Insurgency in Balochistan: Difference between revisions

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When India (and the newly-created Pakistan) eventually gained independence from the British in August 1947, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan declared Kalat's independence. Baloch chiefs and people sympathised with the idea. In April 1948 the Pakistani army was brought in, and Mir Ahmed Yar Khan signed an accession agreement ending Kalat's de facto independence. His brother, Prince Abdul Karim, decided to carry on the struggle. Basing himself in Afghanistan he conducted a guerrilla war against the Pakistani army. This rebellion was subsequently crushed.

Since Pakistan's independence, tribal lords including Bugti, Murree and Mengal have used tribal chiefs to keep balouchistani people backwards and illiterate by systematically opposing any attempts to establish modern educational institutions in their areas of influence.

For almost 59 years since independence the succesive goverments of Pakistan have given-in to the demands of these feudal tribal lords, and due to the lack of political stability, have avoided confronting them. Instead governments have continued to pay characters like Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti hefty sums of money for gas reserves. Nawab Bugti was an Oxford educated individual and kept tight controls on the money he received.

All this time Balochistani tribal chiefs managed to maintain different militias such as Bugti's private militia in Dera Bugti Rea, Nawab Murree Militia in Kohlu area and Akhtar Mengal's Balochistan Liberation Army which consists of 500 Balochistani tribal people. The Balochistan Liberation Army is claimed to be funded by India and its arms supposedly flow into Balouchistan through the Pakistan-Afghanistan porous border. In the 70's the Balochistan Liberation Army waged war against the State of Pakistan with the aid of a soviet backed Afghan communist government but was soon defeated, its leaders captured or killed.

In 2001 when Musharraf announced large-scale development projects including Gawadar port, military bases and highway projects, the Balochistani tribal chiefs considered it a direct threat to their influence and their tribal way of life and so a rebellion commenced.

Balochistan's population consists of an equal mix between Pashtuns & Balochistanis but Pashtuns enjoy a reasonable representation in the state & military jobs of Pakistan and their more religious leaning makes them mainly more pro-Pakistan, than pro-Baloch independance. It is widely believed that the government of Pakistan needs to bring an end to the tribal system and provide more job opportunities to the common Balochistani. As such, steps are being taken for industrialisation of the province and industrial zones are planned along the new Gawadar-Karachi highway. This development is expected to bring accelerated progress in the near future although uprisings against the decline of the tribal system will probably accompany such a situation.

It is unlikely that the possibility of devolution will be supported diplomatically by the western governments, as such a prospect would mean countries such as America would have to deal separately with Baloch tribal chiefs in their "War on Terror" rather then dealing directly with Pakistan.

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-When India (and the newly-created Pakistan) eventually gained independence from the British in August 1947, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan declared [[Kalat]]'s independence. [[Baloch people|Baloch]] chiefs and people sympathised with the idea. In April 1948 the Pakistani army was brought in, and Mir Ahmed Yar Khan signed an accession agreement ending Kalat's de facto independence. The agreement stipulated that Pakistan will control only three subjects: defense, foreign affairs and communications.  Moreover, the agreement was never ratified by the Kalat House of Lords or the House of Commons, both of which had declared independence.  His brother, Prince Abdul Karim, decided to carry on the struggle.  Basing himself in Afghanistan he conducted a guerrilla war against the Pakistani army.   An offer of a negotiated peace settlement led to a ceasefire.  However, Pakistan arrested and subsequently executed him.
+When India (and the newly-created Pakistan) eventually gained independence from the British in August 1947, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan declared [[Kalat]]'s independence. [[Baloch people|Baloch]] chiefs and people sympathised with the idea. In April 1948 the Pakistani army was brought in, and Mir Ahmed Yar Khan signed an accession agreement ending Kalat's de facto independence. His brother, Prince Abdul Karim, decided to carry on the struggle. Basing himself in Afghanistan he conducted a guerrilla war against the Pakistani army.  This rebellion was subsequently crushed.
+Since Pakistan's independence, [[tribal]] lords including Bugti, Murree and Mengal have used tribal chiefs to keep balouchistani people backwards and illiterate by systematically opposing any attempts to establish modern educational institutions in their areas of influence.
-For almost 59 years since independence, successive governments of Pakistan violated the agreement reached with the Khan.  In 1973, the elected government of Balochistan was dismissed, and the tribal leader  [[Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti]], was appointed governor.  A military campaign was launched against the Baloch tribes and Governor Bugti repeatedly protested the atrocities by the Pakistani military.  The worse of these was the massacre of an estimated 15000 civilians, including women and children in the grazing grounds of the Chamalang Valley.  Finding that he lacked the influence to moderate the behavior of the Pakistani government, Nawab Bugti resigned as governor in 1974.  With the start of the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan called of its military campaign against the Baloch and reached truce with the tribes.
+For almost 59 years since independence the succesive goverments of Pakistan have given-in to the demands of these feudal tribal lords, and due to the lack of political stability, have avoided confronting them. Instead governments have continued to pay characters like [http://www.balochvoice.com/Pictures/Nawab-Bugti-1.gif Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti] hefty sums of money for gas reserves.  Nawab Bugti was an Oxford educated individual and kept tight controls on the money he received.
-The Pakistani government has continued to pay leaders such as Bugti large some funds for leasing their lands but paid miniscule royalties to the government of Balochistan for extracting the natural gas. Since Pakistan's independence, Pakistan has failed to build schools or hospitals in Balochistan, even as it continued to exploit its rich mineral resources.  Natural gas found in Sui, in traditional lands of the Bugtis was piped hundreds of miles away to Karachi and Lahore but never supplied to the local people.
+All this time Balochistani tribal chiefs managed to maintain different militias such as Bugti's private militia in Dera Bugti Rea, Nawab Murree Militia in Kohlu area and Akhtar Mengal's [[Balochistan Liberation Army]] which consists of 500 Balochistani tribal people. The Balochistan Liberation Army is claimed to be funded by [[India]] and its arms supposedly flow into Balouchistan through the Pakistan-Afghanistan porous border.
-In 2001 when [[Pervez Musharraf|Musharraf]] announced large-scale development projects including Gawadar port, military bases and highway projects.  Advertisements for buying cheap land for new settlements appeared on billboards in the cities in Punjab.   The Baloch, already suffering from immigration, feared large-scale settlements would reduce them to a minority in their own homeland.
+In the 70's the Balochistan Liberation Army waged war against the State of Pakistan with the aid of a soviet backed [[Afghan]] [[communism|communist]] government but was soon defeated, its leaders captured or killed.
+In 2001 when [[Pervez Musharraf|Musharraf]] announced large-scale development projects including Gawadar port, military bases and highway projects, the Balochistani tribal chiefs considered it a direct threat to their influence and their tribal way of life and so a rebellion commenced.
-Balochistan's population consists of an [[Pashtun people|Pashtuns]] & Balochs but Pashtun numbers have swelled because of refugees from Afghanistan.  The Pushtuns enjoy a reasonable representation in the state & military jobs of Pakistan but the Baloch are almost entirely unrepresented in the the bureaucracy and the military.
+Balochistan's population consists of an equal mix between [[Pashtun people|Pashtuns]] & Balochistanis but Pashtuns enjoy a reasonable representation in the state & military jobs of Pakistan and their more religious leaning makes them mainly more pro-Pakistan, than pro-Baloch independance. It is widely believed that the government of Pakistan needs to bring an end to the tribal system and provide more job opportunities to the common Balochistani. As such, steps are being taken for industrialisation of the province and industrial zones are planned along the new Gawadar-[[Karachi]] [[highway]]. This development is expected to bring accelerated progress in the near future although uprisings against the decline of the tribal system will probably accompany such a situation.
-Balochistan conflict is also directly related to the Balochistan region in Iran, as the Baloch population is spread between two countries without an open border.
+It is unlikely that the possibility of devolution will be supported diplomatically by the western governments, as such a prospect would mean countries such as America would have to deal separately with Baloch tribal chiefs in their "War on Terror" rather then dealing directly with Pakistan.
-In June 2006, a map proposed by Ralph Peters in the Armed Forces Journal proposed that a free Balochistan may emerge by 2015, that would unite the Balochistan regions in Pakistan and Iran
-[http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1833899 Armed Forces Journal]
-The Baloch independence movement is spurred by a number of factors: exploitation of Baloch resources by Pakistan; ideological differences--the Pakistani state has been supporting a fundamentalist Islamist ideology while the Baloch are largely secular;  suppression of indigeneous languages and culture, and a demographic threat posed by immigration of more numerous Punjabis, Pushtuns and Mohajirs into Balochistan.
-Nawab Bugti was killed in an army operation on August 26, 2006 in the Bhambore Hills region. Baloch nationalists accuse Pakistan of using cluster bombs and Agent Orange in the operation against Nawab Bugti. His mortal remains was not handed over to his next of kin and demands of his sons to have international forensic experts conduct a postmortem of his body has not been met by Pakistan's army-run government.
-Less than a month after his assassination, a grand Baloch jirga, or assembly, of all Baloch chieftains and notables meeting under the leadership of the traditional Baloch ruler the Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud Ahmedzai decided to knock the doors of the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The jirga accused the Pakistan government of violating the Instruments of Accession signed on March 27, 1948.
-[[fr:Guerres baloutches]]
-[[nl:Conflict in Beloetsjistan]]