalpindi, has touched a chord with the common Balochs opposed to their domination by the Pakistani military.
Islamabad has also found an additional reason for sending troops to Balochistan and adjoining South and North Waziristan in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). These are the areas, where, according to both Pakistan and the US sources, are hidden the bulk of Al Qaeda fugitives and they cannot be flushed out, it is claimed, without a military operation.
In fact, the alleged presence of Al Qaeda fugitives may be the reason why the West has decided to condone-as it did its nuclear proliferation activities-the large-scale military action in the western border areas of Pakistan.
That the military operations were in excess becomes clear from the fact that the opposition alliance, Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), has openly demanded that ’Western democratic forces’ should help in stopping the government from continuing the military operations in Balochistan.
Allegations of human rights abuses have also been levelled against the Pak army. And the issue had rocked Pak Parliament, the National Assembly often.
The Balochi anger has been rising rather alarmingly for the comfort of rulers in Islamabad. Early in December, rockets were fired upon the convoy of the Pakistani military strongman, Gen Pervez Musharraf, when he was in Kohlu district of Balochistan. It was not the first instance of rockets being fired by the rebels and Baloch nationalists have often fought pitched battles with the military. In 2004, at least 30 soldiers were killed in attacks in Balochistan.
There are no indications that the Baloch nationalist movement is showing any signs of cooling off because the rulers in Islamabad continue to marginalise and brutalise the Balochs. Already death toll has crossed 200.And the economic blockade of ’rebel’ strongholds has pushed people to a life of misery with shortages of water, food and medicines increasing every day.
http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060106/0601304.htm |
