Balochistan's Unfinished Story

As the United States plays a lethal game of drone chess in the skies above Pakistan's semi-lawless northwestern tribal areas, and the government of the country attempts to plot out an end game where it retains influence in Afghanistan, a restive, decades-old independence movement is growing bolder and angrier in Pakistan's large, energy-rich Balochistan province, Madiha Tahir reports in the National's Review.

Amid the ongoing fight being waged against the Taliban and foreign Islamist extremists encamped in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the seething nationalist resentment many Balochis harbor toward their central government has gone largely uncovered in the Western media.

As recently as January, the Pakistani army's Frontier Corps -- the same troops the U.S. has relied upon to battle the Taliban in the northwest -- opened fire on a student protest in Balochistan, killing two students and wounding four. Cries of "Pakistan murdabad!", or "Die Pakistan!" echoed through the marches Tahir witnessed during her visit to the province.

The Balochis were semi-independent as recently as the mid-20th Century, when parts of the province were ruled by the British. Though Pakistan was ostensibly established at the time as a Muslim homeland, separate from India, Balochis have viewed their coreligionist countrymen with suspicion and in ethnic terms, differentiating themselves from their Punjabi and Pashtun neighbors.

Balochistan possesses some of the largest gas reserves in Asia and produces half of the country's gas at a annual profit to the central government of around $1 billion, according to Tahir. Meanwhile, army forces have targeted Balochi independence leaders for assassination and have established military bases in the province, further radicalizing the nationalists, the younger of whom increasingly seem to believe that the rejection of conciliatory politics and the embracing of violence are the only means to further their cause.

Tahir's article was a much-needed dose of on-the-ground reporting from an uncovered and important region, and though she attempted to quickly summarize the history of Balochi separatism, I still found myself, as a neophyte on the subject, confused by the differing political movements. I'm still not quite sure who the radicals and moderates are, and it seems that Tahir was unable to reach the younger, more violence-inclined generation who have, in the words of the scion of one slain independence leader, left to hide "in the mountains."

Still, Tahir's article is one of the best kind in journalism: A story the Pakistani government probably doesn't want you to read. The United States relies heavily on the Pakistani army and intelligence services to fight its covert war against the Taliban; that involves billions of dollars in military aid that directly or indirectly supports efforts to keep Balochistan under control. It's important that we not ignore the repercussions of such tradeoffs.


http://www.themajlis.org/2010/03/25/balochistans-unfinished-story