Category — Balochi Crisis

QUETTA, Sept 8: Nationalist and political parties in Balochistan have expressed mixed views over the decision of putting on hold work on setting up cantonments in the province.

They welcomed the announcement, but feared the establishment would not allow the government to implement the decision. According to them, it is just an assurance to the chief minister and no formal announcement has been made by the federal government.

Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, senior vice-president of the National Party, said: “It is a good decision, but atrocities committed by security forces against the Baloch people may offset the impact of this decision.”

He said that successive governments had not paid any heed to the demand by political parties of Balochistan for abandoning the cantonment plan.

The decision, taken after the killing of Nawab Bugti in an army operation, was belated, Mr Bizenjo added.

“Atrocities by security forces were our main concern. They are killing and arresting people without any justification,” he told Dawn.

He said that forces should be withdrawn, the operation stopped and missing people should be produced before courts without further delay.

He said that the Pakistan People’s Party claimed to be a democratic party, but after coming into power it had not brought any change to Balochistan.

The acting president of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldani, said the “establishment would not accept the decision of the political government”.

The announcement was an attempt to appease the Baloch people, but they would not back out of the struggle for their rights, Dr Jamaldani said. “There is no need for a new cantonment because there were already several cantonments in the province.”

The provincial president of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Usman Kakar, said his party had been opposing the establishment of military garrisons in the province.
“There is a need to launch mega development projects, set up educational and heath care institutions and provide other basic amenities to the people of the province.”

Mr Kakar said that Baloch and Pashtoon areas should be developed on an equal basis. He said that plans to set up cantonments in Chamalang and Pashtoon areas should also be abandoned and Quetta cantonment should not be expanded.
( this news appeared in The Dawn, Sept 9)

The News International
The chief minister of Balochistan has informed reporters in Quetta that the federal government has accepted a request from the provincial government that the building of military cantonments in the province be stopped. The agreement on this, we are told, has been reached after much deliberation and is aimed at calming sentiments in Balochistan. The decision to establish the cantonments, taken under President Musharraf, had been fiercely opposed by all nationalist and most political forces in Balochistan. It was, for obvious reasons, seen as an effort to clamp down against nationalist elements. It was obviously no coincidence that the cantonments were to be set up in the Dera Bugti and Kohlu areas – where the anti-government uprising of the Musharraf area was concentrated.

Indeed people in Balochistan have made consistent claims of harassment by paramilitary forces posted along highways and they had feared the cantonments would only add to this. The role of the army in Balochistan is of course an issue that draws strong reaction, particularly since the deadly military operation in the 1970s. The scars left by it have not vanished. The actions taken some three decades later under a military dictator have only re-opened the wounds. We must hope the move to abandon the building of the cantonments is not an isolated gesture but an indication of a more sweeping change thinking. The problems of our largest province cannot be solved by the use of force. The government must demonstrate a willingness to win the Baloch heart. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=197350

The Daily Time, Sept 9
The Balochistan Chief Minister, Nawab Aslam Raisani, says the federal government has decided to abandon the construction of military cantonments in Balochistan on the request of the provincial government. The principle to which he has pointed is sound: “We have been insisting from the beginning that the people of the province should be taken into confidence while making crucial decisions”.

An almost across the board consensus among the political parties says the federal government should not build any more cantonments. They see the army as a hostile force opposed to their aspirations. The past has seen army actions which the people of Balochistan have perceived as oppression. Since the national consensus too goes with Balochistan, it is only right that the planned cantonments should be laid off.

But Mr Raisani’s claim that he is asking for rights for Balochistan in light of the text of the 1940 Lahore Resolution may lead to a difference of interpretations. His reading of the Resolution would claim “sovereignty” for the provinces. What the Constitution will give to Balochistan is “autonomy”. And that will exclude defence of Pakistan as a sovereign state.

Balochistan is under threat from infiltration by other states. It already has military divisions in place in the province as a requirement of national defence. What if Balochistan is challenged from the outside? The “consensus” in Quetta is also against Frontier Constabulary and the police.

Balochistan is on the eve of receiving a significant increase in its allocation from the federal divisible pool of funds. It will need security against foreign infiltration and against criminal elements who might want to control its precious resources. A very big challenge confronts it in the sector of development. It must therefore strive to become a “normal” province. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\09\09\story_9-9-2009_pg3_1

By Saleem Shahid
QUETTA, Sept 7: In a move that might lower political temperature in strife-ridden Balochistan, the government on Monday said work on setting up cantonments in the province was being put on hold.

Disclosing the major move, the Balochistan chief minister said a formal announcement about abandoning the construction of cantonments and several relief measures would soon be made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during his visit to the province.

The cancellation of the army’s decision, taken during General Musharraf’s days, to construct military garrisons in Bugti and Kohlu areas had been one of the principal demands of the Baloch nationalist groups, which always saw in the move an attempt to subjugate them.

The announcement made by Chief Minister Aslam Raisani in Quetta is being viewed by observers as a major concession, but the news broke so late that immediate reaction of Baloch nationalists was not known.

Nawab Raisani told a group of journalists that after much deliberation the federal government had accepted their demand to abandon the cantonment project. He said that all political parties and people of the province had reservations about the construction of military cantonments in Balochistan. “All parties have the same stand on the cantonment issue,” he said.

The decision to set up cantonments in Dera Bugti and Kohlu, taken at the height of the controversial military operation against tribesmen, had immediately come under criticism not just by the Baloch nationalist groups but also many human rights and political organisations.

The move was described as an attempt to suppress the Baloch nationalist movement, and their demands for share in natural resources and more political power for their province.

The late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was among the first prominent leaders who opposed new cantonments in the province. Even in the previous Balochistan assembly all mainstream Baloch and Pashtoon nationalist parties and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam had opposed the plan.

Even in the past, many Baloch leaders had questioned the decision of setting up cantonments in resource-rich Kohlu and Sui towns of Balochistan.

The secretary general of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Mushahid Hussain Syed, recently claimed that after negotiations Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti had agreed to allow new cantonments in Balochistan. However, Nawabzada Jamil Bugti denied the claim and termed it “rubbish and lie”. He said his father had never agreed to allow new cantonments in the province.

He said that he himself was part of the negotiations in which Nawab Bugti had told Mushahid Hussain and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain that they should not come to Dera Bugti for talks if they had no mandate.

Jamil Bugti said that this father had insisted till last that Pervez Musharraf rescind the decision.

Chief Minister Raisani said that various problems had cropped up in the province due to the plan for setting up new cantonments, and the provincial government had been telling Islamabad to persuade the army to abandon the project.

In view of requests made by the provincial government during meetings with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the federal government had decided to abandon the plan, Mr Raisani added.

“Prime Minister Gilani will soon visit Balochistan and will announce a special package,” Nawab Raisani said. Although the chief minister did not give details of the proposed package, he said the provincial government had also taken up the issue of Gwadar port with the federal government. He said the federal government had been requested to hand over the port to Balochistan so that its people could become major beneficiaries of the project.

Highly-informed sources told Dawn that the Balochistan package, prepared by a high-level committee under Mian Raza Rabbani, had proposed several wide-ranging measures which might go a long way in meeting some of the major demands of Baloch nationalists. These not only include the cancellation of plans to construct cantonments away from the border region, but also about giving due share in natural resources to the province.

There is a proposal to allow the province to have complete financial control of Gwadar port for at least 10 years. During this period the revenue from the port will be spent on development of Balochistan. Another proposal is for manifold increase in the share in revenue from copper mining at Saindak.

Several other key measures have also been suggested to bring the disillusioned political and nationalist groups to the mainstream. These include engaging some senior Baloch leaders by the political leadership, with the promise to meet most of their demands as long as they agree to distance themselves from separatist politics.
( the above news item appeared in The Dawn, Karachi, Sept 8, 2009)

LAHORE, Sept 3: Jamaat-i-Islami amir Syed Munawar Hasan regrets that the Balochistan situation is explosive but the federal government is least bothered about it.

Speaking at an Iftar dinner here on Thursday, he observed the US and China had their eyes on Balochistan because of its vast resources while India and Iran were also interested in it but unfortunately the Pakistan government was the only one that was taking no interest in it.
He lamented that while an FIR was yet to be registered in the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, another Baloch leader, Rasool Bakhsh Mengal, was murdered recently.
He said the Baloch people were being pushed towards wall, making them think that their loyalty with Pakistan is a crime.
The JI chief said both the major political parties of the country — the PPP and the PML-N — had failed to serve the masses and their recent behaviour had fully exposed them.
He said Mian Nawaz Sharif had in fact given up his demand for Pervez Musharraf’s trial otherwise he should have been on roads.
There was no fun in giving an ultimatum only to withdraw it, he said. The PML-N was as much a government ally as the JUI and the MQM and it was fully cooperating with the PPP, he added.
He said democracy had been defeated in Sindh as the PPP men were bringing funerals to the Chief Minister’s house. He said all the political parties attending the London multi-party conference had declared the MQM a terrorist organisation and vowed not to join hands with it. He suggested that at least these parties should implement the London decisions.
Mr Hasan said the present government was an elected one but it could not be termed democratic. A democratic government must have taken note of the statements being issued from Saudi Arabia and London, he added. He said the decisions in respect of important national issues were being taken outside the country, which was most shameful.
The JI chief said Brig Imtiaz (retired) and Gen Naseer Akhtar (retired) had confessed their crimes and they must be put to trial without delay. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/govt-blind-to-balochistan-situation-ji-499

LAHORE, Sept 3: The Jamhoori Watan Party (Talal) has postponed its proposed long march from Lahore up to Dera Bugti for an indefinite period.
At a press conference here on Thursday, JWP leader Shahzain Bugti’s secretary Madni Baloch said the decision had been taken in view of the incomplete consultation process with some political parties of Balochistan and Sindh, as well as of the difficulties the participants could face due to Ramazan.
The march was to start from Friday (today) from Minar-i-Pakistan.
A jirga of Bugti tribes’ chieftains had opposed the long march the other day and urged PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif not to interfere in the Bugtis’ politics. Supporting the march, Mr Sharif had contacted some political players in Balochistan in a bid to seek backing for Shahzain’s initiative. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/jwp-again-postpones-long-march-499

THE murder of Balochistan National Movement leader Rasool Baksh Mengal, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Bela, calls for strong condemnation. While the party’s spokesman has said this is a part of the campaign to eliminate Baloch leadership, those behind this deadly game are undoubtedly posing a big threat to the unity of the federation and must be brought to book. The worrying thing is that there is a pattern to such killings. A number of Baloch leaders have been targeted in the past. Just a few months back, three of them were gunned down, that led to violence in the province. On the other hand, attacks on settlers in Balochistan have multiplied. More and more people are being killed. While restoring calm to the province should be the top priority of the government, it must simultaneously gird up its loins to resolve the Balochistan crisis. The PPP-led government tendered apologies, but has failed to go beyond that. It must take concrete steps to remove the sense of grievance among the people in the province.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Editorials/02-Sep-2009/A-cause-for-concern

By Bari Baloch
QUETTA – A shutter down strike and wheel-jam was observed on Tuesday in different parts of Balochistan while

angry rioters took out rallies and protested against the killing of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Central

Joint Secretary Rasool Bakhsh Mengal.
The protesters torched three banks, Judicial Magistrate House, 4 vehicles, SHO’s house and ransacked offices of Qazi Court, telephone exchange in different towns of Balochistan. Over 15 women including five children were wounded due to baton-charge and tear gas shelling.
Rasool Bakhsh went missing on August 23 from Uthal area of Lasbela district and his body was found by police on August 31 from Bela area of the same district.
The call for the strike was given by the Baloch National Front which was also supported by all other Baloch nationalist parties.
In Quetta, main trading centers and shopping plazas remained opened and a partial wheel-jam strike was observed. However, business activities remained standstill in Baloch populated areas.
The attendance in the offices was also remained thin while educational institutes remained completely closed.
The administration had taken strict security steps to avert any untoward incident and mobile squads of police, Frontier Corps and Balochistan Constabulary continued patrolling the City.
Wheel jam strike also paralysed traffic on national highways linking Quetta with Taftan and Karachi.Unknown persons set a truck on fire and pelted vehicles with stones in different parts of Quetta while the activists of nationalist parties tied black ribbons on their arms to mourn the murder of BNM leader.
An explosive device planted outside a marriage hall at Spini Road went off with a huge bang smashing windowpanes of the building and caused damage to a electricity transformer. However, no loss of life was reported in the blast.
According to reports reaching from other towns of Balochistan, shutter down and wheel-jam strike was observed in Turbat, Mand, Tump, Gwadar, Panjgour, Nushki, Soorab, Khuzdar, Kalat, Mashkay, Dalbandin and other towns.
Slain BNM leader Rasool Bakhsh Mengal was buried in his ancestral town Khuzdar on Monday night.
The protesters took out a protest rally, chanted slogans against govt agencies and demanded of the UN and Humanitarian Organisations to take notice of alleged genocide of Baloch people.
Later, protesters got infuriated and set 4 vehicles on fire at police line area of Khuzdar. Police resorted to aerial firing, tear gas and baton charge to disperse the protesters.
Dozens of activists of Baloch National Front took out a rally in Tump against the murder of Baloch leader and condemned the killing.
Unruly protesters burnt three banks and a SHO’s house when police opened aerial firing to disperse protesters. Ten women and five children were wounded in Mand after security forces baton- charged a protest rally in Mand and fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Unknown people also set ablaze a Judicial Magistrate House in Mashkay and ransacked offices of Qazi Court and telephone exchange. The sources said that police have arrested 12 BNF activists from Turbat and Hub in ransacking incidents.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online//Politics/02-Sep-2009/Balochistan-reels-under-violence

ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Three US senators called on President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday and expressed concern over the law and order situation in Balochistan.

According to sources, Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee and Edward Kaufman of the Foreign Relations Committee stressed the need for complete peace in Balochistan and asked the government to settle all outstanding issues with the Baloch people.

The US believes that peace in Balochistan is imperative to winning the ‘war on terror’ because security agencies will not be able to concentrate on other fronts if they remain engaged in the province.
www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/us-senators-raise-balochistan-issue-299

By Talat Masood
The writer is a retired lieutenant-general of Pakistan
When the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) coalition government assumed power in 2008, it provided President Zardari with an excellent opportunity to focus on Balochistan. Initially, he did raise hopes when, as head of PPP and being of Baloch descent, he made a public apology for all the wrong doings of the past against the Baloch people. This was followed by further conciliatory gestures by both the president and prime minister which resulted in the release of political detainees and a relatively relaxed political environment. Sadly, the momentum was lost and the province is once again adrift with insurgency taking a turn for the worse, as was evident on the third death anniversary of Nawab Akbar Bugti when the province came to a grinding halt.

Prior to the assassination of Akbar Bugti, the insurgency was primarily centered on Dera Bugti, but after his death it has spread beyond the tribal belt into settled areas of Makran, Sarawan and Jhalawan divisions. In fact, there is an on-going operation in Makran division. Target killings are on the rise and Shias and Punjabis are the main victims. In addition, gas pipelines and high-voltage transmission grids are being blown up, and the armed forces are being targeted. All three militant nationalist movements — the Balochistan Liberation Army, Baloch Republican Army and the Baloch Front are now engaged in low-level insurgency operations and are closely cooperating with one another in attacking military installations and civilian targets.

The Baloch nationalist leaders believe that the present civilian government, even if it wants to pursue a policy of reconciliation, will not succeed as the real policy is still being determined by the military intelligence as was the case during General Musharraf’s period. The Baloch leadership believes that the establishment is not prepared to shed control over their rich resources and there is lack of confidence between the state institutions and the province’s political elite.

Regrettably, the Baloch leadership also does not have much to offer. Tribal chiefs have been mistreating their own people and failing miserably while in office. They are rightly accused of deliberately mismanaging provincial resources and development funds. In fact, they have deliberately kept the people backward by not promoting education, failing to build hospitals and creating physical infrastructure. On the other hand, Balochi nationalists and tribal chiefs claim that the federal government has deprived them of their normal democratic rights and has taken control of their natural resources, thus throttling the Balochs economically and politically.

Extensive involvement of the military and age-old tribal customs has prevented normal political evolution in the province. Practically all Baloch nationalist parties that have a large following and include the Jamhoori Watan Party, Balochistan National party, National party and the Haq Tawar Party boycotted the last national and provincial elections. The current provincial assembly draws its strength more from the establishment than from the people. With politics and governance of the province being managed from outside, the representative character of the provincial government is indeed questionable.

General Musharraf erred by ordering a military operation against Akbar Bugti. The latter was perhaps among the few tribal leaders who had earlier been a part of government and was still prepared to engage with the establishment provided he was dealt with honourably. Instead, Musharraf adopted the fatal military option. The younger generation of tribal leadership has, since then, become more alienated and radicalised. General Musharraf, on the basis of his development projects, wrongly assessed that a majority of the Balochs are supportive of the government and tribal chiefs had limited following.

Tribal leaders claim that false cases are registered against them to keep them out of politics and force them to leave the country. Geography, poor communication links, the absence of political and economic development, antiquated social structures and lack of say in the management of natural resources are mainly responsible for the current state of Balochi frustration.

The main demands of the rebel groups are that security forces should be withdrawn. Political workers and insurgents under detention should be released and the government should make a public apology for its wrong doings. Their main demand however focuses on control of resources and a high level of provincial autonomy bordering on independence. The demand for provincial autonomy in accordance with the 1973 Constitution is perfectly valid and the federal government should grant it, but going beyond that is unacceptable. However, more crucial in the context of Balochistan are social reforms and unless these are undertaken, any sustainable development will not be feasible in a centuries-old tribal structure. The only way to bring the region in the mainstream is to allow genuine politics to take root. But for both political evolution and economic development, the government has to provide security which, so far, has been unsatisfactory.

The government accuses the Balochistan Liberation Army and other nationalist parties of having links with India, Afghanistan and other foreign agencies. The involvement of India was even brought to the attention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by our prime minister at Sharm-el- Shiekh and will remain a serious subject in future exchanges.

China, Iran and United States too have a deep interest in the province.

The establishment of the Gwadar deep-sea port, confirmed deposits of precious metals in the province and shared borders with Afghanistan and Iran has given Balochistan a unique strategic position. Gwadar has the potential of being a highly profitable communication link between China and the Persian Gulf, and between Central Asia and Pakistan. The US has a huge interest in the province to protect itself in Afghanistan, and considers it important in the context of its potential rivalry with China and poor relations with Iran. The power play of global and regional actors in an insurgency-ridden Balochistan is a serious challenge for Pakistan. Islamabad should realise that the peace security and stability of the province are closely interlinked with the integrity and future well being of Pakistan. And Balochi nationalism has to be assimilated and harmonised with the overall national interest, and not allowed to remain hostile to it. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=195789

INACTION continues to define the government’s conduct in regard to the many issues confronting Balochistan. It is becoming clear to an increasing number of Baloch people that while the state wants their resources, it has little empathy for them.

A year after President Pervez Musharraf — he can be blamed for many of our miseries today — stepped down, little has changed in the equation dogging Balochistan-centre relations. So far the elected government has only paid lip service to solving the restive province’s problems. The apology President Zardari offered to the people of Balochistan at the inception of the PPP-led government more than a year ago has not been followed up with any action to redress Baloch grievances.

Ms Asma Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, seems to be among the few spokespersons for the Baloch. She says the army is still very much in charge of that province; the political governments — at Islamabad and Quetta — have no say in managing Balochistan.

An unspecified but large number of Baloch nationalist leaders and political workers have gone missing even after the inception of the democratic government following the 2008 election. ‘Missing’ of course is a polite euphemism for abduction by security forces and intelligence sleuths.

Those who have been spared are either in hiding or lying low for fear of incarceration. The rest are raising a rebellion from abroad; those here are threatened with arrest unless they watch what they say. Why this humiliation of the Baloch in their own homeland?

Has democracy really returned to Balochistan? The elected provincial government keeps mum over these staggering issues or simply looks the other way. In Islamabad, the finger is being pointed at Indian interference in the province. The prime minister raised the issue with his Indian counterpart at a recent meeting in Egypt; the president says threats to Pakistan’s security are internal and not from India. Could someone please step forward and clear the haze?

The HRCP accuses the centre of giving Balochistan a raw deal right from the beginning. The province gets its gas royalties at a rate far below that paid to Sindh and Punjab for the same commodity. This financial year, as previously also, the Balochistan budget continues to be one of deficit, necessitating that Quetta beg Islamabad for financial assistance just to meet its running expenses; the 2009-10 budget has no funds earmarked for development because there is none to be undertaken under the dire straits.

Juxtapose this with the recently unveiled grand plan of building an entire new city in Thatta district, which President Zardari says will be Sindh’s second largest. It is on such lucrative mega-projects that have immense potential for doling out building contracts and blessing the minders and handlers with huge kickbacks in the process that our energies are focused.

If Gwadar and New Murree were the previous regime’s pet projects, Zulfikarabad now suddenly seems to have become this presidency’s priority. Gwadar never took off, and for obvious reasons. New Murree was scrapped altogether — as it should have been.

There is nothing wrong with building new cities; but first we must be able to run and manage the ones we have with some efficiency and public accountability. The new democratic order suddenly seems to be mandated to scrap everything that harks back to the Musharraf era. That is why local governments too will now have to be disbanded, which was perhaps the only saving grace of Musharraf’s — albeit faulty — process of transition to democracy. It allowed some empowering of the people’s representatives at the grassroots level.

Funds allocated and given to districts, town administrations and union councils did reach down to the more earthly and accessible beings from the high and mighty of the land, who are in the habit of blowing them on showcase projects or worse still, on serving multi-course gourmet meals at government houses when not globetrotting. With local governments about to be disbanded and no clear plan in sight to revamp the system, it is the economically depressed districts and even entire provinces, which will suffer most.

In Balochistan public disempowerment at the local level will further fuel the sense of alienation among the people. An average Baloch anywhere in Balochistan has perhaps never set foot in Quetta; he can be content by getting his two square meals in his small hamlet, a roof over his head and just the very basic amenities like water, sanitation and perhaps some schooling for children. Electricity for many in the hinterland is an additional blessing.

Now with the decision to scrap the local government system the little power the grassroots Baloch have had over their own finances will be concentrated in Quetta, without it trickling down to the far-off union councils.

Yet more hurting is the free run of the countryside allowed to the military and paramilitary forces in Balochistan over the preceding decade. The policy has bred much resentment amongst the average Baloch, and is part of the reason why the sardars known for their brutal customs and practices which target their own people are now emerging as people’s leaders — more so than those sent to elected legislatures only last year.

The army is not known to have solved any of Pakistan’s problems — at wartime or in peace — when left to its own devices. Its interference in public affairs has compounded our challenges and distorted the normal course of events. Its commercial interests pursued at the expense of the people are well documented. Ms Jahangir is right in asserting that Balochistan cannot be left to military decision-making mechanisms. The situation calls for political engagement among all concerned. This can only be possible if the government shows the will to act first by calling to account the gross human rights violations in the province, and thus removing the stigma of being disloyal to the state from the names of Baloch nationalists. It remains to be seen if the government is up to the task. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/why-bleed-balochistan-489