Balochistan and India

bhramos

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Balochistan and India

Balochistan and India

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Hamid Mir

Why is Manmohan Singh under fire in India? He is the first ever Indian prime minister who is being blamed by the Indian opposition and media for surrendering to Pakistan in Sharm el-Sheikh. Many Indians are not happy over the reference of Balochistan in the joint statement released in Sharm el- Sheikh after the meeting of Indian and Pakistani prime ministers. Some Indians think that Manmohan stabbed them in the back by accepting the Indian interference in Balochistan. There are reports that Pakistani prime minister pressurised Manmohan in Sharm el-Sheikh by handing over a dossier of alleged Indian cross-border terrorism in Balochistan and that was how Indian prime minister was forced to accept the word Balochistan in the joint statement.

I was present in Sharm el-Shekh. I remember that many Indian journalists were shocked after reading the joint statement. They started asking me that why Balochistan is mentioned in the statement? In fact many of them were not aware like many common Indians that what is going on in Balochistan. Within a few hours I started receiving calls from many Indian TV channels that what evidence was shown by Pakistan to Manmohan Singh about the alleged Indian involvement in Balochistan? In fact the Pakistani prime minister did mention Balochistan to Manmohan Singh but he never handed over any dossier to his Indian counterpart.

The situation in Balochistan came under detailed discussion during the first meeting of the foreign secretaries in the evening of July 14 in Sharm el-Sheikh which took place two days before the meeting of Manmohan and Yousaf Raza Gilani. Pakistani foreign secretary Salman Bashir told Shiv Shankar Menon that India must delink the talks from terrorism otherwise Pakistan will be forced to produce at least “three Indian Ajmal Kasab’s” in front of international media who were directly or indirectly part of the terrorist activities in Balochistan and Pakistan will easily establish that Indian consulate in Afghan city of Kandhar is actually a control room of all the terrorist activities organised by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army.

Salman Bashir told Indian foreign secretary that both Pakistan and India cannot afford a blame game right now. If Pakistan will come out with evidence that Indians are responsible for attacking Chinese engineers in the Gwadar port city it may damage Indian credibility on one side but it will also spread more anti-India feelings in Pakistan and extremist forces will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

First of all this new blame game will only help those extremist forces who successfully organised attacks in Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008, just to derail the India-Pakistan peace process.
Secondly it will also harm relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The US does not want any tensions between Islamabad and Kabul at this stage because NATO forces are trying their best to conduct a new presidential election in Afghanistan in coming few weeks. Thirdly the PPP led coalition government is aware that Balochistan is not a serious dispute like Jammu and Kashmir, it’s a problem of provincial rights and instead of internationalising the problem Islamabad should address the problem realistically. Islamabad cannot get away by just blaming India for unrest in Balochistan. Behind the scene talks with many Baloch militants are going on and good news may come out soon in this regard.

Pakistan is making noise against the Indian involvement in Balochistan insurgency in a very careful, well-calculated and “limited manner.”
Recently a prominent US magazine Foreign Affairs (March 2009) published the report of a roundtable discussion on the causes of instability in Pakistan. Christine Fair of RAND Corporation clearly said in that discussion that “having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Balochistan.”

This allegation came from a very credible American scholar who recently visited Indian consulate in Zahedan. Now where is Zahedan? It is the capital of Iranian province Sistan-o-Balochistan bordering Pakistan. More than two million Balochis live in the Iranian side of Balochistan. Iran is building a big port of Chabahar in the same area with the active help of India. Top Iranian leaders have alleged many times that American CIA is supporting Iranian Balochis to destabilise the Islamic Republic. Famous American journalist Seymour Hersh admitted in July 2008 that Bush administration gave million of dollars to a separatist Iranian group “Jandallah” which is responsible for violence in Iranian part of Baluchistan.

The presence of China in Pakistani Balochistan is also a problem for US administration. The Chinese are accused of using Gwadar as a listening post for monitoring US military activities in the Persian Gulf. If Pakistan will play India card in Balochistan, many anti-US forces in Pakistan will ask that why Pakistan is silent over the role of CIA in Baluchistan which is using Jandallah against Iran? We must know that Balochis are Kurds of South Asia. Kurds are divided in Iran, Turkey and Iraq while the Balochis are divided in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Separatist groups in Pakistan and Iran want the unification of the Baloch areas which is not acceptable to both the countries.

Musharraf gave the Gwadar port city to Chinese for development in 2003.That was the beginning of a new problem. Three Chinese engineers were killed and nine were injured on May 3rd 2004 in a remote controlled car bomb attack. Two months after that incident, Pakistan claimed on July 2nd 2004 first time that India was involved in that bomb attack. Local Baluchis were not happy over the employment of many non-Baluchis in the main development projects of their province. They also wanted a fairer share of royalties generated by the production of natural gas in their province. Instead of addressing their griviences, Musharraf regime launched a third military operation against them in 2005 which further aggravated the situation.

Why Indians must discuss Balochistan with Pakistan? Balochistan will be the route of at least two multinational gas pipelines. One will come from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan; the other will come from Iran to Pakistan. India could be a beneficiary of both the gas pipelines. These two pipelines could be extended from Multan to New Delhi. I think there is no harm for India to discuss Balochistan with Pakistan because stability in Balochistan will ultimately benefit India.

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, China and India should join hands with each other, stop proxy wars in Kashmir and Baluchistan as soon as possible and they can change the fate of the whole region.



The writer is the executive editor of Geo TV in Islamabad. Email: [email protected]
 

mehwish92

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Good article, thuogh I don't believe that Pak has the ability to produce "three Indian Ajmal Kasabs".
 

Energon

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Unfortunately Hamid Mir's previous works leave much to desire regarding his credibility. It is practically impossible for things to have gone down the way Mir is trying to make it sound.

I will wait for a plethora of neutral sources to shed light upon this situation before I jump to any conclusions.

Also, I wonder why Mr. Mir wrote this as an Op-ed instead of filing a story.
 

A M J

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Christine Fair of RAND Corporation clearly said in that discussion that “having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Balochistan.”
Is she the American Zaid Hamid?
.
Who let her go to Iran in an Indian Embassy secretly, and some secret Indian officials telling her the very big secret of how cunning Indians are secretly pumping money in Balochistan, and she tells this big secret to Hamid Mir,and suddenly its no longer a secret after Hamid Mir comes to know about it.
.
Epic Fail I must say.
.
Paksitanis from every sphere have ZERO credibility. Zero.
 

Energon

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Christine Fair's point was countered by Tellis who was actually on the government sponsored investigation into Afghanistan.

There is a big difference between collecting intelligence and sponsoring terrorism. I'm fairly certain that Sindh and Baluchistan are the two main areas of intelligence gathering when it comes to Pakistan, and acquiring intelligence requires the input of money. This is done by virtually every nation in the world as standard practice, but again, that isn't synonymous with sponsorship of terrorism.

The Pakistani position is that India trains and provides arms to the Baluchis akin to what they do with Kashmiri jihadis. There is no evidence of this thus far.

Selig Harrison an expert in Baluchistan who has heavier credentials than Christine Fair and field experience in Baluchistan ranging years has ruled out any active involvement in the fomenting of the Baluchistan insurgency. He has tracked the sources of funding and weapons, and it doesn't lead to India.

Two other investigations that I'm aware of (one commissioned by the DoD/Pentagon and the other by the White house) both reached the same conclusion. If India did train and arm the Baluchi insurgents the entire nature of the war would change rapidly.
 

hit&run

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this is the most idiotic article i ever read, its more like a fictional Hollywood movie. since when India is afraid of Pakistani evidences.Author is a nauseating Pakistani govt. mouth piece with its notorious agenda and central idea of this article that India is involved in BC'tan and is afraid of being exposed.
Pakistan is blackmailing US and allies and wants to see NATO forces out of Pakistan to restart its monkey business with china again. Mumbai attack was typical of Pakistan's strategy to shift forces back to western border which failed as India didn't retaliated. Baluchistan dozier shit is/was plan 'B' to blackmail US again. Guess what would be plan C" now?

water flows downhill Indian has nothing to hide. indian diplomacy is a open book (indian diplomats are dodo type).
Pakistan is only failed nation in asia everyone knows it. what has happened in SWAT against Pakistan state is beyond the capacity of any nation to do but not Pakistan. what is happening in BC'tan on social, economical and ethnic etc is not an exception and is a by product of pakistan's very own malpractice. If Punjabi red neck pakistani are happy as they have found the 'Rio' to blame (india). Good on them, I be happy to see Pakistan living in denial.
 

bhramos

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Boloch people have their own weapons industry they sell weapons like in India we fish at Fish market, it is publicly known fact, even most of foreigners come to buy those weapons.
so my question is why are pakistani officials could not stop such a practice or gun culture their?
if u need some pics i will post them in in Mulimedia section,
pls check them their.
 

Jeypore

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Is she the American Zaid Hamid?
.
Who let her go to Iran in an Indian Embassy secretly, and some secret Indian officials telling her the very big secret of how cunning Indians are secretly pumping money in Balochistan, and she tells this big secret to Hamid Mir,and suddenly its no longer a secret after Hamid Mir comes to know about it.
.
Epic Fail I must say.
.
Paksitanis from every sphere have ZERO credibility. Zero.
Ahh Mrs. Fair again, in other forum, she is the talk of the town. But I would not take her that seriously, out of Rand corp, she is the only one making accussation based on assumptions. First of all she just claims without backing any names or sources. Personally, it's the Pakistan lobby doing a good job on her, I would say.
 

Jeypore

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India being blamed to justify military action’


Speaking as chief guest at a seminar entitled ‘Threats to National Security and Our Responsibilities’ here on Wednesday, Bugti said the government should prove its allegations of Indian interference in Balochistan if it had any evidence. ‘We are accused of being pro-India. We would have voted for inclusion of Balochistan in India in 1947 if we had been in favour of India,’ he said.

Bugti, the grandson of late chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, said the federal government always wronged Balochistan. ‘Baloch people were asked to come down from mountains in 1960 and hanged. Nawab Akbar Bugti was assassinated and Gwadar was snatched from Balochistan.’ Bugti said allegations of target killing of Punjabis were being levelled to justify the presence of Frontier Constabulary in Balochistan.

He said Baloch people did not hate Punjabis. He said his party was criticised for demanding royalty for gas. He however said that his party demanded the royalty for the Balochistan government and not for itself.

He said the gas emanating from Balochistan was not available in most parts of the province and its rates were higher there than Punjab and Sindh.

Awami National Party Secretary General Ehsan Wyne said he spent three months with the late Bugti in Kot Lakhpat Jail, but never heard him talking against Pakistan.

He said there had been eight military operations in Balochistan so far and the last one was still in progress. He said people revolted as they did in East Pakistan whenever they were deprived of their rights.

He said people’s rights would have to be restored for trial of Pervez Musharraf. He said Punjab was abused for the evils of its bureaucracy. Pakistan Democratic Party Secretary General Nawaz Gondal said most problems being faced by the country had been created by dictators, who destroyed all national institutions to prolong their rules.

He said the country needed an institution to prevent loot and plunder. He said Musharraf should be tried for the assassination of the late Bugti.

He said democracy had not been restored in the country despite the general election, adding that the incumbent government was civil, but not democratic.

Former federal law minister SM Masood said the country was facing problems because of various institutions’ attempts to usurp each other’s powers. He said the tug of war destabilised the country, while foreign pressures were also creating problems.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | ?India being blamed to justify military action?
 

ahmedsid

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Pak Now Says No Baloch Dossier Given to India

Pak now says no Baloch dossier was given to India: Rediff.com news

In yet another evidence of Pakistan's flip-flops, Islamabad [ Images ] has for the first time admitted that it has not handed over any dossier regarding Baloch insurgency to India.

In an interview with Outlook magazine, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in an apparent volte-face, said Pakistan actually never handed any dossier to India during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [ Images ] meeting with Yousuf Raza Gilani [ Images ] on the sidelines of the NAM summit at Sharm-el-Sheikh in July.

'No, we didn't. Actually, we flagged the issue on Balochistan. We asked for a positive attitude and asked for non-interference inside Balochistan,' The Nation quoted Qureshi, as saying.

While Islamabad, till now, has continuously been claiming that it has handed a dossier to India regarding latter's involvement in the Baloch insurgency, New Delhi [ Images ] has out rightly rejected the claims.

Following Pakistan's 'baseless' claims, the UPA government faced severe criticism from the opposition for allowing some damaging concessions to the neighbouring country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to clarify the government's stand in parliament and he said that no such dossier was given by Pakistan during the meeting in Egypt [ Images ].

"No dossier on Balochistan has been handed over to me," Dr Singh said during his speech during the monsoon session of the Lok Sabha.

Trying to corner the government over the alleged 'sell off' to Pakistan in Egypt, senior Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ] leader Yashwant Sinha [ Images ] alleged that India had committed a blunder by agreeing to de-link action against terror by Pakistan to the resumption of the composite dialogue.
Pakistani media had described that the Baloch dossier's claims as true and added that it had been presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with details of India's alleged role in fomenting trouble in Balochistan and other areas.

According to the Pakistani media, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani himself mentioned the dossier's existence.
 

Pintu

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http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=273628

US clean chit on Balochistan

WASHINGTON, 1 NOV: Amid Pakistan's charge that India was fomenting trouble in Balochistan, the USA has said it does not have any evidence in this regard.
“Well, first of all, we have no evidence of that. I mean, we just have no evidence of that,” Secretary of State Mrs Hillary Clinton, who just concluded a three-day visit to Pakistan, said during an interaction in Lahore with Pakistani editors who told her that many Pakistanis believed India was fomenting trouble in Balochistan.
Describing Balochistan as “a very volatile region,” she said she had not seen any evidence from Pakistan about India's involvement in Balochistan.
“Not that I've seen.... I have not seen it. I have not seen anything like that. So I can't agree with you because I personally don't have any information,” she said, according to a transcript made available by the State Department here. Her comments assume significance in the wake of Pakistan alleging that India was fomenting trouble in Balochistan and that it had “evidence” to prove it.PTI
 

tarunraju

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Good article, thuogh I don't believe that Pak has the ability to produce "three Indian Ajmal Kasabs".
It produced eight already (number of people who attacked Mumbai on 26/11).

As for "Indian Ajmal Kasabs", I think Geo's editors were on coke. The Ajmal Kasab who attacked Mumbai is a Pakistani. Everyone, including Pakistan agrees with that.
 

Tshering22

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MMS is simply the saddest PM I've ever seen. A man with no self-stand or image running such a powerful country. Shows where the people's thinking is going. He was best as Finance Minister or Minister for Industrial Development or something. But PM? Softhearts are not meant for PM role. The Sharm el Sheikh was a slap on the face of every Indian who trusted the man.
 

ajtr

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MMS is simply the saddest PM I've ever seen. A man with no self-stand or image running such a powerful country. Shows where the people's thinking is going. He was best as Finance Minister or Minister for Industrial Development or something. But PM? Softhearts are not meant for PM role. The Sharm el Sheikh was a slap on the face of every Indian who trusted the man.
MMS has his own love for pakistan as IK gujral and morarji desai had.
 

maomao

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India's strategic blunders
Several distinct but related events have shown that India's alleged Pakistan policy is either non-existent or self-defeating. First, there is the all-but-complete transfer of two 635-mw Chinese nuclear reactors to Pakistan, which will allow them to build 24 more nuclear bombs every year in addition to their existing stockpile of 70-90, already bigger than India's.

Second, the violence in Jammu and Kashmir is a direct result of the decision by the government to withdraw 30,000 troops. Third, the apparent willingness by Afghan president Hamid Karzai to cooperate with the intensely anti-India Haqqani network implies the total failure of India's efforts to be a stakeholder in that nation.
China has simply ignored the proforma noises that the US made at the Nuclear Suppliers' Group regarding likely weapons proliferation because of the new reactors being transferred to Pakistan. Selig Harrison, writing in The Boston Globe, pointed out how proliferation is part of Pakistani national policy. Despite this, and despite all the government of India's exertions to ram the so-called 'nuclear deal' down India's throat, America has no qualms about the Pakistani stockpile.

Thus the dubious nuclear deal has had the effect of strengthening Pakistan's hand, while constraining India's puny efforts at building a deterrent against China, exactly as opponents of the deal said, while the government proceeded with it in a haze of lies and subterfuge.

Article continues below the advertisement...


Second, the sudden upsurge of violence in Jammu and Kashmir is almost certainly a calibrated and calculated ratcheting up of tension by the ISI. Intercepted phone calls suggest that the ISI and pals like the LeT are paying 'rage-boys' to indulge in stone-throwing and other violence, expecting to induce over-reaction by the stressed-out paramilitary troops and police. This, then, can lead to manufactured 'martyrs'.

The ISI has reason to believe it is on a winning track. Statements by the prime minister in Havana, Sharm-el-Sheikh and Thimphu have implied that, succumbing to American pressure, India is willing to make concessions on Kashmir to Pakistan, the only issue being how to market such a climbdown to the Indian public.

The coded talk of 'creative solutions' and 'trust deficit' have been interpreted by the Pakistanis as a 'deficit of will', and the likelihood that they can make J&K simply too expensive for India to hang on to. The proximate cause is the withdrawal of 30,000 troops. To the ISI, this spells "we have the UPA on the run". They perceive a 'backbone deficit' and lack of will.

Intriguingly, this is almost the same feeling that the ISI has about the Obama administration after its disastrous declaration of a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan. They, and their proxy, the Taliban, feel that all they have to do is to wait things out — the Americans have no will to fight. Apparently president Karzai implicitly believes this — witness his alleged overtures to the Taliban and the Haqqani network. Karzai, Taliban and Haqqanis
are all Pashtuns.

Pashtuns account for about 40% of the Afghan population, with large groups of Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras among others. India has traditionally had good relationships with the Pashtuns but even better ties to the Tajiks, who, under the charismatic military genius Ahmed Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance, held off the Soviets and then the Taliban.

Now all the blood and treasure — hundreds of millions of dollars — that India has poured into reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan seem to be in jeopardy because the Pakistanis have convinced the US and others that India has no business whatsoever in Afghanistan. India was not even invited to talks about that nation.

The irony is that the Pashtun issue is one of Pakistan's key weaknesses — the Durand Line arbitrarily divides Pashtun territory into Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pashtuns themselves have never recognised it, and if given a chance, would create an independent Pashtunistan on both sides of the Durand Line.

This, of course, would be disaster for Pakistan, as it might induce restive Baluchis and Sindhis to secede as well. In fact, some analysts suggest just such a balkanisation to solve the Pakistan problem.

Somehow, the enterprising ISI has turned this weakness into a strength, by hijacking the Pashtun elements into their proxy Taliban. Similarly, the ISI, which faced the wrath of America after 9/11 with its peremptory warning to president Musharraf to behave, or else, has turned it into a $25 billion bonanza. Ironically, the Americans are in effect subsidising the Pakistani purchase of Chinese reactors!

Instead of containing Pakistan with a pincer movement with one front in Afghanistan, India is now in the unenviable situation that the ISI has achieved the 'strategic depth' it has always craved.

Uncertain about its goals and ever-eager to appease, India has allowed a failing state one-seventh its size to smother it. Lack of strategic intent has led to dismal failure yet again.
http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_india-s-strategic-blunders_1408958
 

ajtr

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this only one side of the coin which this article tells.Other side of it is tango between usa-china-india-pak in AF-PAK.Its like the war..in order to ease pressure on itself on AFPAK pak ratchets up eastern border thinking india will react hence it will escape from pressure in the west.The thing is MMS always disappoints pak in taking the bait hence u see all these havana-S-e-S and thimpu.
 

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