The Assault by Pakistan on Baloch People's Rights Has Now Reached Women

Baloch women, at the forefront of protests to ensure illegal arrests and detentions do not take place, are alone in pressing for their rights.


Baloch women face off with police in Karachi. Photo: Veengas

Veengas

Karachi: “What you can do? You can only abduct Baloch people. If you want to pick us up, do it,” Amna Baloch tells a police officer.

On May 24, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee and Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) were to jointly lead a protest rally from the Karachi Press Club to the Sindh chief minister’s house. However, the Sindh government imposed Section 144 and banned political gatherings and rallies. When a few of them gathered to ask about abducted women, they were taken to the police station.

Baloch people have been agitating for the release of all missing persons and in recent times, several Baloch women have allegedly been abducted under the pretext of curbing terrorism.

Mohammad Ali Talpur, a well-known columnist who has spoken for Baloch rights, says that since 1973, Pakistan has been leading a concerted attempt to suppress Baloch people and their demands for rights.

“The policy of abduction, killing, and dumping reared its ugly head in 2000 and then in 2008, it rapidly increased. In 2008-2009, the Pakistan People’s Party government spent Rs four million [Pakistani rupees] on counter-insurgency, in addition to paying amounts to death squads in Balochistan,” Talpur says.

So brazen are the attacks on Baloch people, that police do not even back down from launching assaults in front of media.

“Do not touch him,” Sammi Deen Baloch, a human rights activist, and deputy general secretary for VBMP, cried loudly as police officers and men in civilian clothes attempted to pick up a Baloch man at the Karachi Press Club.

Under pressure, police ended up releasing the Baloch man. Officers told media that the action was against the flouting of Section 144.

Meanwhile, Amna Baloch had a different version. She said that there were only four of them, and they did not chant a single slogan but just asked about two Baloch women who had earlier been taken to the police station.

Also read: ‘Tell Us Whether We Are Orphans’: In Pakistan, No Respite for Families of Baloch Missing Persons

Wracked with worry about the two women, Amna says that police initially were unwilling to share details. When Amna, Sammi, and other Baloch protesters pressed them, they said the two were in police custody.

When this reporter took a photograph of police gathered at the scene, she was asked to delete the photo. Eventually, explanations on her nature of work seemed to suffice. However, to questions on where the two Baloch women were kept in custody, police remained mum and instead, laughed.

This reporter also overheard police discussing the eventual picking up of Sammi, one of the four asking after the two Baloch women.

“Look at her (Sammi), she speaks a lot, you should abduct her,” one man in civilian clothes was heard telling police.

By then, reporters had surrounded Sammi. Some of the reporters asked police how she had violated Section 144, and what pretext police could have of taking her to the police station. To this, officers had no answers.

The women were eventually taken to the police station and released afterwards.

Sammi and others being taken to the police station. Photo: Veengas

After a few hours, videos of this went viral on social media. The Sindh government, later, took notice of the incident.

Nida Kirmani, an activist, was taken along with the Baloch women to the police station. But Nida, a non-Baloch woman, was apologised to by police. Baloch women were asked to take off their masks and niqab. Nida shared her experience on Twitter.

Political activist Mahrang Baloch said that abducting Baloch women has been publicly justified by law enforcement ever since Shari Baloch attacked Karachi University.

After the University incident, Baloch students in various institutions were harassed in the guise of investigations, including in Punjab universities.

“But Baloch women had been targets long before. In Awaran, a city of Balochistan, security agencies had abducted Baloch women in an explosives case. Later, allegations proved untrue. Those women were so poor they had no slippers on their feet. Pakistan security forces target common Baloch citizens, even those who aren’t rights activists,” Mahrang said.

Mass graves were found in the province, she added.

At the KPC protest, Amna said that the state’s violence was a cause of constant fear and sorrow. Sammi, for instance, has been agitating for the release of her father.

Mahrang’s father, Abdul Ghaffar, was abducted in 2009 and his mutilated dead body was recovered from Gadani on July 1, 2011. In 2017, her brother was abducted but released after four months. She has received threats to end her political activism.

Even Balochistan home minister Mir Zia Lango once taunted her, noting that the state had not apprehended her yet.

“When my number comes, they will definitely abduct me,” Mahrang said. “If the agencies can arrest Noor Jan, who lives in the much more central Hoshaap area, then who am I?”

Mahrang along with VBMP leaders, led a sit-in in front of the Balochistan chief minister’s house demanding knowledge of missing persons and Noor Jan, a 40-year-old Baloch mother of three, who was abducted in a suicide bomb case. The FIR says she was apprehended wearing a suicide jacket. Initially given a death sentence, she was released on bail.

Baloch women and men in a sit-in in front of the CM’s house in Balochistan. 

Photo: Mahrang Baloch

“How is possible that a mother will wear a suicide jacket at 3 am in the house where her children are sleeping?” asks Mahrang.

One Habiba Baloch was dragged by male security officers from her home in Karachi and released after four days.

Mahrang also cites the example of Hafeez Baloch, who is an MPhil student at Quaid-e-Azam University of Islamabad, who was picked up and charged allegedly in a fake case.

Mahrang is also worried about conservative society in Pakistan that is ready to point fingers at women who are outside at night. “When Baloch women are made to spend days in the custody of security agencies, you know what and how society thinks,” she said.

Many see in present day Pakistan’s treatment of Baloch women a reflection of how Bengali women were treated in East Pakistan.

Silence of human rights groups

Human rights groups and political parties remain silent on the mistreatment of Baloch women.

Recently, Shireen Mazari, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former minister for human rights, was arrested by the police. In Pakistan, people condemned it and Islamabad high court sat at night to rule in the case. The same reaction is absent when it comes to Baloch women.

Talpur says there is a clear difference of perception.

Sammi criticised the role of feminists in Pakistan who raise voices in selective cases but when the question comes to Baloch women, they are silent. “Why does their feminism end at Baloch women?” Sammi asks.

Also read: Pakistan: Family of Baloch Activist Who Died in Canada Claim Harassment by Authorities

Mahrang added that if the Balochistan government and other political parties genuinely wanted the removal of the FIR against Noor Jan, they could have asked for it.

She criticised political parties who, when they are in opposition, speak about Balochistan for their vote banks, but when they come in power, they speak for Kashmir first and then for Islam. “Balochistan was and is never their priority. For instance, the sitting government’s interior minister Rana Sanaullah rejected a commission for Baloch students who have been made to disappear. He belongs to Pakistan Muslim League, led by the same Maryam Sharif who once promised us that she would look into our matter,” Mahrang said.

On the other hand, human rights organisations follow the state’s narrative in the case of Balochistan. “We (Baloch women) force them to issue statements. Otherwise, they do not care about us,” she said.

Baloch women entered the protest arena asking for the release of their fathers and brothers. Mahrang said that the time will soon come when Baloch fathers and brothers will need to agitate for the release of their daughters and sisters.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCH 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BALOCHISTAN 

Pakistan: Continuing Chaos In Balochistan – Analysis

Baluchistan, Pakistan. Credit: VOA

 January 3, 2024  

By SATP

By Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

On December 27, 2023, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) told the Islamabad Federal Capital’s Police not to treat Baloch protesters as “enemies”. Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb’s remarks came as he heard a petition filed on December 21, 2023, challenging the arrest of marchers who arrived in the Federal Capital, Islamabad, on foot from Turbat town in the Kech District of Balochistan, and denying them the right to stage a protest in Islamabad against extrajudicial killings as well as enforced disappearances of their loved ones.

Expressing his outrage, Justice Aurangzeb asked the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP, operations) if the order to treat the protesters ‘harshly’ was given by him and declared, “You make some people sit in your lap while you treat others like this… They have come [here]. Let them sit.” 

During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner – organisers of the protest, Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) – disclosed that 34 Baloch protesters were still in custody. Earlier, on December 25, 2023, Police freed 290 Baloch protesters who had been arrested when they attempted to hold a protest in Islamabad on December 21, 2023. 

The Baloch protest march started in Turbat town, Kech District, Balochistan, on December 6, 2023, after the alleged extrajudicial killing of a Baloch youth by Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel on November 23, 2023. On that day, CTD claimed to have killed four suspected terrorists in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) near a bus terminal on Pasni Road in Turbat town. However, the family of one of the deceased – Balaach Mola Bakhsh – and members of civil society staged a sit-in at Shaheed Fida Ahmed Chowk, accompanied by the deceased’s body, and alleged that Balaach was taken away by the CTD from his home in the night of October 29. After 22 days, on November 20, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Bakhsh by the CTD, claiming that he had been caught in possession of explosives. He was presented before a court, where another 10 days of police remand were granted. His bail plea was scheduled for November 24, 2023, before which he was killed. 

The main demand of the protesters was the arrest of the CTD officials involved in the killing, and the formation of a judicial commission for an independent inquiry into the Department’s action. 

As the sit-in protest in Turbat against Balaach’s killing did not yield any result, the protestors decided to relocate their sit-in to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. They concluded the sit-in in Turbat on December 5, 2023, after which they began their march towards Quetta. As things did not move, the protestors started march towards Islamabad and reached Islamabad on December 20. However, they met with brutal force and more than 200 protesters were taken into custody by the Islamabad Police on December 21. 

It is pertinent to recall here that in Balochistan, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by the security forces and their proxies have long been rampant. Victims of enforced disappearances include political workers, journalists, human rights defenders, and students. According to the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), more than 7,000 persons have gone ‘missing’ from Balochistan since 2000. However, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances formed in 2011 with the objective of tracing the missing persons and fixing responsibility on the individuals or organisations responsible for it, posted data on its website claiming that there were just 454 ‘active cases’ of enforced disappearances from Balochistan, as of October 2023. 

Further, according to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), of the 4,700 conflict-linked civilian fatalities recorded in Balochistan since 2004 (data till December 31, 2023), at least 1,469 are attributable to one or another terrorist/insurgent outfit. Of these, 494 civilian killings (300 in the South and 194 in the North) have been claimed by Baloch separatist formations, while Islamist and sectarian extremist formations – primarily Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Ahrar-ul-Hind (Liberators of India) – claimed responsibility for another 975 civilian killings, 892 in the North (mostly in and around Quetta) and 83 in the South. The remaining 3,231 civilian fatalities – 1,848 in the South and 1,383 in the North – remain ‘unattributed’, and are largely believed to have been the handiwork of the Security Forces (SFs) and their death squad proxies. 

The state sponsored enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings have led to a spiral of retaliatory attacks and violence targeting the SFs and state establishments in the province, by Baloch insurgents. Civilians believed to be siding with the state machinery, have also been targeted. In this environment of chaos, Islamist terrorist groups have also thrived and even joined the Baloch groups. The major active Baloch insurgent groups include the Baloch National Army (BNA), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), Balochistan Liberation Tigers (BLT) and United Baloch Army (UBA). 

According to the SATP database, overall fatalities in Balochistan increased from 406 in 2022 to 466 in 2023, up by 14.77 per cent (data till December 31, 2023). This is the highest number of fatalities in a year since 2016, at 636. Overall fatalities in Balochistan have been on a continuous rise since 2020, after a recent low of 180 in 2019. Balochistan alone accounted for 31.32 per cent of Pakistan’s total of 1,492 terrorism/insurgency-linked fatalities in 2023. 

Civilian fatalities in particular have recorded a significant spike in 2023, from 88 in 2022 to 160 in 2023, an increase of 81.81 per cent. The 2023 tally for this category is the highest since 2018, when there were 234 civilian fatalities. After a recent low of 83 in 2019, civilian fatalities have tended to increase, though there was a drop in 2022, with 88 killed, as compared to 111 in 2021. 

Non-locals, who are thought to be Army collaborators, face the wrath of Baloch insurgents. These ‘non-locals’ work as spies for SFs, and are also believed to be part of a systematic effort to deny work and benefits to the Baloch population. Baloch insurgent groups such as the BLA, BLF and the Balochistan Republican Army (BRA), among others, began to voice anti-outsider, particularly anti-Punjabi, sentiments in their campaigns in the wake of the military action against the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, leader of the Bugti tribe and President of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), in a military operation in the Chalgri area of the Bhamboor Hills of Dera Bugti District, on August 26, 2006. Further, many of the ‘outsiders’ are engaged on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects and are targeted because Baloch insurgents fear that CPEC will convert the Baloch people into minorities in their own homeland. Indeed, CPEC projects principally employ workers brought in from outside the province, overwhelmingly from Punjab. 

According to partial data compiled by SATP, a total of 254 ‘non-locals’ have been killed in Balochistan since August 26, 2006, (data till December 31, 2023). Of these, 198 were Punjabis. Other non-locals also fell to the ethnic collateral damage, including 37 Sindhis. The ethnic identity of the remaining 19 was unspecified. Significantly, most of the Punjabi settler killings were recorded in South Balochistan, which accounts for 167 of the total of 198 such killings (principally in Bolan, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Sibi and Lasbela Districts); and 31 in North Balochistan (mostly in Kalat, Nushki, Quetta and Mustang Districts). The overwhelming concentration of such killings in the South is because of the presence and dominance of Baloch insurgent groups in this region. 

Though SF fatalities in 2023 saw an eight per cent decline, down to 186 in 2023, as against 202 in 2022 (the highest in a year since 2000, when SATP started compiling data on conflict in Pakistan), the toll still remains very high. The 2023 number is the second highest recorded in this category during this period. The third highest of 177 was recorded way back in 2012. 

Meanwhile, terrorist fatalities continued to rise. From a recent low of 37 in 2020 they jumped to 116 in 2022 and 120 in 2023. 

Other parameters of violence also indicate that the overall security situation in Balochistan has deteriorated significantly in 2023. Overall terrorism-related incidents increased from 271 in 2022 to 278 in 2023, the highest in a year since 2015, at 444. Incidents of killing increased from 160 in 2022 to 168 in 2023, the highest since 2015, at 204. The number of suicide attacks and resultant fatalities increased from three and 13, respectively, in 2022, to five and 70, respectively, in 2023. The tally for suicide attacks in 2023 (five) is the highest since 2019, when there were six suicide attacks. However, in terms of resultant fatalities in such attacks, the 2023 tally (70) is the highest since 2018, when there were 209 fatalities. 

Islamist groups, mainly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allied groups have also been active in the province. Reports about a TTP-Baloch alliance appeared to receive some confirmation when TTP ‘spokesperson’ Mohammad Khurasani congratulated the Baloch insurgent groups for their twin attacks on Panjgur and Nuskhi Army camps on February 2, 2023, stating,

The Pakistani Army is carrying out the massacre in Balochistan. We are against the massacre of Balochistan as well as in Waziristan by the Pakistani Army. Our enemy is common.

Moreover, the then Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid, citing intelligence reports, told the media on February 3, 2023,

Baloch militants are not capable of launching major attacks in Nuskhi and Panjgur. TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) has the capability, experience and latest NATO weapons to launch such attacks. There’s some understanding between the TTP and Baloch militants. They have their hideouts in Afghanistan.

The growing nexus between the Baloch insurgents and the TTP is also visible in the absorption of two Baloch groups into the TTP fold. On April 12, 2023, the TTP claimed that a group from Quetta District, led by Asim Baloch, and another from Kalat District, led Akram Baloch, had joined its ranks. Though the development is worrisome for the security agencies and the government, it is not new. Indeed, a local Baloch jihadist group, led by Mazar Baloch from Makran, Balochistan, had joined the TTP on December 23, 2022, as well. Ustad Aslam Baloch’s group from Nushki District was the first Baloch group from Balochistan to join the TTP in June 2022. 

The insurgents also target the economic interests of the Pakistani state, as Islamabad is widely and rightly believed to be exploiting Balochistan’s natural resources. Baloch insurgents carried out at least 255 attacks targeting Gas/Oil installations and tankers in Balochistan, which resulted in the loss of 36 lives and 43 injuries. Attacks targeting this source of energy have a significant detrimental impact on Pakistan’s economy, a reality the Baloch insurgents are well aware of, and seek to leverage. 

The CPEC projects in the province have been a major bone of contention between Pakistani state and Baloch insurgents. The Baloch resentment towards the CPEC project since its inception in 2013 is that both the civilian population and insurgents believe that CPEC is part of a ‘strategic design’ by China to loot resources. The USD 62 billion CPEC is a massive series of projects that includes a network of highways, railways and energy infrastructure, spanning the entire country. CPEC is a flagship project in China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

Baloch groups have carried out attacks directly targeting Chinese nationals engaged in economic activities. According to partial data compiled by SATP, since July 19, 2007, at least 14 attacks directly targeting Chinese nationals have been recorded in Pakistan (12 in Balochistan and two in Sindh), resulting in 79 deaths (data till December 31, 2023). The dead included 10 Chinese nationals, 13 Pakistani SF personnel, 41 Pakistani civilians and 12 attackers. Another, 53 persons, including six Chinese nationals, were injured in these attacks. Most recently, on August 13, 2023, terrorists attacked a convoy of vehicles belonging to SFs and Chinese engineers near the Faqir Colony Bridge in Gwadar city (Gwadar District). The BLA, which took responsibility for the attack, claimed that 11 SF personnel and four Chinese nationals were killed in the attack. Jeeyand Baloch declared that BLA’s Majeed Brigade, its ‘suicide bomber squad’, was behind the attack and stated, further,

We have cautioned China repeatedly to reconsider its activities in Balochistan. BLA views such endeavours as acts of exploitation… Any foreign investments in the region should only proceed after Balochistan achieves independence.

The statement added that BLA had issued a 90-day ultimatum for China to withdraw from Balochistan, or prepare for intensified attacks on its ‘key interests’ in the region.

Though caretaker Prime Minister (PM) Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on December 26, 2023, asserted that the welfare and prosperity of the people of Balochistan were amongst his Government’s top priorities, for those who know Islamabad’s longstanding approach towards Baloch people, this is nothing more than a rhetoric. In fact, Islamabad remains hellbent on crushing the legitimate grievances of the Baloch people and exploiting this resource rich province to benefit other parts of the country – particularly Punjab – while the people of this beleaguered province remain deprived of most of the basics, and have the worst developmental profile in the country.

• Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
  Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

SATP, or the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) publishes the South Asia Intelligence Review, and is a product of The Institute for Conflict Management, a non-Profit Society set up in 1997 in New Delhi, and which is committed to the continuous evaluation and resolution of problems of internal security in South Asia. The Institute was set up on the initiative of, and is presently headed by, its President, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, IPS (Retd).

Stereotyping Baloch youth

Muhammad Amir Rana 

Published June 11, 2023 

The writer is a security analyst.

EDUCATED Baloch youth face an image problem in urban Pakistan, mainly in Punjab which controls the country’s sociopolitical narratives. Security institutions, the intelligentsia, the media, even educationists and civil society construct the image of the Baloch youth in a negative way. It goes beyond the image of the angry Baloch. They build an image of a tribal man unfamiliar with urban ‘manners’, unschooled in religion and politically charged, one who does not believe in (state-crafted) nationalism. Such a projection harms the Baloch, including the educated ones, perhaps more than all the repression they have been facing.

The myths surrounding the Baloch must be dispelled. The Baloch youth’s interaction with the rest of the country has expanded enormously in recent years. A major contributory factor has been their admission in universities in Punjab either on the basis of their own merit or the quota the government has reserved for them. Sardars still love to send their children to British-age imperial schools and colleges. However, middle-class parents are also sending their offspring to Punjab to public and private educational institutions for better opportunities and to save them from both, the insurgents and surveillance by the security agencies.

Karachi is a second home for the Baloch, especially for those from the coastal areas. They have learned the art of living in a metropolis. Karachi may not have nurtured the stereotype, but it is not breaking the myths surrounding the Baloch either.

There is a perception that the Baloch have highly secular tendencies and are thus less religious, which makes them prone to absorbing Indian and Western propaganda. Perhaps this rings true for some sardars and power elites of the province, but the common Baloch is as practising a Muslim as an inhabitant of Punjab. When state institutions use religion for ethnic profiling, it ultimately triggers a process of ‘otherisation’. The Baloch are vulnerable to religious sensitivities and associated violent and non-violent extremist tendencies. The JUI-F and its factions have political influence not only in the Pakhtun-dominated areas but also in the western part of Balochistan.

The libraries in Balochistan are more crowded compared to those in other provinces

While travelling from Karachi to Quetta, one can witness extensive graffiti by religious groups, including the TLP, and banned sectarian outfits. In a negative sense, Al Qaeda and other international militant organisations have many Baloch in their fold, along with other nationalities, but even this fact has failed to break the myth of Baloch ‘secularity’. When the media highlights a suspected nexus between the Baloch insurgents and the TTP, it is also read as an unholy alliance between the pawns of external forces.

Undoubtedly, Baloch insurgent groups are inclined towards leftist ideology like many other separatist movements in South Asia and regions beyond. These movements have blended leftist ideology with nationalism, but it doesn’t mean they are anti-religion. Nationalist politics influences the separatist movement, but Baloch nationalist politics has remained under the influence of Muslim nationalist tendencies since its inception after World War I. In this regard, Shah Muhammad Marri, a leading Baloch historian, compiled an interesting account of that part of history.

However, this is not about history, but the deeply entrenched myths in urban Pakistan about the Baloch. Countering these myths though, are sections of the progressive intelligentsia that often refer to the educated Baloch as the most well-read youth in Pakistan, and as proof, point to the record sale of books at literature festivals in Balochistan. The libraries in Balochistan are more crowded compared to those in other provinces. On a recent visit to different parts of Balochistan, including the small town of Nushki, one witnessed a large number of youth in libraries. However, most of the youth go to libraries to utilise the resources to study for professional and civil services examinations.

Reference books are expensive and not easily available in small towns. Internet connectivity is also very poor, and the youth have no other option but to spend more time in libraries, where they do not face long spells of loadshedding as many libraries are located within the premises of the district administration.

Educated Baloch youth are often attracted to the bureaucracy, security institutions, and other public services, which can empower them economically and socially — no different from youth in other parts of the country, who have similar dreams. However, the pursuit of knowledge and a better life becomes a crime when the Baloch raise critical questions.

Balochistan’s educated youth interact with progressive intelligentsia more than the youth in the rest of urban Pakistan, and read the works of popular historians and intellectuals from Punjab. But even reading these writers in Urdu does not save them from the high surveillance of the security agencies. Progressive thinking helps them to think politically, but it also increases the risk of detachment from mainstream thinking.

The news of the disappearance of an educated youth causes more anger as this is perceived as an action carried out by the state institutions, which are viewed as opposed to mainstreaming Baloch youth. The security apparatus has no appetite for progressive ideas, social change, and freedom of expression, and they see the Baloch youth through a narrow ideological prism, designed around the two-nation theory and binary thinking.

Stigmatising and labelling pushes Balochistan’s marginalised youth deeper into an identity crisis. This is more dangerous than ignoring their legitimate demand for resource distribution and political empowerment. The identity crisis catalyses grievances. This is not hard to understand. When Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman of Haq Do Tehreek fails, with all his religious credentials and struggle within the constitutional domain, and when the establishment-supported chief minister boycotts the federal budget and the National Economic Council meeting, then what kind of signals are being sent to the ordinary people of Balochistan?

Economic, social and political disparities cannot nurture uniform thinking — this is equally true for both Gwadar and Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2023

Baloch militant merger targets Pakistan and China

Newly formed Baloch Nationalist Army has already launched a deadly urban terror attack and vows to hit China’s interests next

By SALMAN RAFI SHEIKH

JANUARY 29, 2022

Ethnic Baloch militants in Pakistan in a 2020 file photo. Image: Twitter

In a new phase in the long-running Baloch separatist war in Pakistan, a recent Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA) terror attack in the city of Lahore indicates the insurgency is expanding from Balochistan’s rugged mountains to Punjab urban centers.

On January 20, a bomb blast ripped through a busy Lahore business district, killing three and wounding over 20. The BNA, which was formed less than two weeks before the bombing after the United Baloch Army (UBA) and the Baloch Republic Army (BRA) merged, accepted responsibility for the attack in a social media post carried by media.

The merger is significant not only because it fuses two potent militant groups fighting for the separation of Balochistan from Pakistan but also because the new entity will target China’s interests in the country, including likely Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects.

The newly formed BNA also marks the coming together of the Marris and Bugtis, two of Balochistan’s largest tribes that historically have not always seen eye to eye.

But where the tribes do agree is in their fight against perceived state abuse in Balochistan, perpetuated in many instances through military-protected, China-funded infrastructure projects that they contend do not help or involve local populations.

The UBA is led by Mehran Marri, the son of late Baloch ideologue Khair Bakhsh Marri, who led the Marris for years. The BRA, on the other hand, is led by Brahumdagh Bugti, the son of Akbar Bugti, the Baloch sardar and leader of the Bugti tribe who was killed in 2006 in a military operation.

Although both Marri and Bugti tribes populate other militant groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) now led by Khair Bakhsh’s other son, Hyrbyair Marri, the UBA-BRA merger underlines how Baloch militant groups are increasingly converging across tribal lines to form a united front against the Pakistan state.

In 2018, the BLA merged with the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and BRA to form Baluch Raji Ajohi Sangar (BRSA), or Baloch Nationalist Freedom Movement.

Balochistan Liberation Army fighters at an undisclosed location in a file photo.

 Photo: AFP

This cross-tribal convergence is apart from the Baloch militant groups’ active attempts at cultivating support from non-Baloch disaffected ethnic militant outfits, particularly from Sindh province, which shares a border with Balochistan.

In June 2020, the BRSA formed an alliance with a Sindhi militant group known as the Sindudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA). The alliance was formally announced in July 2020 to “liberate” both Sindh and Balochistan and target the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$60 billion spoke on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The newly formed BNA shares the same insurgent objectives. In a BNA statement shared with Balochistan-based media, the group said it was formed to “expand Baloch national resistance movement against the Pakistani military’s fascism.”

The statement also confirmed that the BNA would continue to be a part of the BRSA, and, like the BRSA, would intensify attacks against both “Pakistan state and its partners (e.g. China).”

This expansion appears to have two tactical facets. Whereas the BRSA has been keen to choose hard targets – Pakistan security forces or Chinese personnel and projects – the BNA’s first attack in Lahore, which apparently was originally going to target a bank, shows it will focus at least partly on soft targets in urban areas both inside and outside of Balochistan.

The two-pronged strategy is a major cause of concern for Pakistan, especially at a time when it is already facing a resurgent Islamist challenge from the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistan Taliban. TTP has recently ramped up its cross-border attacks from Afghanistan targeting security forces.

The big unanswered question, however, concerns why is the Baloch insurgency intensifying now? The mergers and promise of intensified attacks are directly tied to the situation in Afghanistan for two reasons.

First, although the Afghan Taliban is not itself allied with any Baloch insurgents, its victory last year against a superpower has “inspired Baloch insurgent groups into forming a united front to achieve a similar victory, engage the Pakistan army in a serious war to give the Pakistan state a formidable challenge,” said a Baloch nationalist who requested anonymity.

Second, because Pakistan’s relations with the Afghan Taliban have deteriorated since the latter’s seizure of power in Kabul, reportedly with help and guidance from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Islamabad now lacks the influence to pressure the Taliban to eliminate Baloch separatists based in Afghanistan.

A Tehreek-e-Taliban fighter in a file photo. The terror group is ramping up its attacks in Pakistan. Photo: Facebook

The BNA’s hope for a strong, popularly backed war will most likely aim to leverage recent popular protests in Balochistan’s Gwadar against local people’s exclusion from fishing grounds and businesses in favor of privileged Chinese trawlers.


That comes on top of local exclusion from the China-financed port at Gwadar, which the Pakistan military has sealed off from locals for security reasons. Under terms of the port’s construction, China will receive 90% of revenues generated there for 40 years.

According to a veteran Baloch insurgent who requested anonymity, “with the crown jewel of CPEC in Pakistan now completely disillusioned with the promise of development, an opportunity for Baloch insurgent groups to win back popular support for their war does exist.”

He said the recent success of the Gwadar protests in forcing Pakistan authorities to meet at least their minimum demands, including protecting their businesses from perceived as illegal Chinese fishing boats, shows that the Pakistan state can be forced to yield to Baloch resistance.

A deep-seated sense of exclusion has driven Baloch nationalism and militant insurgency since the 1948 forced accession of Balochistan to Pakistan, according to Mir Muhammad Ali, a veteran Baloch nationalist who fought the Pakistan Army in the 1970s.

This, he says, continued during both military dictatorships as well as under the so-called democratic eras, with the present hybrid regime controlling Balochistan even more directly since 2018 than was the case during the previous government of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N).

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s military-aligned administration clearly senses the rising risk

.

Pakistani naval personnel stand guard near a ship carrying containers at the Gwadar port. Photo: AFP / Aamir Quereshi

His appointment last year of Jamhoori Watan Party chief Shahzain Bugti to hold talks with Baloch militant groups has failed to make any meaningful progress on underlying issues, not least the fact that their province remains under the military’s political, economic and administrative control.

The Pakistan Army, rather than rolling back its presence to facilitate dialogue, is now expanding its security and economic footprint, seen in its fortified presence at Gwadar and involvement in the development of one of the world’s biggest untapped copper and gold deposits at the province’s Reko Diq.

Both, analysts and observers say, could provide potent targets for the newly merged BNA.

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Akhtar Baloch

IN MEMORIAM: RECORDER OF THE FORGOTTEN PAST

Dr Naazir Mahmood

Published August 28, 2022

Akhtar Baloch, also known as ‘Karaanchi Wala’, had his own mode of resistance.

He resisted cultural decay by frequently detailing the erosion of our heritage in his blogs for Dawn, which attracted readership both nationally and internationally. He also resisted human rights violations in Pakistan — especially in Sindh — through his work for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

He fought for the rights of marginalised citizens, ranging from small ethnic and religious groups to the transgender communities and people of diverse sexual orientations. An activist with an academic touch, he had a keen eye for old books, buildings and manuscripts. He frequented old book stalls as a compulsory ritual and rummaged through literature, collecting nuggets of humanism from poetry and prose. His death on July 31 — at the age of 55 — has left us poorer in an already depleted intellectual legacy for he was a fine journalist and a caring friend.

This is not an obituary, rather an attempt to give my readers a glimpse of what Akhtar Baloch stood for. Born in Mirpurkhas in 1967, he spent the first 30 years of his life there. During his college years, he participated in various literary and political activities. This was under the dark time of the Gen Zia regime.

Akhtar Baloch was an eyewitness to the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD). Even as a teenager he could feel the pain and oppression of the brutal crackdown that General Zia and his cronies meted out to all who dared to dissent. Akhtar Baloch’s literary pursuits started when he read extensively in Sindhi and then translated some selected Sindhi writings into Urdu. His love for languages honed his skills as a renowned translator and by the age of 30, he was already making waves as a journalist and a translator of repute.

Activist, journalist and researcher, Akhtar Baloch, who passed away on July 31, will be remembered for the vast and well-documented archive he leaves behind on Karachi’s forgotten streets, history and overlooked communities

Next, he headed to Hyderabad where he emerged as a fearless defender of human rights. The HRCP benefitted from his efforts as he became its provincial coordinator. His name did not go unnoticed by the oppressors as the country was now reeling under another military dictatorship led by Gen Pervez Musharraf. On Pakistan Day 2003, Akhtar Baloch was abducted by “unknown persons” who threatened him and tortured him for days before releasing him.

The last 20 years of his life were spent in Karachi where he established a large following among his friends, fellow journalists, readers and students. His ever-smiling face endeared him to many as he became a source of knowledge for them on commonly ignored issues. He also became a reputable researcher after extensively working with the transgender community in Sindh. In 2010, City Press in Karachi published his book tilted Teesri Jins (The Third Sex). Ilm-o-Adab published its third edition in 2020.

The Third Sex

Teesri Jins, a marvelous work of both primary and secondary research, outlines the travails of transgender persons in Sindh, and deciphers their esoteric language called ‘Farsi Chand’. The transgender community has their own language that other people struggle to understand. Akhtar Baloch spent considerable time with transgenders to document the intricacies of their language — an assorted mix of diverse expressions from different tongues. Some prominent transgender persons’ such as Bindya Rana, Guru Keta, Shahana alias ‘Shaani’ and Yasmeen Faqeer’ trusted Akhtar Baloch and shared with him what they had not disclosed to anyone else.

Akhtar Baloch’s book Teesri Jins

He visited many cities in Sindh where the transgender community had a dera (settlement). Within Hyderabad’s city centre, transgender people have their base in Khadra Gali which Akhtar Baloch frequented. The best feature of Teesri Jins was its focus on the community’s historical background. Through detailed interviews with activists and leaders of the transgender community, Akhtar Baloch gathered invaluable information that hitherto was not available anywhere. Based on nearly two dozen in-depth interviews, the book unfolds a terrifying saga of exploitation and marginalisation the community.

The book became an instant hit; it is still a unique source of academic information. Full of authentic accounts and references that give credence to his narrative, Akhtar Baloch gave voice to a community which is a target of coercion and repression.

Humanism in Urdu Literature

Urdu Adab Mein Insaan Dosti (Humanism in Urdu Literature) became another bestseller by Akhtar Baloch. In this purely academic work, he analyses the humanistic tradition in Urdu literature from the 17th to the 19th century. It is a treasure trove of nuggets from Urdu literature that enlightens readers about its humanistic credentials. In it, Akhtar Baloch defines the concept of humanism and how it is related to literature. The very essence of creative writing appears to be an endeavour of a humanist approach to life, which states that when hatred and love vie for space, love triumphs.

He began his research by going through the writings from the early period of Urdu literature that emerged in the Deccan, the southern part of the Subcontinent, and tracing the elements of humanism in the Deccan milieu where Urdu was taking shape. Then he moves on to the 18th century in which the subject matter of literature and poetry developed a tinge of political disintegration as reflected in the poetry of that period.

Akhtar Baloch discusses the reservations held by Mir Jafar Zatalli and his contemporary poets towards a rapidly transforming society. Chaos and mayhem across India influenced the literature of that time, and authors and poets could not remain aloof to the social and political realities. From poets such as Mir and Sauda to an emerging Urdu prose towards the end of the 18th century, Akhtar offers us vignettes of Urdu literary gems in this book.

His interest was not confined to any one genre of literature; he branched into multiple modes of expressions circulating from the 17th to 19th centruries. He proves that all genres in Urdu literature shared a recurring theme of humanism. By studying the merits and demerits of prominent writers, Akhtar Baloch unveiled the literary trends emerging out of the first century of colonial rule. For instance, Mirza Ghalib, his favourite poet, illustrates his humanism and continues to dominate Urdu poetry to date.

Urdu Adab Mein Insaan Dosti concludes with a discussion on the society that was emerging in the aftermath of the 1857 War of Independence. Akhtar Baloch charts the changing patterns of norms and values in Urdu literature during the second half of the 19th century, especially in light of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh Movement.

THE KARAANCHI WALA

In 2013, Akhtar Baloch started writing the ‘Karaanchi Wala’ blogs about old buildings, personalities and the streets of Karachi. His writings appeared on the internet simultaneously in English, Sindhi and Urdu, causing many newspapers such as Intikhab and Azaadi in Balochistan, and Mashriq from Lahore and Peshawar to carry his pieces. His quest for historical accuracy was unmatched as he searched for references from the most unlikely people and places. His unique style made him a credible source even within the highbrow academic community.

Akhtar Baloch’s Karaanchi Wala is a compilation of his blogs

He wrote about karo-kari (honour killings), the Jirga system and issues that the scheduled castes and other marginalised people faced in Sindh. He also taught as a part-time teacher at the Federal Urdu University. Through his popular blogs, his identity as ‘Karaanchi Wala’ received wider acceptance.

These blogs touched upon subjects of history that many people considered taboo or not worth discussing. For example, in 2016, when his first collection of blogs appeared in book form, the episode about the marriage proposal between Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Ruttie sparked the interest of readers. To corroborate this anecdote, our researcher frantically looked for a book by Sharif uddin Pirzada and referenced it properly. His telling of this episode is to the point and lacking sensation.

Scrutiny of facts was his forte and, at times, he spent weeks — even months — searching for material to verify the sources that he used for his blogs. As he was passionate in his quests and dispassionate in his analysis, his writings were impartial and unbiased. At the end of his blogs, he invited his readers to enlighten him with additional information, which portrayed him as being an intellectually flexible person. He often accredited Dr Mubarak Ali, Hussain Naqi, I.A. Rehman, Saba Dashtyari and Tuaseef Ahmed Khan, all of whom he considered his guides and mentors.

In following their footsteps, Akhtar Baloch deviated from the usual track of history that many textbooks in Pakistan promote. His detours facilitated a unconventional approach to history and led him to discover some lost pages from our recent past. His primary interest was highlighting those buildings and people that deserve our appreciation and attention. His blogs focused on researching the cities and towns of Sindh and its people, bridging the gap of representation between them and the mainstream.

Akhtar Baloch’s corpus resists, upends and challenges the official narratives of history that mutilate our past by clarifying misconceptions and debunking misrepresentations of history. He developed a body of work that remains unparalleled. He was a true proponent of people’s history in Sindh and paved an alternate path for fellow researchers and students which was nonconformist.

Over the years, his first collection of 40 blogs, ‘Karaanchi Wala 1’, was developed into three editions, prompting him to compile a second collection in 2020 comprising 30 blogs that were deeply informative. His blog discussing the Lahore Resolution of March 1940 became popular as it challenged the date of its passage and instead proved the correct date to be March 24th rather than 23rd. In another blog, he highlights August 15 as Pakistan’s actual Independence Day.

His blog on Jam Saqi and Nazir Abbasi talks about the difficulties of carrying out left-wing and progressive political activities under both civilian and military governments in the recent history of Pakistan. Being a secular activist, Akhtar Baloch underscored the positive interventions by various religious communities in Sindh. One such personality that piqued his interest was Bhagat Kunwar Ram, a promoter of harmony and love among diverse communities. Bhagat was a Hindu musician, singer and altruist. Akhtar Baloch details that a fanatic follower of Pir Bharchaundi Sharif assassinated Bhagat in 1939.

Akhtar Baloch was an investigative genie par excellence who often became a victim of plagiarism by other so-called journalists and anchorpersons. One notable instance is when an anchorperson plagiarised Baloch’s complete research on the Jewish synagogue in Karachi without acknowledging the source. Even the photos that Akhtar Baloch had taken and used for his blog were downloaded and used without any credit or consent. However, this was not a one-off incident as the same anchor later copied Baloch’s blog on the funeral of Fatima Jinnah — reproduced by many newspapers as some acknowledged Baloch’s efforts while others did not. One person even published a 36-page booklet on Fatima Jinnah’s funeral using Baloch’s blog with no mention of the writer. While Baloch was happy his work was being widely circulated, it was unfortunate that he could not claim credit for his efforts. Adarsh Ayaz Leghari and Arif Anjum translated his Urdu blogs for Dawn in English, while some other Sindhi magazines also translated and published them.

Meanwhile, he always acknowledged even if somebody made a minor contribution to his blog and for this he gave credit to our late friend Musaddiq Sanwal from whom Akhtar Baloch learnt a lot.

His third book of the ‘Karaanchi Wala’ series, which he asked me to review, appeared in 2020. Sadly, I kept postponing it for one reason or another without realising that he might not be here when I finally sat down to write about him. Wusatullah Khan called him Sir John Marshal of Karachi — Marshal had discovered the ruins of Mohenjo Daro. Akhtar Baloch laid bare the bones of old Karachi and encouraged us to appreciate its rich past.

The writer is a columnist and an educator. He can be reached on
Twitter @NaazirMahmood.

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 28th, 2022

At UN, Baloch activist raises concern about rights violation in Pakistan

Munir Mengal, a Baloch political and human rights activist on Tuesday raised concerns about the violation of the ongoing rights against minority communities in Pakistan.

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ANI | Geneva | Updated: 23-03-2022 

Munir Mengal, a Baloch political and human rights activist (File Photo). Image Credit: ANI

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Munir Mengal, a Baloch political and human rights activist on Tuesday raised concerns about the violation of the ongoing rights against minority communities in Pakistan. Speaking at the 49th session of UN Human Rights Council, Munir said, "No amount of violence and no amount of brutality, no amount of regression can crush the people's desire for the basic right to freedom. Since 1948, Pakistan with a colonial mindset has unleashed a might on the people of Balochistan who refuse to surrender their most basic right --- the right to regain their sovereignty on their land."

The Baloch rights activist said the brutality of the Pakistani state has led to an unending tragedy for the people of Balochistan. "The family members, the civil society representatives and students are continuously rallying at press clubs at Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad for the safe release of victims of enforced disappearances," he added.

Citing the reports of the human rights group, Munir said thousands of Baloch are victims of enforced disappearances including Baloch women and infants. "The practice of disappearing by force, extrajudicial killings and target killing are done in Balochistan systematically on daily basis with impunity." Notably, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) earlier had expressed alarm over reports of a fresh wave of enforced disappearances in Balochistan and the rest of Pakistan, including most recently, Hafeez Baloch, a postgraduate student at the university in Islamabad.

Experts believe that the missing persons may be dead or their mutilated bodies dumped into ditches and may be locked in some detention centers. The 49th regular session of the Human Rights Council started on February 28 and will continue till April 1. 

(ANI)

Baloch activists seek UN intervention to stop human rights violations in Balochistan

The Baloch political and human rights activists have demanded immediate intervention by the United Nations to stop gross human rights violations in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.

ANI | Geneva | Updated: 17-03-2022 22:55 IST | Created: 17-03-2022 22:55 IST

Baloch activists seek UN intervention to stop human rights violations in Balochistan. Image Credit: ANI

The Baloch political and human rights activists have demanded immediate intervention by the United Nations to stop gross human rights violations in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.The Baloch Human Rights Council organised a demonstration at Broken Chair during the 49th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.

They shouted slogans like "Stop human rights violations in Balochistan", "We Want Freedom" and "Terrorist State Pakistan". The banners at the demonstration highlight the ongoing genocide and rising cases of enforced disappearances in the province.The protesters alleged that thousands of youth have been forcibly displaced in Makkuran, Jhalawan, Dera Bugti, and Kohlu regions of Balochistan and the perpetrators of human rights violations are given impunity by the military-controlled legal system in Pakistan.

Samad Baloch, General Secretary of Baloch Human Rights Council said, "We are requesting the United Nations, the international community and the so-called civilised world to intervene in Balochistan as they have done in Ukraine. Russia has invaded a sovereign nation Ukraine, similarly, in 1948 Pakistan has invaded and forcibly annexed Balochistan."He added, "It is the high time that they show their moral, political responsibility and duty to intervene in Balochistan and help the people of Balochistan to gain their sovereignty to live in peace, security and stability with honour and dignity in their own soil."Hassan Hamdam, Vice President of Baloch Human Rights Council said, "We are here to highlight the gross human rights violations happening across Pakistan. Balochistan is having the worst human rights violations these days as the Pakistan Army takes some actions against the Baloch people. They are creating a heinous crime against humanity."He added, "It is unfortunate that the Pakistan Army picks young Baloch from their houses and their mutilated bodies found in mountains. They are disappearing like ghosts. These ghosts are from the Pakistani intelligence agencies."Hassan said, "We are here to request the international community if there is a state who is killing its people then who is going to protect us? When the state fails to provide security and justice to the people, then there must be someone who is responsible to take action. It is the United Nations that brings us here to highlight these issues." (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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BALOCHISTAN
The sustainable approach

Ali Raza Zaidi 

Published May 22, 2022



A COMMON perception that holds true within our society is that poverty and lack of education are the major factors contributing to youth being engaged in violent extremist activities. Knowing that Shari Baloch belonged to a highly educated, upper middle class, respectable family in Balochistan was therefore a major ‘shock’ to the nation. How could someone so literate, so open-minded, belonging to such a respectable family, be brainwashed to commit such a horrific act?

Read: An insurgency restructured

Unfortunately, this common perception is a flawed one. Over the last 30 years, we have repeatedly witnessed highly educated, middle-class youth being involved in terrorist activities all over the world, including here in Pakistan. Many of the United States 9/11 hijackers had middle-class, educated backgrounds, and in some cases grew up in secular families. Similarly, research points to the fact that youth joining the Islamic State group are not driven by poverty; in fact, the number of IS fighters joining from a particular country positively correlates with the country’s per capita GDP, with many foreign fighters originating from highly developed European countries. The tragic Safoora Goth massacre in 2015 in Karachi, where 43 civilians were killed, was perpetrated by youth who attended some of the most prestigious institutes of Pakistan such as, IBA, NED and Karachi University.

The point here is not to fixate on simply structural factors like the lack of education or poverty, but to get to the core of why youth, in this case Baloch youth, are being attracted to violent extremism by groups such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), because unless we do that, we will never be able to achieve any semblance of a sustainable solution to this problem.

Residents of Balochistan in general and Baloch youth in particular, have been grossly marginalised and disenfranchised for decades, despite having their province significantly contribute to the welfare and prosperity of Pakistan for decades. What BLA provides Baloch youth with is a sense of purpose, a sense of shared Baloch identity and belonging, which they feel has been trampled upon by Pakistan’s government and military for decades.

There is a solution to Baloch militancy that does not involve disappearances and arrests.

With the advent of CPEC and other China-led projects in Balochistan, the exploitation of Balochistan in the eyes of Baloch youth has greatly increased, adding more fuel to their already defensive, marginalised mindset. The resulting effect is, unfortunately, what we saw in the form of the suicide attack by Shari Baloch.

Read: What the state must do to prevent others from following in the KU attacker's footsteps

One approach of fixing this problem is the counterterrorism one — going after the BLA perpetrators, conspirators and masterminds behind this and any possible future attacks, which the government and military are rightly doing. I put this akin to bandaging or treating an open wound, which is necessary, but unless we address the cause behind the wound and take preventive measures, we are highly likely to get hurt repeatedly.

Countering violent extremism experts will tell you that there is actually a sustainable solution to this, one that doesn’t involve disappearances, arrests and capital punishment, but rather, requires painstaking efforts to be taken, which start by engaging the community in a sincere manner, especially the youth at various levels of Baloch society — including in universities, vulnerable neighbourhoods within districts, cities and even down to the union council levels.

Read: Renewed insurgency?

The first step is to give the disenfranchised Baloch youth a platform to voice their genuine concerns — one that is legitimised by the state machinery so that the youth believe the endeavour to be a sincere effort for the betterment of Balochistan. This can be done through gatherings in universities across the state and public places in vulnerable neighbourhoods, where there is representation from not only Baloch youth and intellectuals, but also the civil government and military leadership. Such gatherings should be given local and national media coverage whenever possible, as having these discussions in a publicised, open and transparent manner will act as a deterrent to the recruitment efforts of radical groups such as the Majeed Brigade, as youth will have a positive platform to air their grievances.

Once trust through sustained engagement has been established between the Baloch community and the government and military leadership, the key is to not simply leave it at that stage, but to follow it up by giving Baloch youth a greater practical role in shaping the development programmes in their regions. If gentrification and exploitation of the Baloch due to ‘Chinese exploitation projects’ is the concern, then Baloch community leaders and youth should be included in the decision-making process of how Chinese projects will benefit Baloch youth, instead of threatening the erosion of Baloch society.

It is important that this entire process is led by a central government agency such as the National Counter Terrorism Authority, whose official mandate is to “to assume the crucial role of an effective coordinating entity ... synergise the efforts of law enforcement/intelligence agencies and other departments/ministries in countering terrorism, extremism, and factors leading to terrorism in the country” and implemented through local NGOs or organisations. What’s imperative for long-term success is that the organisations implementing these community engagement activities have the trust and buy-in of the community and youth leadership in Balochistan. This can only happen if the implementing organisations are already known to and trusted by the communities on ground. Simply awarding the funding for such programming to large national or international NGOs having little or no contextual knowledge and community buy-in, could further exacerbate the problem.

It is paramount for us to understand that no matter how many terrorists we arrest and punish, no matter how good our counter-intelligence becomes to prevent similar BLA attacks, we will never be able to find a solution to Baloch militancy unless our civil, political and military leadership engages Baloch community leaders, especially the youth in good faith, treating them as equals and giving them ownership in shaping the future of Balochistan.

The writer is a Countering Violent Extremism expert currently working in Somalia on stabilisation programming.
alirzaidi@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/gandairi
Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2022

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