E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Pashtun join hands with the Baloch in Balochistan
The establishment is trying to figure out whether the Pashtun will join up with the Baloch in the event of a full-scale military operation against Islamabad
The Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal is not mincing his words nowadays. Last week he was in Islamabad and declared open war on Pakistan army and the Frontier Corps.
How'd he make it home alive?
Was it just bluster?
Is that a trick question?
The military top brass and the interior ministry don't think so. Small wonder that officials are in a clutch debating the many alarming questions the situation in Balochistan presents to Islamabad. The hot question for the establishment is whether the army and the paramilitary should launch a full-fledged military operation in Balochistan a la 1974 to flush out the "miscreants" Sources in the interior ministry say Islamabad is looking back at that period and trying to draw lessons. "We don't want any surprises and we certainly do not want this thing [an operation] to backfire," says a high official.
The Baluchistan insurgency is heating up again. Inspired by the independance of Bangladesh a few years earlier, the Baluchs launched a seperatist campaign which was crushed by the Army. It's possible Afghanistan is playing a covert role here to pay Pakistan back for supporting Taliban and Hek.
Yet another question being debated in the official circles is the likely reaction of the Pashtun nationalists to a military operation in Balochistan? Will the Pashtun activists, who have been traditionally fighting the Baloch, join the armed resistance unleashed by the Baloch or will they step aside and let the Baloch fight the army? In the seventies the Pashtun had stayed away from the insurgency. "That may not be the case now," says an observer who thinks the common cause could be the bad deal given the province by Islamabad. Some officials say the government is receiving mixed signals from the Pashtun nationalist forces, particularly since the start of the 'limited military operation' in Balochistan in the wake of the violence. The troubling fact for Islamabad is that this is the first time the Baloch and the Pashtun have jointly launched a struggle for their rights. "This bothers the government. It's better to keep them divided. The establishment doesn't like the fact that the two warring ethnic groups have joined hands on the platform of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement," says an analyst. This fact, confirm official sources, has so far blocked any major decision on the military operation in Balochistan.
The PONM consists of the Balochs, Pashtuns, Sindis and Serakis; who are opposed to the Punjabis who have dominated the army and bureaucracy since independance, although Musharraf isn't a Punjabi.
Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-08-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=41050