In a scenario reminiscent of 23 March 1971, when an impromptu Bangladesh flag was unfurled all over Dhaka, the independent Balochistan flag was displayed everywhere on 11 August, 2009. A group of students, attempting to hoist the flag over the Khuzdar University building, were prevented by law enforcing agencies. A few were detained and the university was closed indefinitely. Moreover, Pakistan’s national anthem is not sung, nor is the national flag flown in Balochistan’s schools.
All this has not happened in a day. Balochistan never reconciled to being incorporated into Pakistan. It has witnessed at least five “conflicts.” And the rulers always relied on the use of force to bring the Baloch people to heel. The first was in April 1948. The ruler of Kalat, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan, had declared independence on 11 August 1947. So the central government sent the army to force him to sign an Instrument of Accession. This action was like what India did with the Nizam of Hyderabad.
However, in the case of Balochistan, Ahmad Yar’s brother Prince Abdul Karim Khan, decided to carry on with the struggle from his Afghanistan hideout. In May 1948, he invited the leading members of nationalist political parties—the Kalat State National Party, the Baloch League, and the Baloch National Workers Party—to join him in the struggle for the creation of an independent “Greater Balochistan.” But his movement did not make much headway.
The second faceoff was led by Nawab Nowroz Khan in 1958-59, to resist the One Unit policy. He and his followers were charged with treason and arrested and jailed. Five of his family members (sons and nephews) were subsequently hanged. Nawab Nowroz Khan later died in captivity.
The third conflict (1963-69) was led by Sher Mohammd Bijarani Marri, to oppose the building of cantonments and garrisons. He led a band of guerrillas, who bombed railway tracks and ambushed convoys. The Army retaliated by destroying vast areas of the Marri tribe. This insurgency ended in 1969 when One Unit was abolished. The fourth conflict, from 1973 to 1977 was led by Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, demanding larger representation for ethnic Baloch in the government. Meanwhile in February 1973, a consignment of Iraqi diplomatic pouches containing arms, ammunition and guerrilla warfare literature was recovered from the premises of the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad. Claiming that these arms were en route to the insurgents of Balochistan, Prime Minster Bhutto dismissed the provincial government and imposed governor’s rule. Reacting to the dismissal of the provincial government Khair Bakhsh Marri formed the Balochistan Peoples’ Liberation Front (BPLF) which led large numbers of Marri and Mengal tribesmen into guerrilla warfare against the central government. Islamabad retaliated with military action that killed thousands of the Baloch fighters. This conflict ended in 1977 when Bhutto was deposed and Ziaul Huq declared a general amnesty and later, Gen. Rahimuddin oversaw a complete military withdrawal.
The ongoing conflict is therefore the fifth. It began in 2005, when Nawab Akbar Bugti and Mir Balach Marri presented a 15-point demand to the federal government, which included greater control by the locals over the province’s resources, protection for the Baloch minority and a halt to the building of military bases. When the Centre dithered, they resorted to armed conflict. Hundreds of political party members, students, doctors and tribal leaders have been detained by government security forces, many disappearing due to their links to foreign agencies and terrorist activities.
In August 2006, Akbar Bugti was killed in fighting with the army. In April this year Baloch National Movement president Ghulam Mohammad Baloch and two other nationalist leaders (Lala Munir and Sher Muhammad), were seized from a lawyer’s office, “handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck in front of their lawyer and neighbouring shopkeepers.” A few days later, their bullet-riddled bodies were found in the countryside. The incident sparked “rioting, strikes, demonstrations and civil resistance” all over the province. The killings are largely blamed on the country’s intelligence agencies.
But the rulers of Pakistan smugly ensconced in Islamabad seem still to play the ostrich. Immediately after assuming office, Prime Minister Gilani had promised to abolish the Concurrent List within 12 months, give autonomy to provinces in accordance with the Constitution as well as rights over their own resources.
Yet, 18 months later, the news from Islamabad is that Senator Raza Rabbani, Chairman of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan has drafted a “package.” This, the fifth such report, is understood to incorporate the findings of the four earlier ones, which never saw the light of day.
The Rabbani draft is billed as a “multi-faceted” strategy to remove “the sense of deprivation among the people of Balochistan.” The 15-point strategy includes initiation of political dialogue with all the parties, immediate release of all political prisoners, expeditious recovery of missing persons, inquiry into the murder of Baloch leaders, including Akbar Bugti, under the superior judiciary, rationalization of royalty on natural resources and federal excise duties, restructuring of laws on civil armed forces in the province, removing check-posts, implementing all unanimous resolutions of the Balochistan Assembly, and withdrawal of forces from Sui and other parts of the province. Rabbani also pleads for constituting the NFC award keeping the size, revenue generation and poverty in mind.
The President and the Prime Minister have approved the draft proposals, reports say. But, instead of implementing them forthwith, the President and the PM are consulting their coalition partners, starting with Asfandyar Wali of the ANP. This blasé attitude of the PM is being interpreted by analysts as an action replay of the past, because, among the other coalition partners, MQM is most vocal in support of provincial autonomy and JU (I) is not expected to oppose the reforms, either.
For the students of the Indian struggle for independence the scenario is, in fact like déjà vu. The visits of lawmakers’ delegations from Islamabad from time to time recall the visits to India by Sir John Simon (Simon Commission), Lord Pethick-Lawrence and Sir Stafford Cripps. They similarly offered packages to mollify Indians. Simultaneously, it recalls the consequences of intransigence. Britain’s failure to granting dominion status, Congress’s refusal to accept concede Muslim League’s just demands and Islamabad’s denial of their rights to the East Pakistanis led to full-blown struggles that culminated, respectively, in an independent subcontinent, India’s partition and Pakistan’s division.
Balochistsn today bristles with splinter groups. Some, like the Balochistan Students’ Organization (BSO) and Balochistan Liberaton Army (BLA) are militant, committed to independence. Others support a negotiated settlement with the Centre. But, the demand for their rights and a total autonomy is not negotiable.
Because, Balochistan’s other part lies inside Iran, it has become a playground for CIA and India’s RAW. The former sends Jundullah militants inside Iran to make trouble. The latter is active in the Pakistani Balochistan. In his recent meeting with his Indian counterpart at Sharm al Sheikh, Prime Miniter Gilani presented to him a dossier detailing evidence of India’s “involvement in terror financing in Pakistan” and training BLA operatives by RAW. There are also reports that BLA has an office in Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, Governor Zulfiqar Magsi has warned that, “The province will get out of control if the federal government did not take immediate corrective measures.” Time is therefore of the essence.
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