India’s interference in Balochistan

News & Views


Mohammad Jamil


Balochistan is mineral-rich and strategically-located province, but it needs peace for creating climate conducive to investment and development, which would help improve the living conditions of the people of Balochistan. At the present, militants are actively involved in worsening the security situation in Balochistan, and insurgency has hampered growth and development of the province. There are targeted killings of people from other provinces especially Punjabi teachers and settlers. According to credible reports, telephonic conversation of some elements including Brahamdagh Bugti group, who are maintaining private jails and torture camps for their defectees and rivals. It is obvious from half a dozen calls intercepted by intelligence agencies that they are also involved in abduction, kidnapping of local civilians for ransom and also security personnel for acceptance of their illegitimate demands including release of their ‘comrade in arms’. According to a news report carried by national English daily a few weeks ago, more than 100 Pakistani Baloch dissidents were sent to India by the Indian consulate located in Kandahar (Afghanistan) for six-month training.

Before 2008 elections, caretaker Information Minister Nisar Memon had said: “India is interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs through information centers it has set up in Afghanistan, and promoting terrorism in Balochistan”. At least two chief ministers of Balochistan - one former and the present one - also blamed India for giving funds and arms to insurgents to roil peace in the province. For some time, there have been voices expressing concerns that incredibly sinister is being played out around Pakistan’s borders to exploit the present turmoil in the tribal region and in Balochistan. In 2008, former chief of army staff Mirza Aslam Beg in his article captioned ‘Pakistanis foiled one conspiracy; it is time to check another one’ wrote: “The Americans have established a huge intelligence network in Afghanistan to target Pakistan and a few other countries in the region. The intelligence setup was created in October 2001, at Jabl-us-Seraj, north of Kabul manned and operated by American CIA, Indian RAW, Israeli Mossad, British MI-6 and BND (German intelligence) to provide intelligence to the occupation forces”. There were credible reports that area-specific outposts had been established to cover Pakistan, China, Iran and Central Asian states, and Afghan government had granted these outposts’ network as status of diplomatic consulates.

For quite some time, Balochistan is in the throes of ethnic, sectarian and tribal schisms. Apart from targeted killings of Punjabi settlers in Balochistan, ethnic and Shia-Sunni fracas has shaken the erstwhile ethnic and sectarian harmony, as criminal gangs are stoking ethnic and sectarian divisions. Pashtun political parties have opposed the target killings in Quetta and demanded of the Baloch nationalists to openly condemn these killings and disassociate themselves with the elements responsible for such heinous crimes otherwise they would demand that Pushtun areas be amalgamated with Pakhtunkhwa. In fact, rivaling international eyes, including world powers and regional countries are eyeing Balochistan avariciously to push it into their own orbits of influence and domination. According to political and defence analysts, the US, Russia, India and even Iran are either directly or indirectly widening the ethnic and sectarian schisms in Balochistan and FATA. Iran has a large Baloch population on its side of border with Pakistan and the Indian desire of weakening Pakistan by creating independent Balochistan will cost heavily to Iran also because greater Balochistan plan includes Sistan province of Iran.

If Baloch sardars had cooperated with the government in establishing educational institutions in 1970s during Bhutto era, the new generation would have today assumed important positions today. It is true that Balochistan was neglected during British Raj and no serious effort was made for five decades to bring Balochistan at par with other provinces. But previous provincial governments including sardars were responsible in equal measure for the present dismal situation in Balochistan, as they always opted for the confrontation. Sardar Ataullah Mengal rarely appeared in television interviews, and the nation witnessed that in his reply to a question he had said that “America does not pay any attention adding that he would welcome if any country would help us to get freedom”. Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Zain Bugti and Marri sardars also openly talk about disintegration of Pakistan, taking the position that Balochistan was never a willing federating unit, which is travesty of the truth.

After 9/11, despite Pakistan’s joining the war on terror, international media controlled by Jews continued its propaganda blitz not only to create doubts about its intentions regarding war on terror but also to raise concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear programme and its assets, which they feared could land into the hands of terrorists. Rejecting speculations about the safety of its strategic nuclear assets, Pakistan has many a time categorically stated these assets are in safe hands and under strong multi-layered, institutionalized decision-making mechanism. And this fact has been acknowledged by the US and the West earlier. Previously, members of Bush administration, Senators and US Army generals in their statements had been hinting military action against alleged Al Qaeda camps inside Pakistan if they learned that attacks inside Afghanistan were planned at those sites. Pakistan always rejected such conjectures and had been categorically stating that it would not allow any foreign forces to conduct operation in Pakistan, as Pakistan has the power and the capacity to deal with the militants. Pakistan’s success in military operation in Swat, Malakand, Bajaur and South Waziristan is conclusive evidence of Pakistan’s capabilities.

The problem is that the US and the West expect from Pakistan to wage a war against its own people in tribal areas, which could prove self-destructive. The double standards or malicious intent is obvious from the fact that they give a nod and blessings to negotiate with the Haqqani group whereas they push Pakistan to launch military operation against, what they say Haqqani network in North Waziristan. There is a perception that they have plans for post-withdrawal, and they wish to create bad blood between the Taliban and Pakistan. Some skeptics say that they wish to see things spinning out of control so that they could go to the United Nations Security Council and seek a vote to move in Pakistan’s tribal belt, with the ultimate objective of taking control of Pakistani nukes. Anyhow, the ineffectiveness of the US forces, ISAF forces and Afghan forces raised by them is evident from the fact that during the last eight years they have neither been able to rein in Taliban nor establish the writ of the state throughout Afghanistan. It is true that former president Pervez Musharraf had made a commitment to cooperate in the war on terror, but Pakistan was certainly not obliged to be a part of the US adventurism in Iran or for that matter China or elsewhere in future. Our priorities must be based on our national interests and to achieve our broader objectives.

—The writer is Lahore-based senior journalist.

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=56169