Military peppers Balochistan with new projects

Army hopes to quell 60-year-old nationalist insurgency in southwest province by addressing local grievances

AP
Published: 00:00 July 11, 2010


Chamalang: With every bag of coal Madad Khan dumps into trucks at this mine reopened with the army's help, Pakistan hopes it is moving closer to quelling a 60-year-old nationalist insurgency in this restive southwest province where Afghan Taliban leaders are rumoured to hide.


Echoing US counter-insurgency strategy in neighbouring Afghanistan, the army has peppered Balochistan with dozens of development projects to win hearts and minds, an effort officials say has accelerated in recent months alongside a push by the federal government to address local grievances.


Pakistan hopes to replicate this counterinsurgency strategy in other areas along the Afghan border where the army is battling a separate rebellion led by the Pakistani Taliban.


But like the US effort in Afghanistan, many observers are skeptical Pakistan's recent push in Balochistan will succeed given the deep distrust of the state and security forces.


"They are unable to pacify the people because the political and economic alienation of the local population is huge," said Riffat Hussain, professor of defence studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.


Balochistan remains Pakistan's poorest province despite the presence of vast natural resources that residents complain are mainly exploited to fill the central government's coffers.


They also chafe under what they view in effect as military rule.


"The government has moved in the right direction, but the province is still virtually under the control of the paramilitary forces and particularly the army," said Hussain.


Strategic importance


Balochistan's geopolitical importance has grown in recent years with China's construction of a huge port on the coast connecting Asia and the Middle East and a planned gas pipeline linking Pakistan and Iran. Many also believe Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar is hiding in Balochistan, benefiting from instability in the province, which borders southern Afghanistan.

Pakistan has launched at least five separate military operations in Balochistan, the most recent under former President Pervez Musharraf that killed one of the province's top tribal leaders.

The army pulled back to its barracks at the beginning of 2008, but federal paramilitary forces are still deployed throughout the province.

The provincial government has accused those forces and federal intelligence agencies of secretly snatching nearly a thousand people off the street and holding them for years without admitting it, a problem that residents and human rights groups say continues to occur.