The Baloch movement is the only example of insurgency in Pakistan. It is quite amazing that while Islamabad has shown great resistance to the Baloch insurgency, there is division in its ranks on how best to deal with the others operating in the rest of the country. The inability to bring development to a disgruntled people in time has encouraged the separatist movement, which, if it succeeds, will only affect one part of the country i.e. Balochistan.

As alluded to in the above quote, there have been claims by some Western journalists (based largely on the aforementioned obsolete polling and a poor understanding of Iranian demographics) that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have actually won the election.

What I have seen no one discuss is the potential for separatist groups, particularly Kurdish and Baluchi groups, seizing the opportunity of a distracted or tottering regime to try to hive off autonomous or independent enclaves, potentially encouraging separatists in neighboring states to intervene more directly on their behalf or copy them inside the states where they reside

Reporters were also restricted during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the installation of the Islamic regime in power today

Balochistan, where the pipeline is supposed to run, is one of Pakistan’s poorest and most restive provinces. In recent years, it has been a battleground of militias belonging to Baloch tribes who hate the government of Tehran as much as they hate the one in Islamabad

Shahryar Hosseinbor, Ahmad Rigi and Saeed Arbabzahi were arrested for protesting against the June 12 Iranian elections. They now face torture and the possibility of execution. They were part of a group that organised and supervised the election process. The arrested students witnessed the counting of the votes but Ahmadinejad who has won the least votes in Baluchistan was declared the winner of the elections