Insurgency in Balochistan

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.