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State vs militants: A multifaceted conflict in Balochistan

By Xari Jalil - "Understanding the context is crucial"; rights activists call for dialogue and political resolution

16 Min Read

– “Understanding the context is crucial”; rights activists call for dialogue and political resolution

By Xari Jalil

LAHORE

Human rights activist and lawyer, Asma Jahangir, once said in an interview that when dealing with the issue of terrorist organizations, understanding the context of a situation was crucial.

“I want to point out that there are the Baloch nationalists, and there are those who use religion for terrorism.” she said. “The struggle by the Baloch nationalists is for their own rights. But the other group, it aims to impose its values on to others, at gun point. So, these two things are poles apart from each other. For those who understand the parlance of human rights, it is important to differentiate between these two.”

 

The killing of 23 civilians on August 26, only on basis of their ethnicity and domicile, shocked the entire nation. The incident, whose responsibility was taken up by the Baloch Liberation Army’s Majeed Brigade faction, was condemned by most quarters. But some of the voices have been careful in also reminding others, about the state’s terrorism carried out in Balochistan.

‘Balochistan’s militancy has a history’

Veteran political leader and human rights activist Afrasiab Khattak echoes Jahangir’s thoughts, when he says that it is important to look into the context of a terrorist organization or act.

“This did not start on August 26,” he told Voicepk. “It goes all the way back to the problematic merger of Kalat nearly 80 years ago. This is the fifth uprising by the Baloch since 1948.”

Their original demands were for provincial autonomy and control of resources; for their own identity, in essence. These demands still stand today, aggregated with newer concerns, and a deep-seated resentment for being denied of it all in the first place.

“These demands can only be fulfilled if there is a federal system, but that has never been implemented,” says Khattak. “There is a strange kind of hybrid system at work here, one that is dominated by army generals. There are meant to be courts of law, but none of them provide relief. For the last few years, Balochistan has been run like a colony, especially since the creation of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP.) It has become an intelligence-run operation.”

When people protested against this situation, enforced disappearances begin.

“In actuality disappearances in Balochistan have been happening since 1976,” says Khattak. “Sardar Attaullah Mengal’s son, Asadullah Mengal, and his friends were disappeared from Karachi back then. No one knew their whereabouts, and probably would not have until one day, when General Zia told Attaullah Mengal his son was dead. I was in Hyderabad jail with him, along with 55 others, who had been protesting Zia’s coup. Leaders including Ghous Bux Bizenjo, Wali Khan, and others were there. After that in 2006, the Musharraf operation resulted in the highest number of forcibly disappeared persons from Balochistan.”

Afrasiab Khattak has been part of a Commission on the Disappearances of Baloch Students, which was ordered to be set up by Justice Athar Minallah. “We met with the families of the disappeared, and we told the CTD Balohcistan about the case of a missing poet. The next day, we ‘suddenly’ discovered that he was killed in an encounter. There have been so many fake police encounters of missing persons.”

The assassination of Sardar Akbar Bugti, he says, was a turning point in the history of Balochistan.

“Afterwards the resistance within had a new face – the BLA, the Majeed Brigade; but also, civil society movements like the recent protests led by Mahrang Baloch. The alienation is so deep and the gap is so big that there is just no appeasing the people of Balochistan.”

Recently, the ISPR chief said that the BYC had links to terrorist organizations.

“BYC led protest demos were an organic movement rooted in society,” says Khattak. “These were families out for agitation. It’s the largest ever movement. But the state terms them terrorists. People have been shamefully asking questions of Mahrang Baloch, only to pin her down and silence her. This is wrong. The conflict has escalated but there is no military solution. The only way it can be resolved is through politics and diplomacy.”

‘Sometimes they are forced to turn violent’

Mir Muhammad Talpur, who was part of the struggle in Balochistan in the 1970s, brings to attention a comparison with Hamas, and its terrorist attack of May 7 this year, in reaction to the ongoing Israeli aggression since the 1940s.

“It may not be the same situation, but it is similar, and when you think of this, you know that when the people of Balochistan quietly bear the state’s attacks, it is all surpassed. But when they are pushed towards aggression, they become terrorists,” he said. Talpur reiterated his position that violence is condemnable. “However, one must see that enforced disappearances are common, and so is the state’s ‘kill and dump’ policy. Those who have gone missing before, return in a vegetative state, if they return at all. What would be the reaction of their loved ones after that? Everyone has been exclaiming how those 23 civilians were not part of the army. Do they also comment on how those boys who are picked up are not all terrorists either? And when people like Mahrang and Sammi begin a peaceful movement, their demonstration is attacked and fired at by state forces.”

 

Talpur says that the turning point was much before the assassination of Akbar Bugti in 2006. It was actually in 2000, when Nawab Khair Bux Marri was arrested, Balach Marri ran off to the mountains and things took an ugly turn.

“In 2008, when Zardari’s civilian government came to the center, there was a unilateral ceasefire announced by all militant groups, in the hope that things would be better. But by January 2009, this was broken. From 2008 to 2013, the state’s kill and dump policy worsened, and the discovery of the Tutak mass graves added up. They live in their imaginary castles,” he adds. “Balochistan is an unnecessary tragedy. It could have been reformed but they didn’t want that.”

Senior journalist Zahid Hussain says that the Taliban in comparison to the BLA use force to impose their order.

“The BLA is militant but was created inevitably after a lot of Baloch nationalists who had very valid demands were pushed to become that way,” he says. “For example Dr Allah Nazar was a doctor, but he set aside his stethoscope and took up arms – forming the BSO- Azad propagating armed struggled and now heads BLF (Baloch Liberation Front).

“Today they are condemning Mahrang Baloch who has led a non violent protest,” he compares. “Time and again, nationalist parties were dissuaded from elections, not being allowed to be mainstream. That is when the alienation starts. The TTP issue is different – it is not a political issue.”

Rising religious extremism

Former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Zohra Yusuf, does not mince her words.

“Absolutely I would call the BLA terrorists but if you compare them to the Taliban, for instance, then they are of a different variety,” she said. “But attacking innocent and unarmed civilians is terrorism. Successive governments and security agencies have carried out operations. Bhutto’s time was when it started, and the turning point was Akbar Bugti’s murder.”

Now to counter these militant nationalists, the state has been allowing sectarian groups to operate in the province, says Yusuf. “Slowly extremism is rising.”

There was silence from the political leaders in Balochistan, when Voicepk tried reaching them, including Akhtar Mengal from the Balochistan National Party (BNP), Tahir Bizenjo, and Dr Abdul Maalik Baloch (National Party). Other intellectuals also did not want to speak openly about the issue – a possibility is the threat by the militant organizations there.

‘The BLA is committing genocide’

Malik Siraj Akbar, a Baloch political analyst based in the US, says that nothing can justify violence against civilians. “This is what the basis of the rise of groups like the BLA is: to stand against state’s violence,” he says. “But if the BLA does the same as the state then it loses legitimacy – although there is also no evidence of the state carrying out such brazen attacks on the Baloch people. There certainly are cases of enforced disappearances and frequent killings but there is no instance of the Pakistani government checking people’s ID cards and keeping all the Baloch people aside and then killing them,” says Akbar. “Now that’s what genocide is: intentional targeting of a specific race. That’s what the BLA is doing with the Punjabis. Technically, genocide, by definition, refers to killings on a larger scale.”

However, Akbar refers to Asma Jahangir’s interview and slightly disagrees.

“The BLA also wants to impose its version of politics and political action on the rest of the population. It regularly targets fellow Baloch who are a part of the Pakistani political system by calling them “traitors”. Terrorism is generally the use of violence to attain political goals. The BLA does both: engages in violence and also has political goals and demands.”

He adds that the BLA does not act in self-defense either, an area where sometimes the use of violence is often justified. There are numerous instances of the BLA being offensive, the one that started an attack. Also, on numerous occasions, it has attacked and killed unarmed civilians, from teachers to Punjabi settlers and laborers.

In Balochistan religious terrorism is mostly sectarian violence carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, says Akbar, but its frequency is much lower – one or two attacks once a year or in two years – and limited to certain areas but the area affected by the Baloch nationalists is much wider.

‘Violence is always justified by its perpetrators’

“Everywhere in the world, violence is justified whether it is by state or its institutions or an organization – it only depends which side of the table you are at,” says Shehzada Zulfiqar, senior journalist based in Quetta. “One group gives the reason of fighting for their land. While the other side says to defend themselves, everything is justified. TTP for example would say it is violent in order to impose Islamic system. On the other hand, BLA and BLF and others talk about freedom – obviously that is where they started from. They carry on their original nationalist narrative which claims that Balochistan is neglected and ignored, with no facilities for people. Today they are killing civilians in order to put pressure on the state. When they sat down for talks, it was realized that the people from their areas would get angry if they were killed. In guerilla warfare you turn towards attacking people or the quality of their lives – closing off water or gas supply, blowing up bridges and roads, etc. so you can be liberal or fundamental but there is violence after all.”

“Even if there is a 50-year-old war can have a political solution,” concludes Afrasiab Khattak. “Repression is a double-edged sword and violence breeds violence. Now this violence has spread its roots, only because of state repression and a communal policy.”

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