Balochistan has been in turmoil for almost the past three years. In 2004, security forces come under persistent attacks and score of people were killed in ambushes, sniper shootings and rocket attacks. Besides this, gas installations, mainly the distribution system, also came under bomb or rocket attacks. Production, purification and transmission sites in Sindh and Punjab areas bordering Balochistan were also occasionally attacked.
The other targets were militia posts, pickets and camps of the civil armed forces and police in isolated places. Attacks on power supply lines from Punjab and Sindh were also common. Many high-power transmission line towers were blown up in the eastern parts of Balochistan disrupting the power supply in the province. In isolated cases, the optic fibre cable system also came under attack, cutting off communication lines between Quetta and the rest of Pakistan for long hours.
The turmoil has clear-cut political implications, indicating a conflict between the government and the nationalist parties, which have joined hands in the four-party Baloch Alliance on political and constitutional issues. This and the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) are involved in a political struggle aimed at securing what are described as political, constitutional and economic rights within the federal system. PONM held a series of public meetings in Chaman, Loralai, Quetta, Khuzdar, Turbat, Panjgur and other places to mobilize public opinion in support of its programme.
The other dimension of the turmoil is its sectarian ramification which led to terrorist attacks on an imambargah and an Ashura procession. This element was introduced by last year's attack on police cadets. Hundreds died in these incidents. Interestingly, there was no visible tension between the different sects nor did the province have a history of sectarian conflict.
Quetta was the scene of the first such incident. People in a small van were ambushed and killed in targeted fashion. The incident was followed by a rampage in which shops, business houses and banks were attacked and looted. Later on some of the commercial establishment were set on fire destroying merchandize worth tens of millions.
Another major sectarian incident was an attack on an Ashura procession on March 2, despite a cordon of police and civil armed forces, in the city's main Liaquat Bazaar. The incident claimed 42 lives and more than 100 people were injured, most of them seriously. The terrorists were all suicide bombers who were later identified by the police. Sectarian violence was not confined to Balochistan. Similar incidents were also reported from Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and other cities of Pakistan. All displayed a common pattern, with suicide bombers being employed to cause destruction - a new phenomenon in Pakistan.
The spate of attacks sent people into a state of shock. Apart from Quetta, the remote areas in the east of the province also experienced their own senseless terrorism. Numerous bomb blasts took place in Kohlu, Barkhan, Zhob, Naushki, Kalat, Khuzdar, Naseerabad, Gwadar, Mastung, Turbat and other townships but mercifully the number of casualties was not high; presumably, the purpose was to create panic among the local residents. The anonymous 'exploders' merely wanted their presence felt without indicating their objectives.
But three Chinese engineers were killed in a remote control bomb explosion in the coastal town of Gwadar, five soldiers died when their van was ambushed in Khuzdar on August 1, and two secret service operatives were among the three killed in a blast at a sweet shop in Kalat.
Other incidents were apparently aimed at causing economic loss and disruption. These were the rocket attacks on an FC post in Mand and the Gwadar airport, an explosion at the Sui airport terminal building, a rocket attack at the Mirani Dam site, ambush of an FC convoy carrying employees of Pakistan Petroleum Limited near Sui and scores of landmine explosions hampering the movement of security forces in the heartland of Balochistan.
The motorcade of Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousuf also came under attack near Surab in August when he was on his way home to Quetta from Khuzdar, killing one of his guards. A car bomb exploded behind the Chief Minister's House. Bicycle blasts emerged as a new trend in the terrorist armory. This modus operandi was used to cause an explosion in the parking lot of the Balochistan High Court on the occasion of an international investment conference in Quetta. Other similar incidents occurred in many townships, the worst being the one in a crowed commercial centre of Quetta on December 10. It left 11 dead, two of them army personnel, and 27 injured, most of them seriously. The army truck was the main target of the attack.
A remote control land mine was planted near Qila Saifullah aiming at the life of Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, MNA, the leading political and religious figure of the MMA in Balochistan. A faction of the Taliban was suspected of involvement. More than 10 blasts were reported on Independence Day in Quetta.
Activists of the Baloch nationalist parties constantly agitated against the ruling party on the issue of mega projects, mainly Gwadar port, as they felt these would prove to be the entry point for migrants from other provinces who would deprive the Baloch of jobs.
There was also resistance against the establishment of military cantonments in Sui, Kohlu and Gwadar. The federal government responded to the crisis by attempting a policy of reconciliation.
A convoy of army personnel was attacked by unknown armed men near Turbat that caused military action in the areas while a large number of political workers were arrested. The nationalist parties reacted strongly to the arrest of their workers and termed the action as a military operation. They took up the issue at all political and parliamentary platforms putting the government on the defensive.
To stem the drift in Balochistan, the federal government agreed to form a parliamentary committee to address the problems of the province. The committee is divided into two sub-committees. The first deals with administrative and economic issues that are day-to-day in nature and the second is concerned with constitutional matters. Senator Mushahid Hussain heads the first committee while the second is headed by Senator Wasim Sajjad, leader of the upper house.
The Mushahid Hussain committee paid a visit to Quetta, Gwadar and Dera Bugti and had meetings with top political leaders and discussed issues with the provincial government and federal officials posted in Balochistan. The nationalist parties' leaders handed over a 15 point-memorandum to the parliamentary committee concerning their demands for resolving the issues faced by the province.
The committee headed by Wasim Sajjad is holding behind-the-scene meetings, away from the glare of media publicity. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti is in direct communication with Tariq Aziz, the top security adviser to the president, exchanging notes on the possible quantum of autonomy to be granted to the provinces. The committee has to submit its report by January.
With the formation of the parliamentary committee, that level of protest and agitation by political activists visibly subsided. It was preceded by series of public meetings, protest rallies and other forms of agitation inside and outside the assemblies in order to put pressure on the government to seek more economic and political rights and taxation powers for the provinces.
The provincial government had to face a tough time on the floor of the assembly where the opposition charged that it had been discriminated against in the allocation of development schemes and resources. Opposition MPAs outside the assembly as well and paraded in the streets, causing embarrassment for the provincial government.
The provincial government faced a serious financial crisis and resorted to massive borrowing from the State Bank. The opposition accused the provincial government of increasing Balochistan's debt burden by borrowing Rs 9 billion in a short span of time. However, the province did get some relief from the Asian Development Bank in the form of a 'soft' loan of $130 million, taken to pay back costly loans and restructure its financial management. The prime minister also donated Rs 2 billion for mitigating the suffering caused by a prolonged drought.
The year drew to a close with the political situation in Balochistan in confusion. Violence and politics have combined to keep the province on the boil. Financial and economic problems compounded the troubles of the province. In the absence of a substantial flow of resources from the federal government or the NFC award there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Balochistan thus enters the new year burdened these problems with no indication that the situation is likely to change in the near future.
Political circles are of the view that though political forces in Balochistan have no high expectations from the parliamentary committee, they are waiting to see what steps this body recommends for removing the apprehensions and reservations of the nationalists regarding the mega projects
Despite their opposition, the first phase of the Gwadar Deep Sea Port project and the Makran Coastal Highway launched by the federal government has been completed. China signed another agreement with Pakistan during the recent visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to that country under which China will spend $ 15 million on further deepening the Gwadar Port water.
In latest developments, the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal group), a component of the four-parties Baloch Alliance has announced its disassociation from the ongoing indirect negotiation process between Islamabad and nationalist leaders.
The party has withdrawn its two members, Senator Sanaullah Baloch and MNA Abdul Rauf Mengal from both committees. The secretary-general of the BNP, Habib Jalib, announced that the party will be no more part of these negotiations as Islamabad has signed a new agreement with China instead of stopping work on Gwadar Port despite the demand of the nationalist parties.
Balochistan has been in turmoil for almost the past three years. In 2004, security forces come under persistent attacks and score of people were killed in ambushes, sniper shootings and rocket attacks. Besides this, gas installations, mainly the distribution system, also came under bomb or rocket attacks. Production, purification and transmission sites in Sindh and Punjab areas bordering Balochistan were also occasionally attacked.
