Balochistan : Another Bangladesh???

For long, Pakistan hasn't come out of the conventional and the orthodoxy approach to administration, culture, socio-economic qualms and other issues.

A lot of territorial sections of Pakistan have gone ahead of this increasingly tight-bound approach to growth and are looking for an imperial and a Sovereign status that has often led to widespread unrest in the country.

The Indian-spined Bangladesh movement is a classic case and the Balochistan's liberation movement that has and is gaining impetus in the recent past is another fine example.

Rubbing salt to the injury is the Pakistan defense forces' attack on the prosperous and prospective liberation movement leaders from the region.

If the situation continues to be as disturbing as the status quo, creation of another Bangladesh will be inevitable, opines Balachandra Rao as he explains the social dynamics of the territory and the political and geographical sensitivities of the region...

Balochistan: Pakistan's second Bangladesh?

A festering wound in Pakistan

"The conspiracy of silence over Balochistan is finally breaking but the alienation of the province runs too deep for any easy solutions."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : A festering wound in Pakistan:  Intelligence agencies have viewed the Balochistan with suspicion from the very beginning for their reluctance to join Pakistan. This resulted in four earlier rounds of insurgency but none of them lasted this long. And those resistance movements were not for independence but rights, quite unlike this time. Demand for secession is a bitter pill to swallow for any country, more so for a nation that has been seeking strategic depth in Afghanistan at phenomenal costs to itself to counter the Indian behemoth.

As always, “foreign hands” are being accused of destabilising Balochistan with the aim to Balkanise Pakistan. Rhetoric of ‘foreign hands' has allowed for further militarization of Balochistan and given the military a licence to seal the province and make it a no-go zone where it can abduct, torture, kill and display bodies with impunity, extract Balochistan's resources under the barrel of a gun, use Balochistan territory to conduct nuclear tests. However, the military in Balochistan has not been able to control the spirit of the Baloch people.

Inside Balochistan's dirty war

"Baloch secessionist leader Brahmdagh Bugti says he wants political engagement with Pakistan — but that its military wants war."

In recent months, assassinations of Baloch nationalist politicians and their kin have provoked growing concern.
The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Inside Balochistan's dirty war: Baloch politicians allege the murders, were carried out by Pakistan's intelligence services to send a message the region's largest secessionist party. General Musharraf had, in fact, helped precipitate the crisis.

Pakistan's government says one thing and we say another. Ever since 2004, the government hasn't allowed a single journalist into Dera Bugti and Kohlu independently. That should tell you something about who has something to hide.

Even though the Pakistan Army was able to crush tribal rebellions espousing Baluch nationalism, new generations of urban educated Baloch were drawn to their cause.

A hearing on Balochistan that stirs up new tensions between U.S. and Pakistan

"Pakistan's restive Balochistan province has triggered new diplomatic tensions between Washington D.C. and Islamabad. "

The Pakistan government was using American weapons against the secular Baloch rebellion instead of using them against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Islamabad had manipulated the “war on terror” to commit widespread human rights violations against its Baloch political opponents. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : A hearing on Balochistan that stirs up new tensions between U.S. and Pakistan

Balochistan is almost half of Pakistan's territory, but is its most backward province despite vast reservoirs of gas, gold, copper and a port in Gwadar. The Baloch have faced at least five deadly military operations by the Pakistani Army since what they describe as Balochistan's “illegal and forceful occupation” by Pakistan in 1948.

It was an "incontrovertible fact" that Balochistan was an "occupied territory which never acceded to Pakistan and now does not want to be a part of Pakistan. If a plebiscite or referendum is to be held tomorrow, Balochistan would vote to leave Pakistan."

Islamabad must be mindful of the fact that it can no longer commit human rights violations, curb basic freedoms and still remain unnoticed in the age of social media!