Karachi, 19 Dec. (AKI) - Nationalist leaders in Pakistan's rugged Baluchistan province insist that there is no separatist movement there but one may emerge if the Pakistani military continues its major offensive there. The Pakistani forces on Sunday night began raids against those involved in rocket attacks last week during a visit by president Pervez Musharraf. "There is no separatist movement in Baluchistan but if the so-called military operations continue, a genuine separatist movement will arise,â said Baluch nationalist leader Hasil Bazenjo told Adnkronos International (AKI). | Kind of like there were no terrorists in Iraq until Bush invaded? |
Baluchistan, a south-western province that is rich in reserves of natural gas, has been rocked by violence for most of this year. Tribal groups there have been demanding more political autonomy and a greater share of the area's resources.
On 14 December rockets were fired near the paramilitary camp in Kohlu, a town about 220 kilometres east of the provincial capital Quetta. The attack occured as Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf was visiting the area to seek the support of local leaders to build a controversial dam. The separatist group known as the Baluch Liberation Amry claimed responsibility for that attack. A day later, a commander of the Frontier Corps was also injured when shots were fired at his helicopter. | Commanders really don't like being shot at, so.... |
Since Sunday, the Pakistani security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, have been carrying out a major operation against the tribal rebels in Baluchistan and there are unconfirmed reports of casualties.
Speaking to AKI, Bazenjo, the son of the former governor of Baluchistan province, the late Ghous Bux Bazinjo who was once regarded as the leader of the communist movement in Pakistan, alleged that there were no grounds for the raid conducted by the Pakistani military establishment. "The visit to Kohlu district was not on the schedule of president Musharraf. So why did he suddenly plan to visit Kohlu?" asked Bazenjo. "Secondly, when he visited Quetta, the entire city was sealed off. Why was there no security arrangements made in Kohlu district and why wasn't the area sealed like in Quetta?
"And last but not the least, what on earth brought Musharraf to a place like Kohlu to address a public meeting instead of holding congregations in any big city in Baluchistan province?â he said, in his interview with AKI. | "Who does he think he is, president of all Pakistan?" |
Bazenjo also dismissed the reports that the commander of a paramilitary force in the area, had been injured the day after the Musharraf attacks, and argued that the federal security forces had begun targeting 'separatists' two weeks earlier. "The operation began almost 15 days before that incident in places like Qalat and Chaghai [in Baluchistan]," he said. "The government termed it a search operation against illegal weapons but the fact was that the army never landed on the ground. The helicopters only fired upon certain targets. What kind of a search was that?" Bazenjo said. | Sounds like part two of a "Search" and "Destroy" kind of search |
"Now the operation has spread into four areas including Kohlu, Mohmand, Chaghai and Qalat," he added.
The Pakistani government has said that it is looking to arrest a member of the Baluchistan assembly, Nawabzada Balaach Marri, the son of nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bux Marri. Both father and son and the entire Marri tribe went into exile in Afghanistan after the government ruled by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) conducted an operation in the mid-1970s against insurgents in the Baluchistan province. Balaach was educated in Moscow and the entire tribe only returned to Pakistan when the mujahadeen seized power in Kabul in the early 1990s.
"Is it rational to arrest a single person after the government conducted operations in all Baluch-speaking areas?" said Bazenjo. "This government does not have any concrete base," said Bazinjo. "They created ghosts like Osama Bin Laden to terrify the West and secure support for their military dictatorships. The operation in Baluchistan is another ploy to appease the capitalist class of Punjab to muster support in order to prolong his [president Musharraf's] tenure in power" concluded Hasil Bazenjo. |