Reposted from atimes.com | August, 2011 | Balochistan caught in spiral of violence

By Amir Mir

A recently-released fact-finding report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that "The Pakistani security services are brazenly disappearing, torturing and often killing people because of suspected ties to Baloch nationalist movement".

See: Unrest ripples across the region

ISLAMABAD - The ongoing civil-military strife in trouble-stricken Balochistan, the most resource-rich but neglected and underdeveloped of the four provinces of Pakistan, has escalated to a worrying degree as a sputtering insurgency led by Baloch nationalists is fast turning into an all-out internal war between the Pakistan armed forces and the people of Balochistan.

Balochistan has historically had a tense relationship with the central government, mainly due to the touchy issues of provincial

A recently-released fact-finding report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that "The Pakistani security services are brazenly disappearing, torturing and often killing people because of suspected ties to Baloch nationalist movement". Another fact-finding report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) observed, "In the cases of enforced disappearance of the Baloch men which were brought before the commission, there were credible allegations of the involvement of the state security forces."

Both the HRCP and HRW are well-respected and reliable human-rights organizations and their reports have come as ethnic and sectarian killings in Balochistan are taking place with an alarming regularity, mainly targeting Shi'ites and Punjabis. The latter are allegedly being killed by Baloch insurgents who themselves are being hunted down by the security forces for their so-called "anti-Pakistan activities".

Since June 2011, the bodies of over 170 Baloch men aged between 20 and 40 have been recovered from various areas of Balochistan. They are believed to be victims of the "kill and dump" operations being carried out by the Pakistani security forces, hence prompting the Baloch rebels to target Punjabis and Shi'ites in turn. The killings have helped perpetuate a climate of fear, anger and uncertainty in the provincial capital Quetta, as well as the Baloch-dominated areas of the province.

Both reports highlight the issue of the "disappeared" Baloch people, more commonly known as "missing persons", who are allegedly abducted by security agencies. The two reports highlight various dimensions of the violence that has Balochistan in its grip, including that perpetrated by the state, insurgents and extremist sectarian elements. On the other hand, the Pakistan army has rejected human-rights organizations' fact-finding reports about Balochistan as an attempt to destabilize and malign the Pakistani armed forces.

Released on July 28 in New York, the 132-page HRW report titled, "We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years: Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan", stated: "Several of those who disappeared were among the dozens of people extra-judicially executed in recent months in the resource-rich, violence-wracked province."

The report detailed 45 cases of enforced disappearances, the majority in 2009 and 2010. While hundreds of people have been forcibly vanished in Balochistan since 2005, dozens of new enforced disappearances have occurred since Pakistan returned to civilian rule in 2008 following general elections in February. The HRW report is based on more than 100 interviews with the family members of disappeared Balochis, former detainees, local human-rights activists, lawyers and witnesses to government abductions.

For the past few years, the number of missing persons in Balochistan has increased alarmingly. Tortured and bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch nationalists are often found dumped randomly. The victims are usually shot in the temple once. Known locally as "mutilated bodies", the signs of torture are often hard to determine because many of the bodies have already begun to decompose when discovered.

Please read at atimes.com | August, 2011 | Balochistan caught in spiral of violence

According to HRW's report:

The inability of the Pakistani law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system to tackle the problem of disappearances is exacerbated by the continuing failure of the Pakistani authorities at the national and provincial level to exert political will to address the issue of disappearances in Balochistan. The authorities have failed so far to send a strong message to the security forces and intelligence agencies and to implement a set of concrete measures that would put an end to the practice of enforced disappearances.

This is exactly what the Baloch nationalists have been saying for years. No one is willing to take action against the security forces and the intelligence agencies for the abuses being carried out in the name of "national interest".

In its report titled "Blinkered Slide into Chaos", and released on July 1, the HRCP expressed deep concern over the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, terming it extremely precarious and calling for a political solution to the problem.

According to the report, the majority of missing persons used to eventually return home, but lately only mutilated bodies of victims of enforced disappearance turn up on roadsides and desolate places. The report mentioned 140 such cases from July 2010 to May 2011. A large number of bodies were of university students. The report also provided a detailed account of 143 missing persons in Balochistan.

"The figures are much higher than the reported cases and in many cases; families prefer to stay silent for security reasons. Even the lowest number is large enough to raise alarm bells," said HRCP secretary general I A Rehman, adding that all authority in the provinces seemed vested in security forces, which enjoy complete impunity.

The HRCP report said that the agents of state, as well as Baloch insurgents and extremists operating in the province, shared a common disregard for human rights. "Insurgents have murdered settlers in targeted killings with impunity. A few amongst the Baloch nationalists tacitly condone these killings while others don't condemn them openly," the report said, adding that in a number of districts, large areas had been cleansed of "settler" populations.

According to the HRCP report, the provincial government in Balochistan is perceived to be powerless and irrelevant, whereas the civil administration, which is elected by the people and meant to represent them, has ceded its powers.

"The security forces do not consider themselves answerable or accountable to the government or judiciary, nor feel compelled to cooperate with the civil government," said the report, adding that targeted killings on the basis of ethnicity and belief were rampant and those targeted included professionals such as teachers, doctors and traders.

The report mentioned the complete record of 18 such people who were targeted this year. Regarding lawlessness, the report said that it had proliferated at an alarming rate and brought normal life and economic activity to a halt.

Perhaps the most important part of the report is the HRCP claim that there is evidence about the missing persons with the relatives of missing persons, which implicates the security forces. The HRCP has urged the federal government in Islamabad to provide security to the witnesses of such incidents.

With a credible body like the HRCP claiming evidence of the involvement of security forces in missing persons' cases, the myth is exploded that this is being done by some outside elements. The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Asma Jahangir, has already blasted Pakistani military authorities for claiming that whatever erroneous is going on in Balochistan, is the work of a "foreign hand".

The genesis of the Balochistan problem

Almost prophetically, noted writer and scholar Abul Maali Syed, while writing on evolving scenarios for Pakistan almost 20 years ago, predicted in his book The Twin Era of Pakistan: Democracy and Dictatorship:

Who would have believed that Balochistan, once the least populated and poorest province of unified Pakistan, would become independent and the third richest oil-producing country after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait? ... Development in Balochistan was neglected and whenever a tribal chief spoke about the plight of their people, the Pakistan government shoved the barrel of a gun at him and silenced him. Today, having lost East Pakistan [now Bangladesh], Balochistan, Sindh and part of the Seraiki belt [in Punjab province], Pakistan is still entangled with Pashtun tribes on her northern border and is no more in a strong position to hold onto the Pashtun area much longer.

While this scenario is still far from realization, a cursory glance at the Balochistan of 2011 clearly shows that the situation in this strategically important largest province - by area, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of the country - of Pakistan is following an ominous path, with Baloch nationalist violence escalating into what is becoming a major insurgency.

The law and order situation in Balochistan continues to spin out of the government's control amid an ongoing military crackdown against rebel Baloch nationalists who are seeking greater political autonomy and a larger share of the revenues from the province's huge gas reserves and other natural resources.

At the same time, Balochistan is marked by a high rate of illiteracy, poverty and unemployment. Military operations and discriminatory policies of Islamabad have resulted in extreme underdevelopment. Balochistan is rich in mineral resources and the second major supplier of natural gas in Pakistan. Nevertheless, its share of the national economy has ranged between 3.7% and 4.9%.

The political, economic, social and cultural discrimination that Balochistan's people are facing is nothing new and has been going on since the inception of Pakistan in 1947. This discrimination has taken on even more sinister overtones in recent years, leading to a situation that existed in 1970-1971 that culminated in the dismemberment of East Pakistan, thus giving birth to Bangladesh.

Ever since independence, the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani federation has not been able to work out a comfortable and equitable relationship with its provinces. Whether it is Sindh, Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunistan, local populations continue to be restive about what they see as the domination and control of the overwhelmingly Punjabi-dominated civil-military establishment.

Over the past 64 years, Pakistan, which has mostly been ruled by military dictators since 1947, has not fully grasped the essentials of political management of the federal structure, preferring to deal with local issues by force.

Balochistan is located at the southeastern edge of the Iranian plateau. It strategically bridges the Middle East and Southwest Asia to Central Asia and South Asia, and forms the closest oceanic frontage for the land-locked countries of Central Asia.

The current armed struggle in Balochistan is not a new phenomenon. As a result of the colonial Great Game during the 19th century, the geographical boundaries of what could be loosely termed Balochistan - a region inhabited by tribes that accepted affinity to each other - were divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Even after the creation of Pakistan in August 1947, following the partition of the sub-continent, the present-day Balochistan remained only loosely federated to Pakistan for more than a year. In 1948, however, it was formally annexed - against the will of the people of Balochistan. This discontentment at being forced to join the federation eventually led to three movements of independence.

The first of Balochistan's armed movements was led by Karim Khan during 1948, which began soon after the area's annexation. The second movement, led by Nawab Nowroz Khan, erupted in 1968. Both these movements ended quickly. But following 1971, Baloch tribesmen took a cue from Bangladeshi nationalists, who on the other side of the sub-continent successfully wrested their independence from Pakistan after years of disaffection.

The year 1973 saw the emergence of a major insurgency in Balochistan. Many Baloch tribes, primarily led by Marri and Mengal chiefs, took part in this struggle, which lasted for nearly five years. However, as had been the case with the earlier two, the third armed movement too was ruthlessly crushed by the Pakistan army.

As the relationship between the province and the rest of Pakistan, particularly the capital, has evolved over the past three decades (since the third armed movement was crushed), sentiments that motivated the three insurrections have sharpened further.

Following the step-up in violence in 2005 during the Pervez Musharraf regime, the old agenda of Baloch nationalists - that of "snatching more rights" from the central government in order to exercise greater control over the province's abundant natural resources - received a serious hearing in the rest of Pakistan. This was in the wake of the barbaric killing of the 80-year-old renegade Baloch nationalist leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti. Not only was his killing by the armed forces brutal, the order for his assassination reportedly came from Musharraf, then president as well as the army chief.

Akbar Bugti was not simply the chieftain of a 300,000-strong Bugti tribe of alienated Balochis. He was also a former provincial governor, a former chief minister and the moderate leader of a well-recognized political party - Jamhoori Watan Party. "It is better to die with your spurs on. Instead of a slow death in bed, I would rather prefer death come to me while I am fighting for a purpose," said Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in his May 2006 interview with TIME Magazine, conducted by satellite phone from the mountain refuge that eventually became his grave.

The octogenarian who wanted to fight to the death got his wish three months later when he was killed in a military operation in August 2006, making him the legendary leader of the Baloch freedom struggle.

Musharraf, who had already declared Bugti a terrorist, too had made no bones about fulfilling the desire of the rebel leader. In March 2005, he warned the Baloch rebel: "Don't push us. It is not the 1970s. We will not climb mountains behind you. You will not even know what and from where something has come and hit you."

While responding, Bugti stated in an interview with Monthly NEWSLINE in June 2005: "The general [Musharraf] has promised to hit us in such a way that we will not know what hit us. In one sense, it is quick death that he is promising us. He could do this to me, and to a few other Baloch leaders, but not to the entire Baloch nation."

Bugti was not wrong in saying so. Within hours of his assassination, described by leading international human-right organizations as extra-judicial killing, Balochistan saw a bloody reaction, killing dozens and injuring hundreds.

Akbar Bugti's assassination was the turning point in the latest Baloch insurgency. With his physical elimination, the military leadership may have thought they were ridding themselves of a particularly annoying problem.

However, it transpired that they only made things worse. Even today, many in Balochistan maintain that the reluctance of the Pakistan People's Party government in Islamabad to take up the Bugti murder case by putting on trial the prime accused - Musharraf - could have serious long-term repercussions on Pakistan, especially when a martyr has already been born to inspire rebel Baloch nationalists in their ongoing struggle for greater rights and control over their natural resources.

Independent analysts believe that resolving the Balochistan issue requires more than settling a single issue, such as the exploitation of its natural resources, the setting up of new cantonments, or the continuing hostility surrounding natural gas reserves.

They believe that the use of brute force will only alienate the people further, leaving them with little option but to fight for economic and political justice. In his May 2006 interview with TIME, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti stated a few months before his death: "We, the Baloch people believe that the best way to die is to die fighting. We Baloch are the masters of our own destiny. And if that is taken away from us, then life doesn't really matter."

Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist and the author of several books on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism, the latest being The Bhutto murder trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.

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Please read at atimes.com | August, 2011 | Balochistan caught in spiral of violence