In December 2005 the Pakistan Army began massive attacks against
the Balochi nationalists. They attacked by land and air bombing
villages. Using combat jets, helicopter gunships and artilary, the
military has been pounding tribal guerrillas in the gas-rich and
strategically crucial Balochistan since mid-December. Hundreds have
so far been killed. The Sui gas fields are said to have the largest
reserves in the world. The crackdown coincided with the announcement
of plans to privatize two gas distribution firms in the province.
The Balochis have been facing a step-motherly treatment from the
Pak rulers ever since the formation of Pakistan. The Balochi population
is divided between Pakistan and Iran, but they consider themselves
neither Pakistani nor Persian. In the Pakistan section they have
a population of 5 lakhs. In all these years they have been deprived
of all political, social, cultural and economic rights. They have
little educational facilities and have been kept in a state of backwardness.
There are no Balochis in the top bureaucracy and of the 52 secretary
level posts 31 are from Punjab alone. According to the secretary
of the Baloch Nationalist Jamuri Vatari Party, Aga Shahid, both
Pakistani and Irani secret police routinely arrest and torture Balochi
youth, students and political activists. Over the years thousands
have been killed. In the Pakistan part of Balochistan there are
over 600 check posts and over 60,000 military forces present.
Musharraf has further alienated the Balochis by sideling mainstream
parties in favour of Islamists. He has alienated both the old non-religious
tribal leadership as well as well as the new secular urban middle
classes of balochistan, who see no economic or political place for
themselves in the present military-Islamic dispensation.
Balochistan is not only rich in gas but is strategically placed;
the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline will have to pass through it. The
gas resources are in the control of Anglo-American consortiums.
India has always been trying to fish in the troubled waters of Balochistan
as part of the Indian ruler’s expansionist ambitions. While brutally
suppressing al nationality movements in India they make a pretense
of supporting the Baloch nationality movement with the single intention
of destabilizing Pakistan. The Indian rulers and RAW have been arming
and funding sections of the Balochi nationalists, to serve their
interests in the region.
The origins of the problem date back to 1947. In that year the Khan
of Kalat, the quasi-autonomous monarch who ruled Balochistan under
the umbrella of the British Empire, chose independence. While Pakistan
troops moved into the region in March 1948, the Khan of Kalat dragged
his feet on signing the Document of Accession to Pakistan. Pakistan
settled the issue by senbding two combat jets to strafe the Khan’s
palace.
By the middle of the 1950s the Prince of Kalat launched the People’s
Party representing a new Baloch nationalism that cut across tribal
and linguistic lines. In 1972 the People’s Party and the NWFP-based
National Awami Party allied with the Islamist Jamait-ul-Ullema-i-Islam
to oppose the centralizing regime of President Bhutto. Having won
the elections, the alliance sought to increase the representation
of the ethnic Baloch in government and demanded greater control
over development and industrialization. Bhutto resisted and matteres
came to a head in 1973.
In Feb.1973, Pakistan Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) discovered
a consignment of arms allegedly shipped by Iraq’s Embassy to members
of Mari tribe. President Bhutto promptly dismissed the provincial
government; Baloch nationalist responded with a full-blown guerrilla
warfare. Led by the Marxist Balochi People’s Liberation Front and
Balochi Students Organisation one 55,000-strong Baloch irregular
force fought six army divisions, backed by air strikes. By the time
the fighting ended, with the overthrow of the Bhutto government,
an estimated 5,300 guerrillas and 3,300 soldiers were dead, along
with tens of thousands of civilians. The general Zia-ul-Haq regime
arrived at a political settlement with some Baloch leaders.
Over the next few decades, pipelines began carrying gas from Sui
to distant Karachi, and work began on a massive port at Gwandar.
But the benefits mostly went to the migrant Punjabis and Sindhis
who arrived in hordes. Balochis continued to remain in a state of
backwardness (e.g education of women was just 7%; the lowest in
Pakistan).
Tension again began to grow when the military regime saw that Islamists
came to power in the 2002 elections, further marginalizing the Balochis.
The tribal leaders began to hit back. A succession of attacks by
the Baloch National Ary, notably against the Chinese engineers working
at Gwadar, followed the 2002 elections. Preperations to develop
a full-fledged guerrilla war began. In investigative report showed
that well-organised ‘farari’ camps were running, where hundreds
were being trained in military skills.
Conflict again flared up in early 2005 when four Pak soldiers raped
a doctor employed with by the Pakistan Petroleum at the Sui gas
field. Bungti tribesmen then attacked the gas field. Other tribes
joined in hitting the port of Gwandar as well as military facilities
and railway lines. Pak forces retaliated ruthlessly. Fighting has
been escalating since January 2005 when tribesmen stormed the Sui
gas fields, which produce an estimated 45% of Pakistan’s total gas
consumption. Bugti guerrillas fired 430 rockets and 60 mortars at
the Pakistan Petrochemicals Ltd production facilities in Sui killing
eight people and disrupting supplies for over one month.
The current military assault was provoked by a rocket attack on
a rally held by President Musharraf in the town of Kohlu. A day
later guerrillas opened fire on a helicopter carrying the Inspector
General of the Frontier Corps, Major general Shujat Zamir Dar and
his deputy. Soon after these attacks, Frontier Corps paramilitary
and regular army units, backed by helicopter gunships launched a
full scale attack on the guerrillas. Hundreds have so far died in
the fighting, mainly civilians. The aircraft have been strafing
and bombing either side of the Sui and Loti valleys. Two army brigades
stationed at Sui were pressed into action and 25 tanks have also
been called in. The struggle of the Balochi people for their right
to self-determination including secession is a just struggle. The
people of India lend support to their struggle against the terroristic
Pakistani rulers, and at the same time oppose all forms of interference
by the Indian double-dealing rulers in their struggle. No amount
of repression can stop their struggle for self-determination. On
feb.7th tribal guerrillas blew up several gas pipelines in the South-west
region cutting off supplies to a US and British-owned power plant
for the fourth time in one month. The main shareholders of the plant
are Britain’s International Power Plc. and US firms Tenaska Inc.
and GE Capital. One blast damaged a pipeline near the town of Dera
Murad shutting down supply to the 586 MW Uch power plant. In other
incidents, militants blew up pipelines taking gas from three wells
in the Loti gas field to a nearby purification plant.
Support the proposed countrywide indefinite strike of the
railway workers! Condemn anti-worker attitude of the imperialist
stooge Manmohan Singh government!!
|
