BALOCH SHADOW OVER ISLAMABAD

By B. Raman

The murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the Baloch nationalist leader, by the Pakistan Army near Kohlu in Balochistan on August 26, 2006, and the subsequent movement of additional troops into Balochistan from North Waziristan in the wake of the so-called peace accord signed by the Pakistan Army with the tribal heads of North Waziristan on September 5, 2006, have not affected the Baloch freedom struggle.

The death of Nawab Bugti was a great tragedy for the Baloch people, but the young leaders of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) managed to escape death at the hands of the Pakistan Army and have lost no time in stepping up their activities against the Pakistani security forces and against the sensitive infrastructure belonging to the Pakistan Government and Punjabi businessmen such as gas pipelines, power transmission lines etc. They have also kept up their attacks on the Pakistani security forces and their posts in different parts of the province.

In the latest incident reported on October 6, 2006, the BLA killed 11 members of the security forces in the Kohlu area in a rocket attack and blew up a gas pipeline in the Hazar Ganji area. When Gen. Pervez Musharraf was away on his visit to the US, the BLA also managed to disrupt power supply all over Pakistan for nearly eight hours on September 24, 2006, through a series of acts of sabotage in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab. The resulting disruption of all TV channels gave rise to rumors of a coup, causing panic in Islamabad. After the power supply was restored, the Pakistani authorities claimed that the disruption was due to technical reasons and not due to any man-made acts of sabotage.

After the murder of Nawab Bugti, the leaders of the BLA and other groups of freedom-fighters met in the Kohlu area to discuss the future course of their freedom struggle. They also discussed as to how to avenge the death of the Nawab by the Army. Some of the participants suggested a spectacular attack of reprisal either in Islamabad or Rawalpindi. This suggestion was not approved since it was feared that any casualties in the capital area might be exploited by the Army to project the Baloch freedom struggle as a terrorist movement to the international community. Till now, the Army has been projecting the freedom struggle as a movement of "fararis" (absconders) or miscreants. It has not yet been projecting them as terrorists.

The meeting decided that instead of staging reprisal attacks in the Islamabad-Rawalpindi area, the BLA, to demonstrate its capability in the capital area, should smuggle in four rockets of Soviet vintage and leave them near the President's House and the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as a message to the Army and the people of the capital area that the BLA was in a position to strike in the capital, whenever it chose to do so. Two of these rockets with a launcher and a mobile phone were left near the President's House on October 5, 2006, and the other two with a launcher and a mobile phone near the ISI's headquarters the next day.

Baloch sources say that to make it clear that it was their warning they left behind at both the places mobile phones recovered from Pakistani security forces personnel killed by the BLA in Balochistan. One of the mobile phones left behind near the President's house had reportedly been recovered by the BLA from a Pakistani army officer killed during the raid to kill Nawab Bugti. These sources also say that the explosion in a park adjacent to the Army House in Rawalpindi on October 4, 2006, was not by the BLA. They do not know who caused the explosion.

Not only the Army and the ISI, but also the people of Islamabad have been unnerved by the ease with which unidentified elements managed to smuggle the rockets into a heavily protected area and leave them there. The "Daily Times" of Lahore reported on October 8, 2006, that there was considerable panic in Islamabad after the recovery of these rockets.

While the freedom struggle has not been affected by the murder of Nawab Bugti, his loss is definitely being felt in respect of public projection of the Baloch cause to the international community. His charismatic figure and ability to articulate the anger and grievances of the Balochs in a very eloquent manner were a big asset to the freedom-fighters. They are hoping to find a suitable replacement from among the other Baloch nationalist leaders.

It is understood that the Musharraf Government  has failed in its efforts to persuade the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to hand over to the ISI two sons of Nawab Khair Bux Marri, the legendary leader of the Marri tribe----- Ghazen Marri and Harbyar Marri--- who were living in Dubai. The ISI accused them of indulging in fund collection for the freedom struggle. The UAE authorities, who were originally inclined to meet the request of the ISI, are since reported to have decided to release them from custody and let them go to London. After seeing the widespread public protests in Balochistan over the murder of Nawab Bugti, the UAE authorities reportedly decided that it would be unwise to hand them over to the ISI.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other important members of the Cabinet and Army officers held by Musharraf after his return from his overseas tour, he is reported to have directed that the ISI and the Foreign Office should jointly prepare a dossier on the alleged Indian support for the Baloch freedom fighters to be taken up at the next meeting of the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36@gmail.com )