BY: IKRAM SEHGAL
Info - Prod Research (Middle East). Ramat-Gan: Mar 23, 2005. pg. 1
On the evening of 15 Feb 1973, my unit 44 Punjab (now 4 Sindh) pulled out from Nabisar where we were concentrated for training close to our Forward Defended Localities (FDLs) in the southern desert and entrained pell mell the next morning at Mirpurkhas for Sibi enroute to Quetta. We were told that we had to cope with a sudden "internal security" situation arising in Balochistan.
At Ebad Railway Station, a few kilometers short of Jacobabad, our troops special ran full speed into a stationary goods train parked on the parallel line. Sabotage? With four dead and over a dozen or so badly injured, we limped into Sibi late on 17 Feb. If Capt (now Maj Gen about to retire) Fahim Akhtar Khan had not led volunteers to climb to the topmost railway wagon perched perilously on top of two other wagons laden with ammunition and explosives to rescue those trapped under their weight, at least seven more would have died. Fahim’s bravery in battle during 1971 in the desert and in 1973 in Balochistan notwithstanding, that particular memory of outstanding selflessness at great personal risk "above and beyond the call of duty" remains forever etched in my mind. Barring exceptions like Fahim rising to two-star rank, brave and combat experienced officers seldom make it past the rank of major.
Such attributes are great obstacles to advancement in most armies of the world, Pakistan is no exception in merit often being a disqualifier. From Sibi my rifle company was heli-lifted into Quetta to secure the Governor’s House, the rest of the battalion led by Lt Col (later Brig) Muhammad Taj, SJ and Bar (one of the most decorated soldiers in the Pakistan Army) racing in by road. At about this time we were told that the Federal Government had dismissed both the Balochistan Governor Ghaus Bux Bizenjo and the Chief Minister Ataullah Khan Mengal, we were to escort the new Governor into his official residence. A month or so later Governor Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti honoured 45 Punjab (our sister battalion in 60 Brigade) and ourselves with a "Barakhana" (an Armed Forces lunch or dinner for jawans for a special occasion) to congratulate us "for saving Pakistan" or words to that effect.
Some non-violent protest about the then "renegade" Akbar Khan Bugti apart, the Baloch leaders shown the door by him "to save Pakistan" circa 1973 did not take to the streets to militate against what was clearly an extra-constitutional exercise not in democratic good taste. The real problem started when military operations against Marri tribals kicked off from Sibi on 21 May 1973, the hottest day of the year at about the hottest place on Earth. By the late afternoon helicopters were lifting the dead and decapacitated (due to heat stroke and heat exhaustion) of the leading battalion 46 Baluch. We reached our first objective Talli Tangi, the defile on the route to Maiwand without any opposition by late afternoon.
With experience of desert conditions behind us we had applied wet handkerchiefs on the back of our necks and (despite our brilliantly theoretical Brigade Commander’s repeated admonitions) our helmets (the cause of 46 Baluch’s woes) were lodged in our accompanying transport. Military operations begun in earnest a few days later real, bullets and all, when all three battalions of the Brigade started taking casualties.
At defiles like Talli Tangi which my rifle company was tasked to securing, Marri tribals came at us night after night, we inflicted many casualties and suffered some despite having no great expertise in "frontier warfare". Our luck ran out a few months later when 44 Punjab lost 16 dead in one go near Kohlu when one of our pickets was surrounded, cut off from the rest of the battalion and overwhelmed once out of ammunition. At the outset of 1973 one was skeptical about a military operations being needed, by the time I left in January 1974 hardened guerillas trained by the Soviets in Afghanistan made me into a believer, reluctantly perhaps but a believer nevertheless. My unit suffered more casualties in Balochistan than any other unit, and one dare says inflicted far more casualties than any other unit during battle, after all the guerillas coming at us were not throwing flowers.
There is a time for a political dialogue and a time for military solution, sometimes both are necessary in tandem. Events in Bugti area must be separated from the rest of Balochistan. Even though there have been a number of incidents of sabotage in different areas of the Province, the work of saboteur squads from the main Bugti tribal force in Dera Bugti, and mercenaries thereof, cannot be taken to be a concerted rebellion. The Dr Shazia-rape incident was used to try and sabotage the gas installation at Sui. But for the ultimate sacrifice of several dedicated soldiers of the Defence Security Group (DSG), this country would have faced an economic disaster of the greatest magnitude for an extended period.
As it is, during a very cold winter more than 40 million people all over Pakistan went without heating for days. One can be forgiven for being skeptical about the altruistic aims and objectives of those using the rape case as an excuse to send raiders to destroy the Sui Purification Plant. For the good of Pakistan? For the
good of Balochistan? Terrorism is a mechanism whereby small means are used to achieve major objectives, in this case the whole country was being held hostage!
The subsequent ambush on the FC "Bambhore Rifles" convoy on 17 March was not unexpected, besides sabotaging the Parliamentary Committee (on Balochistan) deliberations the grave provocation was a deliberate act meant to incite military reaction and with a fait accompli confront the Baluch populace about the affront to Baloch honour. Don’t the lives of our soldiers count? Give our military hierarchy credit for keeping their cool. Balochistan definitively needs major political and economic initiatives.
The Province is in a state of utter backwardness, poverty is endemic and the masses live in the Dark Ages, mostly under cruel and callous Sardars. It is a situation ready-made for exploitation and that is what the "Last of the Mohicans" is gambling on, fudging the issues in desperately attempting to make Bugti motivated interests in Sui synonymous with greater Baloch deprivation.
One must be prepared for collateral civilian damage when the Bugtis are disarmed, to allow them otherwise would invite endless trouble. Bugtis can be quite callous about using non-combatants who do not fall in line with their diktat as pawns, case in point their own tribesmen of Bekar UC. Shaikh Rashid normally does go overboard but when he called Akbar Bugti a "warlord" and not a politician (he never was), he was right on the mark. Few leaders are more autocratic or ruthless than the head of the Bugti clan, anybody associating democracy with Nawab Sahib needs to have his head examined.
When we started operations in Kahan and Kohlu in August 1973 we had to pass through Dera Bugti, his private jail had one of his sons as an inmate. Bugtis’ disarming should not be seen as a military operation, but as a police action by the law enforcement agencies necessary to put down crimes instigated by a warlord who considers himself outside the pale of any law except that which suits him. Problems in the rest of the Province have to be addressed politically; they are far removed from the contrived grievances of the Bugtis as annunciated by the fulminations of their hereditary chief.
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Credit: Info-Prod Strategic Business Information
This is a story of Paki occupation soldier the story is full of lies that Baloch guerillas were trained by soviet and Afghans, this was official lies to hide their crimes inside Balochistan, first Baloch refuges reached Afghanistan after 2 years of active hostilities broke out, after some of the bloodiest battles took place in Marri area specially in Chamaling where Paki forces took Baloch women and children as hostages because they were unable to defeat Marri resistances even after heavy bombardments from joint Iranian and Paki air forces and on other hands more then 30 thousands Paki grounds forces encircled all the major lands routes to cut of all escape and supply routes to Marri fighters, Marri fighters had only hunting guns and 303 rifle from first world war that were also with very less ammunitions they could not defeat the marries then general Tika khan gave order that Marri will come down from their mountains only if we capture their women and children, that is what they did and Marris were forced to come down from their mountain trenches to defend their children, so when the lightly armed Marri came down on open space their air forces killed many Marri, Marri as tribal community had no other economical activities except animal herds Tika Khan decided to Punish Marri people economically took most of their animal herds and auctioned them in Punjab.
Then Marri Baloch were forced to seek refuge in Afghanistan to avoid such black mails from Pakistani armies inhuman acts and violations of all international treaties not to harass or harm unarmed civilians in war zones.
This is pure lie that Marri were trained by soviets or Afghans those days, they even told the US Govt that Vietnamese were airdropped by soviets inside Balochistan to brake Pakistan because they were unable to capture main strategicall points inside Marri area and were surprised that Marri ambush their army convoy and their helicopter units used to reach within minutes and they used to drop their units on every hill but were unable to capture any fighters, then they made this Vietnams story in front of their bosses the US and British that they are fighting against the international communist conspiracy, that these Vietnamese are born guerrilla fighters with great experiences and they are very small very hard to detect them, in this way they wanted to brush aside Marri success in the battlefield, the parallels can be drown today with their so called conspiracy theory of war on terrorism, which they will use this war on terror in front of their masters as war against Al- Quida and as always they try to come dry out of water.
we often read in news and article stories that Pakistani forces crushed Baloch resistance which is also white lies Pakistani forces did not crush our liberation movement but our leadership crushed that movement which we do not want to elaborate today at this point.
But Baloch must fight the war with clear intentions and use force only to the appropriate places and time, no mistakes should be committed against civilians and civilian targets, which will be promptly used against us, and would also be seen by the world body as terrorism, let the war take longer time but victory be assured both inside and internationally if the war is fought cleverly with both gun and pen.
We must not allow our struggle to be taken as hostage for negotiations by insincere leaders for their personal interests as in the past.
This was a Commentary from Baloch unity on this news item.
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