29 December 2005
Balochistan: Yet another crackdown
By A.R. Siddiqi
AT A random reckoning, we are seeing the fifth major military/paramilitary operation in Balochistan since independence. This is besides other lesser known and relatively minor military actions launched in the province from time to time.
The first one was in April 1948 when the centre used military force to get a recalcitrant Khan of Kalat to accede to Pakistan. The second was launched, again against the anti-state activities of the Khan, on the eve of the country's first martial law on October 7, 1958 and was cited as one of its causes.
The third military action came in October 1972 because of some trouble, largely conjectural, in and around the Pat Feeder area. Drought-stricken Marris, relatively the most peaceful of the Baloch tribes, were said to have raided some Punjabi settlements around the area. About the same time, Salim Bugti was reported to be advancing on Quetta at the head of a tribal Lashkar with aggressive intentions. Brigadier (later Lieut-Gen and governor of Sindh) Abbasi, then director, military operations, at the GHQ could not substantiate the reports after contacting the civil authorities concerned in Quetta. He conveyed the correct picture to the army chief, General Tikka Khan.
Nevertheless, under the direct orders of Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto, force was used in and around the village of Goth Mohammad Hussain, where a Punjabi settler was allegedly killed by Marri raiders.
The fifth, the longest-lasting and the costliest military operation in terms of so-called collateral damage and human casualties on both sides was launched in April 1973 after the dismissal of the provincial government headed by Ataullah Mengal as chief minister and Ghaus Baksh Bizenjo as governor.
The ensuing insurgency lasted for a full four years - 1973 through 1977. The military action not only tarnished Mr Bhutto's image as an elected prime minister but also compromised his authority vis-à-vis the army.
On July 5, 1977, General Ziaul Haq toppled the Bhutto regime and placed the country under its third martial law. One (perhaps the only one) of the Zia's brave and noble acts was to call off the military operation in Balochistan.
Regardless of the gravity and urgency of circumstances governing the current military action, the question remains as to why the same province is yet again the target. In the degree and volume of organized and focused violence, the raging insurgency in Kohlu remains almost unprecedented. Some eight rockets were fired when President Musharraf was on a visit to Kohlu in the middle of the month. A couple of days later, an army helicopter with the Inspector-General, Frontier Corps (IGFC), Maj-Gen Shujaat Zamir Dar, and his deputy Brig Saleem Nawaz on board was also attacked, injuring both.
This is the first reported incident of its kind targeting a general officer and his deputy in their own area of command. The only other episode occurred in the mid 80s. An errant missile fired from around the Chaklala airport narrowly missed the airliner, during landing or take-off, carrying Gen Ziaul Haq and his entourage.
The Kohlu incident besides underscoring the daring of the "miscreants" also indicates the high state of their training and access to sources of modern weaponry. By sheer good luck, the helicopter pilot remained unhurt. He showed absolute mastery over his craft and had the nerve to be able to make a safe landing.
Earlier, on November 15, multiple blasts shook the high security area around the PIDC House in Karachi and two of city's five star hotels besides any number of major business houses. The responsibility for the outrage was claimed by the so-called Balochistan Liberation Army. Whether phantom or real, shadow without substance, the emergence of such a body is disturbing.
Sardar Akhtar Khan Mengal, chief of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), in a recent interview said that the country was "heading towards anarchy as there was no rule of law". He said that Balochistan was "totally" under the control of government agencies like MI and ISI who were "victimizing" people.
According to the Anjuman-i-Ittehad Marri, apparently a newly-formed organization, action has been 'intensified' around Kohlu. Whether called a 'raid', an 'operation' or a crackdown, the use of different expressions hardly changes the ground reality.
The presence of some 15,000 troops and the induction of helicopter 'gunships', heavy artillery and armoured vehicles into the operation can be traced back overwhelmingly to the military. The areas at the hub of the operation include Kohlu and Dera Bugti.
Quite ominously, the launch of the operation coincided with the 34th anniversary of the fall of Dhaka to invoke grim comparisons. The use of a word like 'miscreants' alone takes the mind irresistibly back to similar phraseology used through the 1971 crisis.
The army may well claim to have wiped out the Al Qaeda networks from the tribal areas of the NWFP. The point to consider is whether we might not be creating our own indigenous brand of Al Qaeda in the shape of the Balochistan Liberation Army and such other mushroom militant bodies in Balochistan?
The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army