The aspirations of the province have been ignored by the State for too long. Insurrection appears to be the only way out for the region’s nomadic tribes

By Syed Shoaib Hasan
Karachi

Backs To The Wall: Armed Baluch tribesmen AP Photo

In recent times, the Army has begun combined airborne and ground assaults with great success

Baluchistan has always been a picture of contrasts — the largest province in area and the smallest according to population. Harbouring untold amounts of mineral wealth beneath its arid terrain, including some of the world’s largest gas reserves, its population has remained impoverished. In recent years it has also served as the test site for Pakistan nuclear weapons in district Chagai, while having little in terms of modern infrastructure for the locals. All these factors have fuelled the sense of deprivation, with the locals viewing the federal authorities as overbearing and discriminatory. This has resulted in a number of uprisings since Partition. In the last two decades, the situation was contained by leaving local affairs to the powerful sardars or tribal leaders. This policy suited both the federal government and its client feudals.

 

Now, after 20 years of lying low, the Baluchs have again gone back to the hills to ‘fight for their rights’. “We have nothing to talk with the government,” says Mir Balaaj Marri, member of the Baluchistan Provincial Assembly and son of Sardar Khair Bux Marri, leader of the Marris, one of the province’s premier tribes. His chief claim to fame is that he has emerged as the leader of the local resistance. The Baluchs demand greater provincial autonomy, more investment on development from the returns on the massive mines, and a preferential treatment for local workers in the Gwadar port project. The government has responded by launching a full-scale military operation, and thus Baluchistan is once more in the throes of an insurgency.

The official version portrays the current military action as a result of two ‘terrorist’ strikes in December 2005. One is the rocket attack during President Musharraf’s address in district Kohlu. The second is the firing on the helicopter of the director-general of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC). The Baluch have a different view. “Military action has been continuing since 2000 and this is just an escalation,” says Mir Balaaj. That is the year the Marris returned after a 20-year enforced migration to Afghanistan. This was due to their active role in the last insurgency in the 70s in which thousands were killed. Mir Balaaj is quick to point out that the groundwork for present military action was prepared in advance, as troops were deployed with a plan to first isolate Kohlu and the Marris, and then move against the Bugti tribe in the adjoining Dera Bugti district.

The Bugti tribe led by former provincial governor Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti has been the target of government wrath since 2005. The trouble started with the rape of a woman doctor in Sui town, site of the country’s largest gas reserves, allegedly by Army personnel. It culminated on March 17, 2005 when Bugti tribesmen and FC personnel clashed outside Dera Bugti town; 70 were killed and 300 injured. Later they agreed to a ceasefire. However, weeks before another operation on December 17, 2005, the FC reoccupied positions on the Sangsila range surrounding Dera Bugti.

The government’s inability to handle the claims of two tribes has now escalated into a full-fledged war

The operation was launched with the aerial bombing of Kahan and adjoining areas. The government claims they are sites of the Farari or rebel camps. It goes on to say many such camps exist in Kahan, and that this is what they have been targeting. Locals have a different tale. According to them at least 100 people were killed and over 300 injured in the first attacks, most of them women and children. Mir Balaaj confirms this but points out that in a tribal society everybody carries arms, every settlement is likely to look like a Farari camp from the air.

In Dera Bugti, unlike Kohlu where operations have been conducted exclusively from the air, the action was initially conducted only on ground. In sporadic clashes that followed the strikes in Kahan, Bugti tribesmen and the FC fought several pitched battles. So far there have been dozens of casualties on both sides, although government forces claim to have an upper hand. The fighting has subsequently escalated, with the security forces raiding and taking control of Nawab Bugti’s residences in Dera Bugti and Sui. The eighty-year-old Nawab himself has taken to the hills before the warrants for his arrest were issued sometime later, and has since then been involved in the resistance.

He says, “The government had the choice to give us more autonomy but that was rejected out of hand.” The government says that the sardars are only looking for benefits for themselves and do not care about the Baluch people. Mir Balaaj says that this is just an oft-used government line. He explains, “Sardars are not limited to the Bugtis and Marris and Mengals. What about Jam Yousuf (chief minister of Baluchistan)? His area is just as underdeveloped as Kohlu and Dera Bugti, but there is no mention of him or any of the other sardars in the government fold.” He goes on to say that the only reason the sardars have been targeted is because they speak of the Baluch cause and have taken “an anti-establishment stance”. As far as the Faraaris are concerned, he says “I do not deny that there are such camps in Marri territory, and they could be much more than what the government says”.

Initially, though the government claimed otherwise, the military appeared to have been thwarted. In recent times, however, they have switched to combined airborne and ground assaults, and have met with greater success, having dealt Nawab Bugti’s forces a number of critical blows. But landmines set up by tribesmen have frustrated ground assaults. The mines have also accounted for civilian lives. The armed activity has also forced most inhabitants of these areas to move to safer climes. According to local journalists; this could be as much as a 100,000 people. Mir Balaaj and Nawab Bugti, however, speak of greater migrations. In a new and rather disturbing development, the government has brought back the Bandulani clan of the sub-tribe of Kalpar Bugtis that was chased out of the area by Nawab Bugti due to their involvement in the killing of his sons. Nawab Bugti says that government has also armed them and prepared them for its tried and tested policy of divide and rule. He adds that he is ready for all eventualities.

In the meantime, the government has also launched a media blitz on the situation. In several well-publicised press conferences, the authorities have shown groups of rebels allegedly belonging to Nawab Bugti’s forces surrendering. This has been touted as the turning point, with some officials going so far as to claim that the resistance is over. Insiders scoff at these claims and point out that most of the ‘rebels’ shown on TV had stood aside when the first salvo was fired in March 2005. The case of the people detained by the State, more than anything else, has united the various political dispensations and for the first time brought the leftists and the sardars together. The federal authorities, however, seemed to have missed the bus on this issue which has reinforced the feeling that the military action is not against the sardars but the entire Baluch people.

The government has shown its unwillingness to initiate any dialogue to resolve the crisis, saying it will not deal with ‘foreign-funded terrorists’. An allusion to the belief that India, along with some ‘Gulf states’, is fuelling the uprising as a retribution for Pakistani policies vis-à-vis Kashmir. It has led to a hardening of the government stance and an increase in the strength of the military operation. “Baluchistan’s problem is limited to three sardars and will be resolved soon,” claimed the President in his recent speech. Analysts, however, have expressed their doubts over the quick resolution to the uprising.

In the meantime, the rebels have been biding their time. Reports from Kahan confirm that Brohi tribesmen and Seraiki separatists have arrived to supplement the Marris. Currently, the Marri and Bugti combined strength is at around 25,000 with about 5,000 specially trained guerrillas. In addition, there are the growing rumblings in the coastal Makran area. Back in the Dera Bugti and Kahan, the FC is increasingly drawn into a battle of attrition against a ghostly enemy. Up in the mountains of Sangsila, Nawab Bugti claims, “Let them win their battles, the Baluch will win the war.”

Hasan is a Karachi-based journalist

Aug 12 , 2006