By: Rashed Rahman
Forgotten’ Balochistan continues to fester with a simmering low level insurgency, whose public face so far is the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). This group claims from time to time responsibility for sabotage of gas pipelines, the electricity grid and other infrastructure. Being an underground movement, it is difficult to pin down or identify the leadership of BLA, although hints are available from websites run by Baloch nationalists to the dramatis personae responsible for this latest avatar of guerrilla warfare in Pakistan’s largest but poorest province.
The programme or demands of the BLA revolve around the historical and current sense of exploitation and deprivation at the hands of the Centre (which most Baloch nationalists associate with the most powerful province, Punjab). So far, the BLA had more or less confined itself to infrastructure sabotage activity within Balochistan. It therefore came as a surprise when the recent car bomb blast in front of PIDC House in Karachi was claimed by an anonymous caller to the media as the work of the BLA. Immediately after, the by now recognizable spokesman of the BLA, Azad Baloch, telephoned the media to deny the claim and condemn the Karachi bombing.
That denial notwithstanding, the police have claimed the arrest of about half a dozen suspects from Karachi and Quetta, claiming that they have ’confessed’ under interrogation to being members of BLA and accepting responsibility for the Karachi bombing. The motivation for selecting that particular target has been described as the KFC outlet in the building, or the PPL offices at the same location. Reports in the press, largely going along with the initial claim of BLA responsibility and ignoring the denial, speculated that PPL was the target as it is perceived by the nationalists as exploiting Balochistan’s gas and oil reserves without due compensation to the province. The other theory is certainly intriguing and even more interesting.
It may be recalled that not so long ago both the KFC and McDonald’s outlets were bombed in Karachi simultaneously. These bombings were interpreted at the time as the expression of rage by Islamic fundamentalists against US aggression and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Musharraf regime’s collaboration with Washington in the war on terrorism. Companies like the two in question have become the most obvious symbols, and therefore targets, for a range of anti-US forces worldwide, with the Islamic fundamentalists topping the cast of usual suspects. The alternative theory doing the rounds therefore is that some jihadi group may have carried out the blast, and then attempted to shift the blame onto the BLA to throw investigators off the track. Logically, the KFC target seems tempting for the jihadis. PPL may be at the receiving end of criticism by Baloch nationalists, but the bombing of its offices does not fit in with the pattern of BLA attacks to date, and would therefore represent a major shift of strategy and tactics on the part of BLA to strike at targets outside Balochistan.
The police have claimed that the arrested suspects have ’confessed’. It is common knowledge in Pakistan how such ’confessions’ are obtained by the police. It may be the case, if the alternate theory is truly at work that the actual perpetrators have succeeded with the ’red herring’ of the BLA in deceiving the law enforcers. Rather than trust the police version, it may be more politic to wait and see if the BLA attempts any more attacks outside Balochistan. If not, the ’red herring’ theory would become a strong candidate for acceptance. Balochistan continues to reinsert itself into public consciousness intermittently. Not so long ago, Dr. Shazia Khalid’s rape in Sui and its attempted cover-up by the authorities inflamed opinion amongst the Baloch tribes to the extent that an informal ’coalition’ of the tribes in and around Sui joined hands in attacking the Defence Security chief, Mr. Akbar Bugti was set in motion. A parliamentary delegation that included opposition MPs was sent to the scene of the confrontation in and around Dera Bugti and to talk to Akbar Bugti. This visit paved the way for PML(Q) president Chaudry Shujaat Hussain and the party’s secretary general, Senator Mushahid Hussain to visit Akbar Bugti and try to hammer out some compromise that would help defuse the situation.
Chaudry Shujaat, during his brief tenure as the interim Prime Minister in 2003, at the height of a spate of guerrilla attacks on infrastructure in Balochistan, had taken the initiative to set up a parliamentary committee to examine the crisis in Balochistan and frame recommendations to meet those of the province’s demands considered acceptable by the government. Balochistan’s plethora of complaints, including lack or violations of provincial autonomy, economic and social neglect and the extraction of its gas, oil and mineral wealth for the benefit of others while leaving the people of Balochistan deprived of any share in this wealth, is of very long standing. The violent incidents in Sui and Dera Bugti, seen against the backdrop of a guerrilla war being waged by alienated Baloch nationalists, persuaded the government to talk to the Bugti chief to defuse the confrontation in his area and discuss the package of constitutional, economic and other concessions to assuage the anger and frustration of the people of Balochistan. Despite the comings and goings of the PML(Q) leaders to Dera Bugti and the package of concessions contained in the Mushahid report, nothing has changed on the ground. Akbar Bugti still fears a military operation may be imminent against him and his people. The standoff continues, despite denials by the government of any aggressive intent.
The explosion of anger in Pakistan’s poorest province is the tip of the iceberg of Baloch nationalist resentment at the state’s attitude of aggressive, forced modernisation of a tribal society without reference to its peculiarities, sensitivities derived from the past conflicts between the Baloch and central state authority, or even a nod in the direction of local participation or a share in the claimed benefits of such modernisation.
The simmering guerrilla warfare being waged by alienated nationalist elements like the BLA needs to be contextualised within the history of the conflict between successive Central governments espousing an overarching Pakistani nationalism and the Baloch nationalists demanding their rights within an autonomous federation or, in the event of that not being conceded, complete independence. Further, this past cannot be fully understood without reference to the land, people, and their view of the larger picture of their embattled earlier history. It requires an exploration of the deeply ingrained historical memories that underlie Baloch nationalism, memories of a struggle for survival stretching back over a known history of 2,000 years.
(to be continued)
The writer is the Executive Editor of The Post |
