A new wave of insurgency has emerged in Balochistan. According to an article published in Express Tribune, since January this year, different Baloch groups have carried out at least 17 attacks, including 10 against security forces. The attacks took 51 lives and injured 97 people. That has put security forces in the province on high alert, prompting them to increase surveillance.
The militancy in Balochistan, however, has its roots in history, and one needs to go back in time to see where and how it all went wrong.
An Account of the History
Balochistan is the most underdeveloped province of Pakistan while ethnically and linguistically it is very diverse. Balochs are the largest ethnic group in Balochistan, followed by Pukhtuns, Brohis, Sindhis, and Punjabis. The province has a dry, scarcely fertile land, but is rich in mineral resources like coal, marble, iron ore, sulfur, etc. The Baloch population is mainly nomadic that earns livelihood through small pieces of agricultural land and cattle breeding. They also work in mines and have small trade businesses. Socially, it is a tribal setup.
Under Khan of Kalat, Nasir Khan, Balochistan had its first unified Baloch army of 25000 men and 1000 camels, in the 18th century. He also organized the tribes under a consensual military, bureaucratic, and administrative system. Reforms were made in the areas of internal and external affairs, revenue collection, blood compensation, etc. However, the system failed due to fragile bureaucratic will and tribal rifts. The local tribes were always fighting for power and a centralized system could not gain roots. When the Khan died, the entire structure of governance perished.
The Colonial Exploitation
Before colonial rule, Balochistan was an extremely polarized society. Tribalism brewed at its best with no concept of state governance. Many ethnicities such as Afghans, Persians, Sikhs, and Sindhis conquered the region but did not gain a permanent hold of the tribes.
When the British came to Balochistan and annexed the province, their sole interest in the region was that it served as a passage to Sindh and Afghanistan. Upon not being able to control the anti-British sentiment in the province, the Khan was assassinated by the British. The state was also dismembered. This led to the unfortunate demise of Balochistan’s first-ever political organization that had united the whole province under one governing authority. The British, however, later restored the state, but the Khan of Kalat was merely serving as a subordinate and had no real control over the tribes. The colonizers then began their divide-and-rule strategy, turning each tribe against the other. Balochistan was divided into seven parts. To keep the apparent identity of the province alive, Shahi Jirga was kept intact so tribes could have a political representation, but, this too, was under the supervision of the British.
Balochistan’s special status served itself in no way. There were no governance or constitutional reforms during the 1930s.
With the creation of jobs, the province did see an increase in workers and laborers, but the mercantile class came from Sindh and Punjab, who controlled the economic developments while the local Baloch population starved and was pushed further to pauperization.
Balochistan as Part of Pakistan
After Pakistan’s independence, Balochistan remained chiefly tribal. Pakistan treated Balochistan worse than the colonizers. The British treated it as a special administrative region and Pakistan also continued with the same practice. The administrative reforms brought after the independence were not brought to Balochistan, and Jinnah was to directly supervise the region with the help of an advisory council.
Things became worse with the implementation of the One Unit scheme in 1955, which was an attempt to combine all four provinces into one. Balochistan was stripped of its territorial identity.
When the first martial law was imposed in 1958, the army arrested the Khan of Kalat, several Baloch leaders, and resorted to the militarization of the province. In its response, Nauroz Khan, the chief of the Zehri tribe, organized a guerilla army against the military rule and dissolution of One Unit. But he was arrested and died in the prison later. His compatriots were persecuted on charges of treason.
The Injustice under Democratic Rule
Balochistan remained deprived of several basic rights. For instance, it took 23 years to grant Balochistan the status of a province, i.e., in 1970. In 1972, the National Awami Party (NAP) won the majority of seats in the province and formed a coalition government with Jamiat Ulama-i-Islam (JUI), a religious party.
It is crucial to mention here that while this all happened, Balochistan’s literacy rate was 6 percent while Pakistan’s was 18 percent, and though Balochistan contributed a substantial share in mineral resources, its share in industrialization was 0.7 percent only. Besides, Balochistan provided 80 percent of Pakistan’s gas and only received a royalty of US 1.2 million dollars, while the country saved US 275 million dollars in foreign exchange annually. The majority of the civil servants was from Punjab, out of 830 only 181 were Balochs. And in 1972, out of 20 provincial department heads, only one was a Baloch. The center controlled all the developmental and economic sectors. Bhutto’s party, PPP, formed the central government at that time by winning the majority in Sindh and Punjab.
Bhutto was a centralist and wanted to make sure Balochistan remained under the domination of the central government. He voiced his concerns in his letter to NAP’s Governor, Ghous Buz Bizenjo, by telling him to control the law-and-order situation in the province (curtailing nationalist movements like Azad Balochistan Movement), and ensuring the smooth running of the gas installations in Sui.
The Azad Balochistan Movement’s objective was to establish an independent state of Balochistan. It claimed all the predominantly Baloch areas of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which was a point of concern for the Shah of Iran as the nationalist movements in the Iranian territory backed by the Soviets endangered Iran’s sovereignty. Also, Bhutto, being a strong ally of the Shah, did not want the relationship with Iran to deteriorate, a country so rich in oil and on America’s radar, a similarity it shared with Pakistan.
The central government saw the ethnic demands and NAP’s policies as jeopardy for the Pakistani state. The lamentation of the provincial government in Balochistan revolved around one basic fact: everyone ruled their province but the Balochs. At the same time, another conflict emerged: the one between the common population of Balochistan and the Baloch elites. Despite having a provincial government, the Baloch society experienced conflict of interest between the local tribes and nationalist governments. A wave of unrest emerged throughout the region. The officials and settlers were either abducted or attacked.
The federal government accused NAP of not being able to control the affairs. NAP was defamed by being associated with the anti-Pakistan agenda and labeled as the state’s enemy. Balochistan was further dragged into dark shadows in 1973 when the central government dismissed the NAP government and accused that it was to receive 300 Soviet machine guns and 48000 rounds of ammunition, which were discovered by the Pakistani authorities at the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad.
Nationalism, Militancy, and the Fate of Militants
In response to the central governments’ interference, the Baloch nationalists founded a guerilla army comprising 55000 fighters which included 11000 organized combatants. This guerilla war with the Pakistani military lasted for four years. 33000 soldiers of the Pakistan army and 5300 guerillas died in this war. The Balochs referred to their guerilla war as a struggle for the political agency rather than national liberation. It was an instant response to the central government’s interference and hardheadedness in Balochistan’s case.
From 1978 to 1998, the Baloch separatists indulged in different modes of activities. Some went into exile while others entered politics or assumed positions in the government.
Later, General Musharraf embarked on a journey to deradicalize the Balochs. His exponential use of coercive measures only led to the popularity and increase in the strength of separatists. The death of Nawab Akbar Bugti led to a stronger and longer wave of insurgency in Balochistan, which is still brewing with radical outfits growing and multiplying in number with time. Many Baloch separatists believe that the establishment has never come intending to negotiate, it only speaks from a bargaining point of view.
But, on the other hand, the Baloch nationalist leaders lacked a clear vision and political wit. Their soldiers were fighting, yet many of them did not know what for. It is a misfortune that Baloch nationalism, instead of reviving the nationalist values and being instrumental in safeguarding the rights of Balochistan, only led to further fragmentation of the Balochs.
A lesson for the relevant actors in the debacle is that nationalism should not be perceived as good, bad, just, unjust, valid, or invalid. Nationalism is not about cultural or ethnic struggle but an outcry for political agency and due representation.
(Note: Many facts and figures depicted in this article have been taken from Adeel Khan’s Work titled Politics of Identity)
