Saturday, September 19, 2009
Balochistan-Pakistan's Other Colony
In recent times, Balochistan has always had to live under the shadow of Afghanistan but this cannot take away the intrinsic importance of the province to the renewed Great Game of the 21st century. Pakistan’s largest province and most backward state is resource rich and geo-strategically located astride the energy routes from the Persian Gulf and as a gateway to Central Asia. It is also the least populated state of Pakistan as well as the most isolated where the Baloch have periodically rebelled against the central authority whose only answer has been use of harsh military methods to suppress the revolts under an unthinking and unhelpful political doctrine of zero-tolerance.
IMPERIAL INTERESTS
The British had realised the importance of the region that is now Balochistan as they consolidated their Indian Empire. This was reflected even as they prepared to leave the subcontinent in the 1940s they still assessed the continued importance of the region to contain Soviet expansion just as they had worried about Czarist ambitions in the 18th and 19th centuries and as an important base for controlling the energy rich Middle East.
The sixth Khan of Kalat, Naseer Khan the great, who ruled from 1749 to 1794, was the first ruler of Kalat who succeeded in uniting the various Baloch tribes who had been feuding for centuries. Naseer Khan’s kingdom extended over all the Baloch areas which today straddles adjacent parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Naseer Khan raised an army of 30,000 and the British curious about what was happening in an area potentially of great interest to them sent in their spy, Sir Henry Pottinger to assess the Khan of Kalat. Nicholas Schmidle in his essay “Waiting for the Worst: Baluchistan 2006” for the Institute of Current World Affairs and republished in the spring 2007 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review says that Sir Henry found the Khan “a most extra-ordinary combination of all virtues attached to soldier, statesman and prince.” Naseer Khan died in 1794 when the Baloch kingdom was at its zenith and “the Great Game between Russia and England for control of Central Asia was about to heat up – and Baluchistan covered one of the most sought after pieces of real estate in the world.” This is something that has not changed since then although the main players have changed and main game may have altered somewhat.
Even as the British fought their wars in Afghanistan in order to subdue it and keep the Russians away from the warm waters, their eyes were also fixed on the territory of the Khodadad Khan, the ruler of Kalat. Eventually, in July 1876, the British Resident in Dera Ghazi Khan, Sir Robert Sandeman, called on the Khan ostensibly to help sort out some quarrels between the sardars. The Britisher inveigled the Khan into appointing him as the Governor General of Balochistan, Khodadad was thus the last Khan to have actually ruled in Kalat, the British empire had reached the boundaries of Iran (then Persia and southern Afghanistan) and they ruled for the next 70 years.
As the time to go home approached, there were misgivings both in London and New Delhi about securing British interests in post war and post independence India where it was assessed that Indian rulers would not be amenable to playing the game of containing Russia in the Cold War that was becoming colder. The British Foreign Secretary in the Attlee Government, Ernest Bevin, who scarcely hid his dislike for the Indians, said with a certain amount of satisfaction at the Margate Labour Conference in June 1947 that the division of India ‘would help to consolidate Britain in the Middle East.’ (from Narendra Singh Sarila’s ‘The Untold Story of India’s Partition: The Shadow of the Great Game.’)
Archibald Wavell, the Viceroy in India from 1943 to 1747 (prior to Mountbatten) had Britain’s post-independence strategic requirement worked out. Sarila mentions that Wavell had summed that because of the costs of the Second World War Britain would have to withdraw from India eventually. India’s primary usefulness in that case would be in the field of defence and not the market. The Muslim League, which wanted a partition of India would be more co-operative in matters relating defence and foreign policy than the Congress Party could assist in bridging the gap in Britain’s defence of the Middle East and the Indian Ocean if the League succeeded in separating India’s northwest from the rest of India. Linlithgow’s (Wavell’s predecessor) who had developed a friendship with Jinnah could help. Conceivably, Wavell discussed this with Churchill in 1945.
It was also in May 1945, after Germany had surrendered, the US had bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the Post-Hostilities Planning Staff of the British War Cabinet had prepared a long term policy appraisal paper for Churchill. The report spoke of the need to have a military connection with the subcontinent to keep the Soviet Union away from the Indian Ocean. The area would provide a logistic link for sea and air communications to the region, quality man power for fighting battles, and bases against the Soviets. The report even suggested that Balochistan could be detached from the rest of India. Two years later the entire British General Staff was in favour of retaining Pakistan in the Commonwealth as the new country would be a tremendous asset in the region.
It was probably in this context that Mountbatten conveyed to the Khan of Kalat ten days before independence that his state was among the two princely states that would gain full independence. Schmidle says the other state was Nepal, but this cannot be because Nepal was already independent. The second state was most probably Kashmir as this fitted into the plan for defence of the imperial interests in India’s northwest and keeping the entire region abutting Afghanistan and Iran under friendly control.
BALOCH UPRISINGS
Bolstered by this assurance, the Khan declared independence on August 11, 1947, four days before Pakistan became independent, (while the Maharaja of Kashmir dithered) and appointed a two-tier legislature with the lower house to have elected representatives. The New York Times reported this the next day with the comment that “Under this agreement Pakistan recognizes Kalat as an independent sovereign state with a status different from that of the Indian States.” This was not to last very long, and in March 22, 1948 three of the other states – Makran, Las Bela and Kharan - that had merged with Kalat, broke away and joined Pakistan, leaving Kalat as a landlocked entity. In April 1952, Kalat also succumbed. In June 1954, Pakistan Government decided to take over the four princely states and merge them with the rest of the Balochistan province. In October 1958, the Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, who had visited the US the previous year, revolted against Pakistan, unfurled his own flag something that Kalat had been using for 500 years. Yar Khan was arrested, stripped of his titles, decorations and his annuity. It is interesting that it was in October 1958 that General Ayub Khan staged the first of many coups in Pakistan and took over after deposing the President and two months later on December 8 1958, Oman formally sold Gwadar to Pakistan. In March 1959, the tribals from Kalat revolted against Pakistan with, as the New York Times reported in May 1959 “with ‘generous backing from Kabul.’” This revolt was put down as would be so many others that followed.
The third Baloch revolt was in 1962 (the first being the declaration of independence and the annexation of Balochistan by Pakistan) essentially by the Marri tribals when they protested against the import of Punjabi settlers, curtailment of some privileges for the sardars and the lack of development in the region.
The fourth revolt from 1973 to 1977 was the big one where all the major tribes – Marri, Mengal, Bugti and Zarakzai – took to arms when Z A Bhutto, the new autocrat disguised as a democrat, refused to concede to the provincial demands on the Baloch. About 50,000 tribesmen in arms (though not the state of art) fought against 80,000 Pakistani forces helped with the Shah of Iran’s money and 30 Cobra helicopters with Iranian pilots and Pak Air Force aircraft. The revolt was suppressed ruthlessly with an estimated death toll of 15,000 Baloch. No Baloch has forgotten the incident of the Chamalang Valley when Pak army aircraft unable to overpower the Baloch guerrillas, resorted to strafing and bombed 15000 families who had taken their livestock out to graze. This had forced the guerrillas to come out of their mountain hideouts and die defending their wives and children. General Musharraf later resorted to even more repressive measures.
The current – fifth - revolt began in January 2005, following the rape of Dr Shazia Khaled and the protection given by the Pakistan Army to the accused Captain Hammad. Nawab Akbar Bugti was enraged because this happened in the Sui (Bugti) area in a protected area and this was slur on the Bugti tribe. Angered by this, the Bugtis attacked the Sui facility and General Musharraf reacted, as he invariably always did, with arrogance and insensitivity. The Baloch revolted and eventually Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in August 2006. Balochistan erupted in anger which was primarily anti-Army and anti-Punjabi as many Baloch see the Pak Army as a Punjabi Army. Anti-Punjabi sentiments, which are scarcely below the surface in Balochistan were visible in the months after Bugti was killed and many Punjabi were killed in revenge.
Akbar Bugti’s grandson, Brahamdagh Bugti renamed his party as the Balochistan Republican Party (with an armed wing), has since been leading a revolt against the Pakistan Army while Nawabzada Mir Balaach Marri, the second son of Nawab Khair Bux Marri, who had joined in with his group the Baloch Liberation Army was later killed by the Pak Army in November 2007. Balaach’s brother Hyrbyair Marri currently leads the Baloch campaign from England.
At one stage last year it appeared that the new President of Pakistan, Asif Zardari was going to pull off a major success at reconciliation when he apologised to the people of Pakistan for all the excesses against them, promised an all-party conference to look into all the problems of the province and establish a Truth Commission for the Baloch to express their grievances. But this must have been blasphemy to some because Truth Commissions are all very good in distant South Africa but in Balochistan it would mean revealing the embarrassing truth about the several hundred mysterious disappearances of Baloch nationalists under the pretext of fighting the Al Qaeda. The Pak Army could not afford to be shown up in Balochistan and face more anger and disrepute. Further progress on this dangerous path of Zardari was prevented through the disappearance and brutal murder of Ghulam Muhammed Baloch, President of the Baloch National Movement, Lala Munir Baloch from the same party and Sher Mohammed Baloch from Brahamdagh Bugti’s Baloch Republican Party. Violence erupted again, truth and reconciliation are now a thing of the past and this year the Baloch celebrated their independence day on August 11 inside Balochistan by hoisting their own flag and by singing their own national anthem. Elsewhere there were the usual rallies in the US and the UK and demands for human rights and justice. The Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleiman Dawood announced the formation of a Council for Independent Balochistan with Brahamdagh as one of the members. Announcing this from London, Mir Suleiman said that there was no question of reconciliation with Pakistan without the intervention of the UN and EU.
Unlike earlier times, when the Pak Army would put Balochistan in a padded cell and ‘sort out the Baloch’, this is no longer possible in the age of the Internet, Twitter and what have you plus the cell phone. Besides the Baloch all over the world have several websites that keep updating. Of course entry of foreigners into Balochistan is virtually impossible with each arrival notified to seven separate departments. The mandatory minder accompanies everywhere. Despite this, news has been trickling out.
Baloch nationalists have claimed that this year the Baloch National Front hoisted their Baloch flags in Nushki, Kalat, Turbat, Gwadar and Kharan while the Khuzdar Engineering University had to be shut down because a group of students belonging to the Baloch Students’ Organisation wanting to hoist the Baloch flag, clashed with the police.
According to other eyewitness accounts, Quetta looks like a city under siege, with the Army (commonly referred to as Pakistani Occupation Forces - POF) deployed behind makeshift bunkers and barbed wire encampments; armoured personnel carriers and heavy machine guns are meant to intimidate the local population; locals are routinely questioned and humiliated or taken away, especially the ones on motor cycles. In early August they had taken away about 100 persons in their search for the killer of an army trooper. The Baloch refer to themselves as the Baloch Resistance Forces. On August 12, these forces targeted a ‘POF’ convoy with a remotely operated bomb in Quetta destroying two vehicles and killing five soldiers. This was said to be in retaliation to an ongoing operation in Dera Bugti. The Baloch claim to have shot down a helicopter, blown up a 330kv pylon in Dasht, interrupted supplies from Hub, as the people celebrated the Baloch national day all over the province.
The difference between the previous insurgencies and the current one is that the old Lee Enfield .303s have been replaced with AK-47s and the fighting is led not only by the sardars that Islamabad generally tries to ridicule, but also by the middle class and the educated who are politically conscious nationalists. Money from this comes from the Baloch diapsora in the Gulf.
It is difficult to confirm how many troops have been deployed to tackle the Baloch and the estimates vary from 40,000 to 50,000 troops with about 100,000 Frontier Corps personnel. As in the case of the NWFP, deployment of the Army immediately means deployment of a Punjabi Army since there are virtually no Baloch troops in the Pak Army and this means a battle between the Baloch and the Punjabi.
WHY ARE THE BALOCH ANGRY
The British realised very early on that the Baloch, fiercely independent minded by nature and even unruly, were best left alone and they contented themselves with direct rule only in British Balochistan (mainly Pushtun in the northern part of the province) and left the princes to handle their tribesmen. The Pakistanis began to amalgamate the province into Pakistan at about the time gas was discovered in Sui, Dera Bugti in 1953.
Balochistan comprises 48% of Pakistani territory, has only 4% of the total population and despite contributing $ 1.4 billion as revenue in a year gets only US $ 116 million a year on the basis of the population. All or most new employment opportunities are being taken away by the Punjabis because the locals do not meet the required qualifications and that is because literacy is only 16%. The Baloch language is suppressed and the locals have been deprived of prime land in Gwadar to be given away to favourites from outside, they resent the establishment of new cantonments in Sui, Kohlu and Gwadar both because these are signs of oppression and secondly, because this takes away Baloch land at throw away prices. In addition, the US has control of two airbases in Dalbandin and Pangur. The irony of the situation and the degree of discrimination is evident from the fact that although gas was discovered in 1953, the first supply to Balochistan was made only in 1986. The province produces 36% of the country’s gas but gets 12% of the royalties due to it from the gas. Education and health systems are in a shambles and there is acute unemployment. Rural poverty increased by 15 % during the Musharraf years and during the 1999-2000 period while Punjab’s GDP grew by 2.4% annually that of Balochistan grew by .2%. Musharraf promised greater Baloch control of their natural assets and nothing happened like all other promises to the Baloch. The Taliban and their affiliates and loyalists, Pakistanis and Afghans have the freedom to move around in the province; it is the Baloch who are intimidated and killed. The Baloch also fear not only a demographic onslaught but also a Wahhabisation of their essentially secular culture.
In towns like Khuzdar south of Quetta, slogans like “Down with Pakistan” can be seen on the walls. Disappearances of Baloch dissidents are common at the hands of the various forces deployed there – the army, police, Frontier Corps, Rangers, and other militia. Bloggers and websites operated by Baloch nationalists outside Balochistan routinely refer to these arrests and disappearances. In fact, these disappearances were one of the issues over which Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry fell out with General Musharraf who then sacked him in November 2007. Student leaders of the Baloch Students’ Organisation to have been arrested on false charges and is not traceable. Baloch nationalists fear that if Qambar is alive he along with other BSO colleagues like Zakir Majeed Baloch and Shahzaib Baloch would probably be languishing in one of Balochistan’s Guantanamo type along with five thousand Baloch nationalists who have disappeared. Baloch nationalists now allege that CJ Choudhry has begun to distance himself from the issue of disappearances is because this was part of the deal with the Army that led to his restoration.
Source : Eternal India ,September 2009
VIKRAM SOOD'S PERSPECTIVES...: Balochistan-Pakistan's Other Colony
