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Story of Baluchistan disturbance

Pakistan Baluchistan being the largest province of Pakistan has a huge importance in the region. Despite of its largest land hold, it is the least populated province of Pakistan, and undeveloped as well. Some insincere governments of past claimed to develop the Baluchistan and improving the lives of the people of Baluchistan, but promises of most of these went in vain. The governments who were really sincere were strategically stopped from doing any work due to the circumstances of the region, created by tribal leaders and self proclaimed godfathers of the regions.

It is a an impossible debate who did more worst and who didn’t, but anyone who probes into this matter will eventually find that the real problem does not relate to general people of Baluchistan nor the government of Pakistan in general. It is a conflict created by a handful number of people, mostly are decedents of ancient Kings of different sub regions of the Baluchistan, which are searching for their inherited aristocratic governance, and consider themselves the owners of the area and godfathers of the people of Baluchistan. They are slaves of aristocracy in this modern era, where in reality even the democracy is being considered as an old fashioned rule of governance and analysts and scholars are suggesting improvements in present system (well, that is another topic of discussion). The point is due to ego of a few families, the whole territory has been disturbed, and the effects are not only hurting Pakistan as a State, but are also causing a chaos to the neighboring countries such as Iran and Afghanistan.

Ancient Baluchistan The ancient Baluchistan was a huge territory that contained some area of present Sindh, Punjab, a huge area of Iran and Afghanistan including current Baluchistan territory. After the British invasion and government establishment, the Baluchistan was distributed into parts forming the current shape where real Baluch tribes existed and they had strong representation. This was declared the final Baluchistan territory. The pre independence (Indo-Pakistan independence) Baluchistan province was divided into many sub states and each state had its own King / Tribal Lord who was responsible of all the black & white of respective declared states. The British government was committed with these tribal leaders to cooperate under an agreement of peace for no interference into their states’ matters, in return for a small amount of annual tax payable by the Tribal leaders.

After the independence of Pakistan, most of the tribal leader voluntarily gave up their crowns and agreed to merge their private states into one independent Pakistan as the token of patriotism and love for their religion Islam. A few self centered Lords refused to form alliance with Pakistan, though they agreed to cooperate at the peak time of patriotism regime, but later they claimed that they were forced to cooperate at that time and now they want their territory and their inherited dignity back. This situation raised the unending conflict in the region which has sabotaged and jeopardized the life of common Baluch residents.

Baluchistan Insurgency The first conflict was raised and led by Prince Abdul Karim Khan in 1948 (brother of King of Kalat, Kalat was a prominent alone state of the region, at that time). On May 16, 1948 Prince Abdul Karim Khan initiated a separatist movement against the Pakistani government. He conducted guerrilla warfare based in Afghanistan against the Pakistan army. It took a whole decade to cop with the disturbance created by this movement.

The second conflict was started by Nawab Nowroz Khan in 1958, who took up the arms in resistance to Pakistan government. His followers started a guerrilla war against Pakistan. His movement of independence was ended after a huge loss of lives of his tribesmen, general Baluchi people and Pakistan armed forces. Finally he ended up in jail in Hyderabad and died in captivity.

Third revolutionary movement was led by Sher Muhammad Bijrani Marri in 1963 by starting a guerilla war against Pakistan and claimed a huge area of the province by including other Baluch tribes such as Bugti and Marri into his movement. This time, in order to calm down the violence, the government of Pakistan cooperated with revolutionaries at some points and agreed to their demands, and finally both parties were settled to establish a peaceful Baluchistan as mutually agreed fourth province of Pakistan.

In 1973, internal mismanagements caused by the President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, stirred up another conflict into the region. Tribal leader Nawab Khair Baksh Marri formed a group with name Baluchistan People’s Liberation Front (BPLF) to fight for their so called rights. This conflict took thousands of lives of Baluch tribesmen, general people and Pakistan armed forces.

So far final and most controversial conflict was started by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in year 2004, by joining many tribes of Baluchistan in order to force Pakistan government to surrender for the Baluchistan. Their major frontline demand was to force the Pakistan government to directly share the revenues came from natural resources of Baluchistan with all the tribal lords, which was refused by Pakistan government. As the final step, Nawab Akbar Bugti was declared for treason and a high level operation was started against him in which finally he lost his life during an ambush (August 2006) made by Pakistan army with the cooperation of other peaceful tribes of the region including tribal leaders of his own family. During this ambush, 70 Pakistani soldiers, including 7 officers, lost their lives.

Despite all this destruction and chaos, this conflict is still prevailing and at present Mir Suleiman Dawood Khan (self claimed King of Kalat) is leading the so called revolutionary war. The government of Pakistan is spending a huge sum of country’s resources on tackling the insurgents and stabilizing the situation. Think tanks of supreme negotiators and defence analysts have been formed to deal with the situation.

Pakistan government has openly declared that behind the entire catastrophe and it is proved that hand of our neighbor country India is involved, accompanied by the United States. From the first day of the independence of Pakistan, India is in pursuit to destabilize Pakistan and tear the territory into pieces on the basis of religious views, tribal identities and racial differences. Nawab Akbar Bugti himself confessed that he will not refuse the help of any nation of the world including India who will help him in achieving their goal (interview on Geo TV, year 2005 before he was accused for treason). Similarly, United States also strategically wants Pakistan to sink deeper and deeper into this conflict and waste recourses on resolving it, so that US intelligence agencies can continue their heinous activities against Iran, Afghanistan, China and Pakistan. This accusation can be proved correct by looking at the history of incidents during last decade which clearly suggest that the Baluchistan conflict has gained enormous heat since the US war in Afghanistan started. Verily it can be very clearly seen that USA is more busy in Pakistan and adjoining areas, as compared to their efforts of improving the condition of the people and states of their own country. On the other hand, India is as busy in Baluchistan and Kashmir as it is in all parts of their country.

Lives of common Baluch people have been affected tremendously due to this turmoil. Many peace loving tribes have been migrating from their mother lands to other cities of the country. The separatists are killing everybody who opposes their ideology. They are even killing outsiders in many areas on the basis of racial difference. People from all over the country, who were settled at different place in the province, have been forced to leave their homes. A large number of professors, teachers, engineers, doctors, businessmen and even religious preachers are leaving the area due to fear of being killed by insurgents. No doubt that this situation will further push the Baluchistan into the darkness.

The Baluch tribal leaders have been blind folded by enemies of Pakistan, they are unable to see that they are destroying their own homes and killing their own people in pursuit of personal interest and satisfying the aristocratic ego. They can’t see that their supporters and encouragers are Natural Enemies of Pakistan, Islam, Muslim brotherhood and Peace.

Enough is enough, we need to get together and discuss our issues with cool and open mind with kind hearts. We are all brothers to each other and we can resolve any issue by giving and taking attitude. When our forefather gave their crowns and states for a United Pakistan, they perfectly knew what they were doing. They did it for the betterment of our nation.

One may raise a question, that why the government of Pakistan is behaving abnormally with a particular region of the country; the answer is very simple, that the main tragedy of this nation is that, we haven’t received even a single sincere government yet due to lack of sincere leadership. If a government formed by dirty politicians is misbehaving with a particular region of the country, that’s exactly the same thing they are doing with the rest of the nation and all other provinces. None of us or people of any other province have picked up weapons for the safety of rights. We all are going through same kind of misgovernance abuse. If people of a particular region of the country have managed to achieve better living, it’s not because we are neglecting the rest, or the government is supporting us lavishly, it’s because we have leant the art of self reliance, self improvement and to reject and neglect greedy politicians, who join politics hundred percent for self benefits and benefits of their families and children. The credit certainly does not go to any government.

Our nation is going through the process of transformation, becoming better, and this process requires mutual understanding. We all are waiting for the time, when the country will be lead by patriotic genuine, noble and sincere leadership. Baluch tribal leaders need to think upon all this with open mind, and make assessment within their own conscious, that what They have done for their people and for their territory. They have plenty of inherited wealth and they have representatives in government. They can take their rights by proper means, and violence is not an ideal option, especially when we can see that someone else is getting benefits out our internal misunderstandings.

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Category: Socio Political

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