Balochistan has been in a state of mass-murder by terrorist bombing, ambushes and army counter-ambushes for the last five months. Since the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) decided to celebrate Nawab Akbar Bugti's killing on 26 August with a spate of terrorist attacks across Balochistan there have been attacks every couple of weeks since then. November saw over 200 people killed in the last month across the province.
This blood soaked November in Balochistan lead to the total number of people killed by violence since August to over 500. More than half a thousand being killed in a province by terrorism is a lot of people, and the geographic variance of the attacks obviously shows the spread of terrorist cells far and wide across its territory.
The problem however goes above and beyond the terrorists and extends into politics - the cruelty, political and material theft of the political rights of the Baloch people and their province are what is clearly feeding the violence, and frankly preventing an off-ramp from the mayhem and murder. If I went through every terrorist attack since August over here, the uptick in deaths and murders would be repulsive. What also would be repulsive would be the response, or non-response, of the Quetta provincial government that has/was put into power by the Army through the rigging of the Balochistan elections (along with the federal one) in February 2024.
Alongwith the rise in the TTP's violence in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan is facing a massive security crisis that this hybrid regime (Pakistan's fourth in six years) is frankly, not interested in competently facing. From the Taliban in Afghanistan providing a back-yard for genocidally anti-Shia Sunni terrorists to escape to, to the Baloch insurgency, to the return of the TTP and the general hostility and threat of India, especially under Modi, Pakistan has a really spiky security situation on its border and inside its home. This security crisis pre-dates Pakistan and its Army inflicting a massive political crisis on itself by rigging the February election this year that would have seen Imran Khan return to power in stunning numbers. The result shocked too many people inside Pakistan close to the beginning of 2024 and should be seen as one of the first few elections of this year's historic anti-incumbency wave.
The insurgency in Balochistan has now been a 24 year long wound that Pakistan has inflicted on itself and frankly, the election this year could have been an off-ramp from the violence, but the Pakistan Army, with the connivance of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) decided to keep rigging the votes in Balochistan so that the Pakistan Army's disastrous, frankly, rule there could continue. What is the Pakistan Army's rule in Balochistan? Illegal mining and siphoning money off it or Pakistan Army officers owning those mines or fuel (gas or oil) wells or part of them out right. Alongside stealing Balochistan's mineral wealth, to which the Baloch and their provincial government have first rights, there are kickbacks from the provincial budget to select officers. And finally, there is the smuggling. So much money from taking kickbacks from smuggling across the frontiers of Balochistan are going into Pakistan Army officers pockets. If there was a half-way functional government from Quetta like there is in Sindh or Punjab, so much of this would, just from a jurisdictional perspective, have to be cut down to size.
 |
| The moment of the suicide bombing in Quetta, captured on surveillance video |
However, the Pakistan Army's neo-colonial rule of Balochistan continues, the world has easily ignored it because of the keeping out of foreign reporters and the successful intimidation of Pakistani reporters not to cover the flood of disastrous information coming out of the province. I feel incredibly lonely being one of the few people who has, can and still write about the Balochistan conflict, but the lack of other people writing on this topic because of the Pakistan Army's successful blackout by threatening newspapers, television channels, journalists and the disappearing of journalists or their killing by them or the BLA has kept the story out of the world's eye, a tragedy for the people of Balochistan. Frankly, the only way to cover Balochistan is for foreign channels to hire a Pakistani local, have them cover the province once and just leave the country - an expensive proposition.
All that leaves us with our the extremely bloody terrorist attacks. Just to talk about what happened last month and in this one the biggest terrorist attack was the bombing of Quetta's railway station. A Baloch separatist/nationalist suicide bomber set himself off killing 32 people and injuring over 60. The crowd for the morning train out of the city to Rawalpindi were targeted, specifically a lot of soldiers from a local unit who were scheduled to leave. This indicates the terrorists have their sights set on hitting the security forces (and still have) a good understanding and local surveillance on the Pakistani military. The terrorists obviously targeted the crowd because it was the one for the train heading to Pakistan's "garrison" city; Rawalpindi.
Before the Quetta railway bombing, 9 people were killed and 29 injured in Mastung district by a bomb blast near its Civil Hospital. This vile attack happened at the beginning of November, literally 1 November 2024. Children were killed and this was absolutely heinous. If anyone wants to know why I can never give the BLA any sympathy, here you have it.
Then after the Quetta bombing, in Kalat on 17 November, a check post of the Frontier Corps was attacked by the BLA and 7 of the men were killed with 18 injured in a three hour gun battle. These were just the major attacks last month, but they indicate the pattern of the attacks. I am leaving a lot of violent incidents or attacks that failed or had smaller casualties for the sake of being concise. December in Balochistan has basically been a constant hum of disappearances, raids, scouring operations by the Pakistan Army/Frontier Corps in some areas and the loss of soldiers or paramilitaries of the Frontier Corps in ones or twos every week in encounters with militants. The province is very much insurgency struck and at the end of the day, this will require a political solution.
 |
| Frontier Corps paramilitaries controlling traffic near the checkpoint attacked in Kalat |
Does Balochistan need new elections?
As for Balochistan, the place frankly needs a new election to a provincial government that is actually freely elected, the stopping of federal officers from looting the minerals of that place and a cessation of violence. The elections should be fair and without interference by the
Pakistan Army or Frontier Corps because we saw in February how the public and
political parties in the province easily recognise a fixed election. After the votes
were rigged earlier this year protests and multiple riots broke out across
Balochistan with the traditional political parties there up in arms and leading
the protests. The current Chief Minister of Balochistan Sarfaraz Bugti Is a product
of that rigged election and is running the province after defecting to the PPP,
who are nominally supposed to be running the province, but are really just
providing cover to this puppet of the Pakistan Army to be a figurehead for
military control of Balochistan. Frankly, I think Sarfaraz Bugti is in over his
head and too incompetent to run a war-ridden province.
 |
A map of all the places that where a terrorist attack
happened on 26 August 2024. Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1854838 |
In August over 12 cities were attacked by the Baloch separatists across the province. I wondered then if Pakistan was going to take Baloch grievances seriously now or was it going to wait until 20 cities went up in flames. Let me also say, there is pretty much a continuum from the elections being stolen in February, to terrorist groups having enough sympathy and room to maneuvre for a dozen cities to see terrorists attacks in August. This is why I think an election for a new provincial assembly and chief minister should be called in Balochistan.
I know a free and open election, where the Baloch and everyone who lives there elects who they want, will not immediately end the violence or make the militant groups go away. But the people will at least have their representatives in power, they can decide their priorities, an elected provincial government will have responsibility for its own internal security. A new provincial election for the province, without military interference is a hard ask, but it is a necessity for an off-ramp from this thrum of violence. To get to some peace, an actual freely elected representation for Balochistan would be a start.
____________________________________________________________________________________
If you like my work, please support it at https://www.patreon.com/TheseLongWars
No comments:
Post a Comment