EDITORIAL: Root causes of terrorism in Balochistan
Bush backs the separatists.
Balochistan is the home of Gwadar port a proposed gateway for the external trade of the Xinjiang province and a promising regional base for the Chinese navy.
This would put the Chinese navy next to Iran’s shipping lane the Strait of Hormuz. The Chinese have a considerable investment in Iran’s oil and gas. Bush plans on attacking Iran by choking the Strait of Hormuz.
Bush is going for a takeover of Balochistan setting up a military occupation as a means to contain Iran. This is a clandestine operation and the American public will as usual remain oblivious. See #msg-4799713
A similar conspiracy could now be witnessed to realise the American dream of “Greater Balochistan”, he claimed.
Foreign involvement could not be ruled out in the bomb blasts that had rocked the province, he said. When told that the BLA had claimed responsibility for the bombing, he said foreign elements could be using local proxies to carry out terrorist activities. Such activities could hurt negotiations between the nationalist parties and federal government, he said, adding that it was the nationalists’ moral duty to separate themselves from such organisations. Talking about the BLA, the chief minister said such organisations might be active in their territories, but the government would bring them to justice. – Told to Daily Times by Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Yousaf
EDITORIAL: Root causes of terrorism in Balochistan
December 13, 2004
In a joint statement, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have taken serious note of the bomb blast in Quetta on Friday, saying that such cowardly acts would not deter the government’s efforts for progress and development. They also reiterated their resolve to bring Balochistan and other underdeveloped areas at par with the rest of the country. The press note said that “the government would not be deterred by such heinous acts, which are aimed at disturbing peace and harmony”. The Balochistan government has announced compensation to the 11 killed and the many wounded last Friday; it then swooped down on alleged Baloch nationalists and arrested 15 of them from various parts of the country. They are suspected of working for the so-called Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) that has claimed responsibility for the terrorist act.
Balochistan Police, intelligence agencies and the Frontier Corps have raided Quetta, Dera Murad Jamali, Jaffarabad, Naseerabad, Ziarat and Khuzdar as if they were acting on a plan of action decided before the attack in Quetta. They say they have also recovered “a dozen bombs with timers, 122 detonators, 11 Kalashnikovs and 3,052 bullets from them”. The police chief promised that he would improve the spying system and the Balochistan chief minister Jam Yousaf has expressed the quaint desire to have more bicycle stands set up in the city where each bike would be “checked for explosives by special machines”. He woke up to this new stratagem after the five bomb attacks in Quetta recently in which bicycles were used. He said that there was a plan to register all bicycles in the city. “Bicycle owners would not be taxed, but bikes would be registered to find out the owner’s name after such incidents!”
The trouble in Balochistan is a double whammy. As far as the 2002 general election is concerned Islamabad almost lost Balochistan to the MMA along with the NWFP. The JUI(F) in Quetta is as aggressive as the clerics in Peshawar but its rhetoric is somewhat muted because the Muslim League(Q) has 21 seats to the JUI’s 18 in the Balochistan assembly and rules in coalition with the MMA. There is hardly any consensus in the assembly while on ground the JUI’s passions for the Taliban sway it far more than its appreciation of the PML. On the other side, the Baloch nationalists are spearheaded by the nationalists of the other “oppressed nations of Pakistan” who are gathered under the banner of PONAM. These people don’t much like the clerics and find that the post-Afghanistan situation has given them a window of opportunity to express their barely hidden separatist reaction to what they think is decades of neglect and injustice.
No one will disagree that the Friday attack has to be condemned, but one has to draw a line where the police has gone around arresting the “nationalists” within 24 hours as if they already knew who was behind the outrage. If that had been the case, why weren’t these people hauled up earlier? How did the police know within hours of the bomb blast where to find the explosives and timers, unless of course it first planted them there and then duly found them as a show of efficiency? That is why President Musharraf should not treat this as a law and order issue that can be resolved by the police or intelligence agencies or indeed even the military. Nor should he forget the statement he made in London only last week that terrorism could only be ended by addressing its root causes. We think that he has to apply the same kind of judgement when looking at the unrest in Balochistan. The 15 people caught will be subjected to a treatment in the coming days that will not endear their families, friends and tribes to the federal government; nor would it make the task of Jam Yousaf any easier, finely balanced as he is between the power of the clergy and the sardars.
The “uplift” for the sake of which the 15 persons have lately been arrested has been too long coming. There is a development deficit that the centre can fill only by looking into the grievances of the common man, especially the one who barely survives in drought-stricken areas of the province. More importantly, the educated middle-class Baloch without a good job in the organs of the state or in industry is without a secure future and is therefore primed to succumb to the pull of angry nationalism. Too many “development plans” have come and gone without making much difference in the lives of these people, not least because the NFC award allocating resources to the provinces was population-based and therefore unfair to a federal unit which is almost half of Pakistan physically but populated by only 5.3 million people. The Gwadar Port is entirely a non-Baloch project and not many forthcoming projects will distract the Baloch concern about two more army garrisons planned to be raised for the province. No wonder the state of loyalty among the people is comparable to that of South Waziristan where hardly anyone feels himself a part of Pakistan. That is why the president and the prime minister must think laterally on Balochistan and apply the “root cause” method nearer home. *
EDITORIAL #2: FIA and NAB — old vs new watering holes
According to a report, 80 percent of the officials at the Economic Crime Wing (ECW) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) have refused to join the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for “unknown reasons”. FIA sources say that despite being offered extremely lucrative packages, FIA and ACE officials prefer entering the surplus pool instead. Why are the upright officials of FIA and ACE loath to wear the badge of power in NAB?
The “spiritual” crisis arose when the Interior Ministry, in order to expand NAB, amended the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947 to merge 33 percent of ACE and ECW offices with the Accountability Bureau. But if we discern a single pang of conscience in this reluctance of these officials to join the NAB we are vastly mistaken.
The NAB has even offered double salaries to break the resistance of the officers, but to no avail. The disingenuous answer is that since NAB is under the president whose own status in the future will remain unclear for a long time, its role is fated to diminish, hence no one wants to be part of a “loser” organisation. Another pretext is that the officers might lose their seniority in the Police Department. But after close scrutiny not one of the reasons offered by the refuseniks is convincing. FIA currently comprises 1,770 officers, and under the terms of the merger, about 750 of them would be attached to NAB. Does the truth lie elsewhere? The reputation of the FIA is not particularly noble. Its officers, since ex-ISI Major Amir, have not exactly covered themselves with glory. And we know that Anti-Corruption is often called “auntie corruption” by the harassed citizen. Maybe NAB is just too high profile to yield the kind of rich pickings available at the old watering holes. *
475 miles of the 1700-mile pipeline from Iran’s South Pars field to India will pass through Balochistan in southern Pakistan.
The United States is opposed to any "north/south" pipelines, especially if they involve Iran. This is a north /south pipeline.
The US is believed to be pressuring Pakistan not to push for the project with Iran.
Violence is escalating in Balochistan, the United States is said to be behind the hostility.
A few days after Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh arrived in New Delhi to discuss the future of the pipeline, terrorists in Pakistan blew up two gas pipelines sending a message to all parties involved that the "pipeline of peace" might be anything but peaceful.
Former Lahore High Court Bar (LHCBA) president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari said that the foundation of Pakistan was laid in Bengal, but that very part broke away from the country. A similar conspiracy could now be witnessed to realise the American dream of “Greater Balochistan”, he claimed. He demanded that the government stop the operation, in which innocent citizens were being killed. #msg-4804924
-Am
Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline: the Baloch wildcard
January 12, 2004
For both energy hungry India and its swiftly growing neighbor, Pakistan, the need for natural gas is more pressing than ever. Pakistan has one of the world’s fastest growing populations and its demand for gas will expand significantly over the next two decades. India’s gas demand will almost double by 2015 and due to the decline of its reserves it will be forced to import increasing amounts of gas. As the world’s second largest gas reserve, Iran is the most geographically convenient supplier of gas to both countries.
India considered three transport routes for gas from Iran: shipping it through the Arabian Sea on board tankers in the form of LNG, sending it through a deep sea pipeline, or alternatively transporting it on land via a 1700-mile pipeline from Iran’s South Pars field to India. The latter option means 475 miles of the pipeline will pass through Balochistan in southern Pakistan.
A land based pipeline would be four times cheaper than any other option, even after taking into account transit fee payments to Pakistan. But for a long time political tensions between India and Pakistan made it difficult for Delhi to accept an energy project that would create dependence on a neighbor with whom its relations are far from stable. Recent improvement in the relations between the two neighbors has bought India to finally consider joining forces with Pakistan for the mutually beneficial pipeline project, estimated to cost around $4 billion. A third of the gas would be delivered to Pakistan and the rest to India.
For Iran, India’s participation in the project is of paramount importance. In addition to a broader market for its gas Iran hopes to gain political support from India as it is facing strong international pressure to terminate its nuclear program. In return for India's agreement to buy large quantities of gas, Iran has awarded Indian gas companies major service contracts and also granted them participation in refining and other energy related projects to the tune of $40 billion. Iran’s relations with Pakistan are also strategically important. With American troops stationed in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran is trying to check U.S. influence in the region by strengthening its ties with Pakistan, one of America’s most needed allies in the war on terror. The Pakistanis, for their part, would like to see their territory used as a transit route to export natural gas to India. This would not only guarantee a source of income for them but also increase stability in the region. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline is "a win-win proposition for Iran, India, and Pakistan," that could serve as a durable confidence-building measure, creating strong economic links and business partnerships among the three countries.
But this win-win proposition seems to be threatened by terrorists. A few days after Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh arrived in New Delhi to discuss the future of the pipeline, terrorists in Pakistan blew up two gas pipelines sending a message to all parties involved that the "pipeline of peace" might be anything but peaceful.
The area of the Balochistan-Punjab border where the pipeline is supposed to run is one of Pakistan's poorest areas and its most restive province. In recent years it has been a battleground of private militias belonging to Baloch tribes. Sporadic armed clashes resulted in attacks against water pipelines, power transmission lines and gas installations. Yet, the region strategically important due to its large reserves of oil and gas. But these riches did little for the Baloch tribesmen. Over the years Islamabad has failed to provide a fair share of the oil and gas wealth. Lack of economic progress and a deep sense of disaffection has contributed to the distrust between the federal government and the Baloch people. As a result, the tribes now oppose any energy projects in their area. In January 2003, sabotage of a gas pipeline from Sui cut off supply to the Punjab. Later, in June, a wave of attacks against gas installations caused the government to send troops to protect the installations. For the rest of 2003 and the following year the confrontation was defused but the underlying grievances of the local population were not addressed. To calm the area Islamabad recently added carrots to its policy of sticks by increasing investment in regional development projects. However, it seems that violence has resurfaced and the region is sliding into a near war situation.
On the night of January 8 terrorists belonging to the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) fired rockets at the pipeline and exchanged gunfire with the security forces for several hours. During the fire exchange the pipeline caught fire, disrupting supply to a power plant. Six people were killed. In a separate incident the BLF launched an attack on the pipeline close to Sui township, 250 miles north of Karachi. This area alone produces about 45 percent of Pakistan’s total gas production. Some rockets also exploded close to the main pipeline supplying gas to Sindh and Punjab provinces but did not cause any damage. On January 11 Baloch gunmen stormed facilities operated by state-run Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) in Sui. The gunmen overpowered the guards and damaged pipelines and a purification plant. Gunmen also Kidnapped 10 employees of the Water and Power Development Authority (APDA), Pakistan’s main water and power utility. The attacks disrupted gas and power production as well work in fertilizer and chemical plants.
Many in the region believe that the recent attacks in Balochistan province are meant to sabotage the pipeline project as well as other projects connecting Sui gas installations with the Turkmenistan gas fields. If true, these pipeline attacks are unsettling and will raise to the surface India's concerns about the reliability of the project. The possibility of sabotage of the proposed Iran-India pipeline by militant groups in Pakistan is becoming increasingly feasible as terrorists learn from their allies in Iraq about the strategic gain in conducting a sustained sabotage campaign against oil infrastructure. This is especially true after last month’s exhortation by Osama bin Ladin to his cohorts to target oil pipelines in the Persian Gulf. In the next few weeks India will have to make a final determination if it wants to join the pipeline project. If Pakistan truly wants India to share the burden of the project it should demonstrate to Delhi that it can ensure security and stability along the pipeline route.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf warned the Baloch tribesmen to stop their violence, threatening to use force: "Don't push us... it is not the 1970s, and this time you won't even know what has hit you," he said, referring to a crackdown in the 1970s on separatists in the area. As we have seen in other parts of the world where pipelines are under attack, ending the onslaught may well prove to be mission impossible. Nevertheless Islamabad has already indicated that the pipeline project will be pursued even were India to decide not to join.
Gal Luft is Executive Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.
The U.S.--and specifically the Clinton White House--was determined to oppose any "north/south" pipelines. The White House adopted a plan, cooked up by long-time ruling class strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, to create an "east-west" pipe which would bypass both Russia and Iran. #msg-3775550
In another twist to the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, the US is believed to be pressuring Pakistan not to push for the project with Iran. #msg-4947898
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