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Army versus the Rebels
By M. Ilyas Khan
The increased visibility and meddlesome ways of the security services are paving the way for Baloch youth to join the rebels
Mohammad Hussain used to run Irani petrol from Mand to Turbat, ensuring for himself an average monthly income of around 20,000 rupees. But now he works as a day labourer for a paltry 80 rupees. The reason: the trail of cross-border trade from Iran is getting bloody, thanks to the Frontier Corps’ (FC) increased anti-smuggling vigilance over the last two years.
 While the FC cannot be faulted on this score, the problem lies in the fact that the economic lifeline of the former Mekran division has never been serviceable from anywhere except Iran. The coastal highway that connects Gwadar with Karachi is yet to be completed. There is no other road linking Mekran's districts of Gwadar, Kech (Turbat), Panjgur and a part of Awaran either with each other or with any other part of Pakistan, even Balochistan itself. With scanty rainfall that sustains little agriculture, the inhabitants of Mekran have largely depended on trade from the Iranian border, the nearest point where basic human necessities can be found.
But before the coastal highway has become fully functional and a road network across this 42,000 square kilometre region is even conceived, FC officers have started enforcing a change in the economic lifestyle of the people. In June 2003, the FC killed three local residents in Panjgur when they failed to stop for a vehicle search. Rioting and arson followed, with a weeklong shutter-down strike and the burning of the offices of the district nazim and the district coordination officer. Another person was shot dead by the FC in Mand last May. More recently, firing by the FC injured a 12-year old boy near Balnegore village, leading to a public outcry that forced the FC to abandon their check post.
The 30,000 square-kilometre Chaghai-Noshki belt in the northwest is equally barren, dry and remote and faces the same dilemma as Mekran because it too draws sustenance from Taftan, a trading town on the Iranian border. As security outfits become more visible and meddlesome, more and more people are losing income they have traditionally earned in these parts. A large number of people in both Mekran and Chaghai have been using non-custom-paid Iranian pickups and motorbikes which are inevitably grounded due to the FC’s demand for registration.
Army troops got directly involved in the Mekran region last July to destroy rebel camps in the hills. They started house-to-house searches in Camaro, Drok and other villages on the southern slopes of the Dasht mountains, some 45 kilometres north of Gwadar. Women were asked to wait outside as troops searched their trunks and beddings for weapons. Unaccustomed to such behaviour, locals were left in a state of shock. Similar searches were conducted in villages around the Santsar, Dadam and Zarrembo areas in the northern foothills of the range, located in Kech district. A rebel group ambushed the convoy in Dadam, killing three and injuring more than 10 military personnel. For the next few weeks, the area turned into a battleground complete with armoured personnel carriers, artillery guns, helicopters and jet aircraft.
Although the military has so far failed to arrest insurgents in the hills or retrieve any gear from their camps, the Herald has the names of 15 persons arrested by the intelligence agencies on charges of having links with these camps. Most of them are either political activists or offenders of a different kind. For example, Osman, a driver for a subcontractor of the army's Frontier Works Organisation, hijacked a car because he was not paid his salary for four months. All the arrested persons have been held incommunicado. Some arrests were subsequently acknowledged as a result of writ petitions but the detainees have not been produced in courts.
 The eastern regions of Balochistan, such as Dera Bugti and Kohlu, are not quite as new to this kind of exposure but here too anti-military sentiment is on the rise. Late last year, a large FC force surrounded Dera Bugti town with the intention of storming Nawab Akbar Bugti's residence. The force had to retreat when over a thousand Bugti militants threatened to fight to the end. In Kohlu, the FC and a levies force comprising Bijarani tribesmen tried to overrun the Marri camps in Tatra hills twice in June this year, leading to hostilities that resulted in civilian casualties.
In Khuzdar, where a military garrison has existed since the 1980s, the ISI is said to be actively interfering in administrative, political and media affairs. Last year, it implicated a journalist and human rights activist Rashid Azam in a case of treason for publishing an anti-army calendar. More recently, one Khan Mohammad Ghulamani died in the custody of some ISI operatives. On August 29, two persons were injured in FC firing during a raid in Wadh.
Observers say that the increased visibility and meddlesome ways of the security services are not only creating fear in people's minds but also paving the way for Baloch youth to join the rebels. Mohammad Hussain of Turbat concurs: “Punjabi youngsters are captains and majors, but Baloch youth have dust in their hair. What else can they do?”
Herald September 2004 |