Mohammad Jamil
ON Monday, four terrorists tried to storm into the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) building, threw grenades at the compound’s entrance, opened fire and attempted to enter the compound but were killed by security forces. The attack on the PSX building has been claimed by Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which has links with Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies. According to security sources, Bashir Zeb, the commander of the banned outfit, is the mastermind of the terrorist attack on PSX, and the terrorists using Afghan SIMS were receiving directions from Kandahar for making hostages and demanding ransom. On 25 December 2018, Aslam Baloch, the then Chief of his own faction of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), was killed along with five high ranking militants by a suicide attack in the Afghan province of Kandahar at his residence provided by brother of Hamid Karzai, where a meeting was reportedly in progress.
Pakistan has long accused India of fomenting trouble in Pakistan through BLA, as according to reports Aslam Baloch had received medical treatment in an Indian hospital after he was injured in an encounter with LEA in Balochistan. Earlier, BLA leader and mastermind of terrorists Aslam Baloch had also visited India, and according to reports India had also offered citizenship to key leaders of Balochistan-based terror groups. Indian spy agent Kulbhushan Jadav, captured by Pakistan, had also admitted that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage activities with the aim of impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi. BLA has never denied its links with Indian government and its military establishment. The BLA is a terrorist org with a long history of conducting acts of terror in Pakistan, including the Chinese Consulate in Karachi and Quaid’s home in Ziarat.
The group is banned in Pakistan, the UK and the US. The BLA has carried out several terrorist attacks in the past, including a suicide attack in August 2018 that targeted Chinese engineers in Balochistan, a November 2018 attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi and a May 2019 attack on Pearl Continental Hotel in Gwadar, Balochistan. A senior official of the Counter-Terrorism Department said that one of the militants was identified as Salman, who hails from Balochistan. In 2006, the then Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao had said: “Balochistan Liberation Army had been declared a terrorist organization owing to its anti-state activities and the lists of all BLA office-bearers and activists were sent to all the police stations for strict action against them for their involvement in sabotage and subversive activities. It was also banned in UK and the US.
According to the then Police Chief in Balochistan, the BLA had accepted the responsibility for landmine blasts, killing of the Chinese engineers and bomb explosions at various places in Balochistan. Though terrorism has been defined as the threat or use of violence for political ends on the part of individuals or groups who otherwise have no formal political power, but in case of BLA, Balach Marri, member of the then Provincial Assembly was stated to be heading the organization. His brother Gazin Marri was Home Minister in the province during 1990s for three years who was arrested in Dubai in 2006. Police had arrested an unspecified number of militants who confessed they had been receiving money and weapons from the group for attacks on government installations. In 2004 and 2005, insurgents had caused colossal damage to the gas pipelines and life and property of the people.
On 10 March 2006, a landmine blast had killed 29 people and injured five in the Bekar area of Dera Bugti district when 35 people were on their way to Rakhni to attend a wedding ceremony when their tractor-trolley hit an anti-tank landmine. Some of the Baloch Sardars have been crying hoarse for the lack of development of Balochistan. There were of course certain genuine problems like the one that in view of the largest land mass and scattered population, Balochistan needed massive investment for its residents to prosper and progress. But dissident Baloch leaders and nationalists should understand that creation of climate conducive to investment is imperative so that employment opportunities could be generated and could be availed by unemployed youth of Balochistan. For the last two decades, the governments have been taking steps for the development of Balochistan, and a number of small to mega projects have been started.
Of course, when the people would benefit from the economic development and growth, they would not listen to centrifugal forces that are bent upon fanning provincial disharmony, or those resorting to terrorist activities. It is true that sustained economic growth is linked to the improved law and order, which is an indispensable condition for investment. The greater revenues generated through increased investment will further enable the government to invest in human and physical infrastructure. Some retrogressive Baloch Sardars have never wanted the common Baloch people to progress in education to widen their horizons and achieve socio-economic uplift, which would prove a stepping stone for ending the Sardari system.
Now, when God has provided an opportunity in the form of CPEC, and the government wants that benefits of development reach to common people; and when Baloch people have been recruited in the army to play their role in safeguarding the sovereignty of the country, it is not being digested by these merciless Sardars. Whereas, the scions of dissident Baloch Sardars are playing in the hands of hostile agencies and powers against their own motherland just for the sake of money and lust for power, the ordinary Baloch is brave and patriotic, always ready to die for his beloved country.
—The writer is a senior journalist based in Lahore.