Balochistan Insurgency - Fifth conflict 2004-to date lead by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Mir Balach Marri By 2004 Baluchistan was up in arms against the federal government, with the Baluchistan Liberation Army, Baluchistan Liberation Front, and Peoples Liberation Army conducting operations. Rocket attacks and bomb blasts have been a regular feature in the provincial capital, particularly its cantonment areas, Kohlu and Sui town, since 2000, and had claimed over 25 lives by mid-2004. Islamabad has treated Baluchistan like a colony, complained Imran Khan, a member of the Pakistani parliament. Baluchi nationalist Humayun Baluch charges that Punajbis are being introduced as settlers, traders, and miners. [Our] provincial resources are being exploited and looted, he says. Peoples rights are being compromised and everything is being done for the benefit of the Punjabis. Army troops, army weaponry, helicopters, jets, and F-16s are being used in Baluchistan. The population is being forced out and primarily living in Sindh [in Karachi]. Houses have been burned and looted. The construction of the Gwadar port and the influx of Chinese engineers who oversee the project irritated Baluchi national anxieties. The Gwadar Port project employed close to 500 Chinese nationals by 2004. The nationalists have strong reservations about the construction of a new deep-sea port in Gwadar. They fear that the mega project, which is being developed with the help of China, would lead to a massive influx of outside workers and turn the local population into a minority. Baluchi nationalists believe that Beijing is in league with Islamabad to develop and export the provinces natural gas resources. Pakistans leading natural gas company, Sui, is located in Baluchistan but provides products for the entire country. On 03 May 2004, the BLA killed three Chinese engineers working on the Port. Gwadar airport was attacked by rockets at midnight on 21 May 2004. On 09 October 2004, two Chinese engineers were kidnapped in South Waziristan in the northwest of Pakistan, one of whom was killed later on 14 October 2004 in a botched rescue operation. In July 2007, a bus full of Chinese engineers was bombed in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. None of the Chinese was killed (although a number of policemen on detail to protect the Chinese were). Pakistan blamed India and Iran for fanning insurgency in Baluchistan. Violence reached a crescendo in March of 2005 when the Pakistani government attempting to target Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the seventy year old Sardar (tribal leader) who had fought against the government for decades, shelled the town of Dera Bugti. The fighting that erupted between the tribal militia and government soldiers resulted in the deaths of 67 people. In January 2005 Bugti tribesmen fired several hundred rockets on gas installations, following the alleged gang rape of a Pakistan Petroleum Limited doctor, Shazia Khalid, by a captain of the Defence Security Guards (DSG). With tensions mounting in Dera Bugti, the government deployed troops in his native area. The turning point came on March 17, 2005, when a clash between troops and Bugti tribesmen resulted in the death of 77 civilians, mostly Hindus. Since then, Bugti tribesmen engaged in a guerrilla war with the security forces. Since 17 December 2005, the Pakistan military has launched full-fledged operations in Kohlu and Dera Bugti. The military has reportedly been using jet fighters and helicopter gunships in its operations to attack the suspected hideouts of combatant Marri and Bugti tribesmen in Kolhu and Dera Bugti respectively. Dr. Wahid Baloch, an activist of the Baloch Society of North America based in Washington, said in February 2006 there was no right for the Pakistani army to be in the province as they were committing atrocities on the residents. There is no reason for the Pakistani army to stay there, if they consider the Pakistani citizens why they have built these armies, Baluchistan border does not need this, its not enemy country, no animosities with Pakistan. It is next to Iran and the Persian Gulf, so what is the Pakistan army doing in Baluchistan? Genocide against ... and the Baluchistan peoples rights? asked Baloch.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 17:39:44 +0000
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