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Balochistan heads for human rights crisis
It seems another bloody year replete with violence awaits the region itching to break free from Islamabad's control.
A major human rights crisis is brewing in Balochistan, a resource-rich province in southwest Pakistan now in the grip of an ethnic insurgency, as the military continues its repression amid fresh bloodletting.
As a toy bomb exploded in a town near the Baloch capital Quetta killing several women and children on Sunday, it was clear that another bloody year replete with violence and military crackdown awaits various tribes of the region itching to break free from Islamabad's control.
Freedom has become the war cry for local tribals who have lived for years under a loose system of autonomy that goes back to the British rule.
"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death," says www. balochvoice.com, a mouthpiece for the increasingly vocal and desperate Baloch nationalists.
The appeal of separatism has festered for long in Balochistan, where people still nurse memories of the suppression unleashed by then Pakistan prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1970s.
The Baloch resistance movement, as it is called, has focused on the exploitation of the region's natural resources like copper and gas by the Punjabi-dominated dispensation in Islamabad without adequately involving the locals.
The Baloch Ittehad (Baloch Unity) movement aims to bring an end to this and to secure fair royalties for Baloch gas. Baloch nationalists have been demanding secure employment for locals in projects being executed in Baloch areas and to reinvest revenues from these projects in the province.
In response to the violence, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has promised multi-billion dollar developmental projects on the one hand and to enhance federal policing and set up a complex project of social re-engineering on the other.
He has also been trying to divide tribes by sowing differences amongst them, between the Baloch Sunnis, who are in a majority, and the Shias.
But these tactics have not succeeded, with leading Baloch leaders like Akbar Bugti hardening their stand.
The result is a continuing standoff, with armed clashes between the paramilitary Frontier Corps troops and the locals. Last year, more than 100 people were killed and over 400 injured in these clashes.
The continuing violence has also led to Hindus and Sikhs living in Gwadar and on the Mekran coast moving to the adjacent Sindh province. Balochistan, a province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, constitutes 43 per cent of Pakistan, although its people account for only eight per cent of the 162 million population.
The widespread rights abuses have led India to finally breaking its silence. Last week, India warned Pakistan to "exercise restraint and take recourse to peaceful discussions to address the grievances of the people of Balochistan".
India is also keeping a close watch on increasing Chinese involvement in the province where Beijing has helped in building the Gwadar port, projected as a major economic hub in the region.
Although Pakistan has denied any military operation in the region, Balochi leaders have condemned a recent blockade that led to the killing of civilians and making life difficult for locals.
Leading Baloch nationalist Senator Sanaullah Baloch told a leading Pakistani daily: "What is going on in Balochistan is not an operation or a crackdown, it's a war against the Baloch who only want their genuine rights."
Western diplomats said the Pakistani military forces were believed to be using some of the equipment given by the US for use against remnants of the Taliban as well as the Al-Qaeda, such as helicopter gunship and communication equipment, to crush the Baloch insurgency.
Some Pakistani officials are already saying that Osama bin Laden may be in Balochistan and that some Al-Qaeda leaders, discovered in Iran, had slipped into their country through Balochistan.
