Heedless of the lessons that should have been learnt from history, the old playbook on how to tackle Balochistan has not been revised.

The army chief’s high-profile visit to the Frontier Corps headquarters in Quetta on Wednesday, where he met the Balochistan chief minister and governor as well as the head of the FC Southern Command — who oversees security-related operations in the part of the province where the insurgency is at its height — makes that very clear.

During his trip Gen Raheel Sharif warned “foreign governments and intelligence agencies” against meddling in Balochistan and thereby sustaining the insurgency that he vowed would be defeated “comprehensively”.

Read: COAS vows to crush insurgency in Balochistan

The timing of the army chief’s visit and his bellicose statements are significant, and seem to indicate an imminent intensifying of the already heavy military footprint in the province.

The reprehensible murder by separatists last week of 20 non-Baloch labourers in Turbat who were working on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, appears to have been the catalyst for this renewed focus on the province, despite the military’s ongoing operations against extremists in the country’s tribal areas.

The imminent visit of the Chinese president and his plans to inaugurate several mega projects in Gwadar in all likelihood also factored into the robust response to the murders by the military.

Also read: 20 labourers gunned down in Turbat

It claimed to have killed 13 militants in a clash, although reports suggest that at least some of the dead were earlier victims of enforced disappearance.

The involvement of third parties in fomenting trouble in Balochistan has long been alleged.

Given its strategic location, there may well be truth in that contention, and evidence to the effect should be brought into the public domain.

Critically though, the establishment continues to ignore its own role in creating conditions in the province that are ripe for exploitation by regional forces.

By stifling alternate narratives, allowing free rein to its proxies to run amok and commit horrific human rights abuses, and refusing to suspend its inhumane kill-and-dump policy, the state has allowed deep-seated grievances to develop among the Baloch and fanned the flames of separatist sentiment.

Moreover, despite the much-touted benefits of devolution, Balochistan is still deprived of agency over its vast natural resources that are its primary asset.

Even though the COAS during his visit advocated an integrated civilian-military approach to address the Balochistan problem, the optics left no doubt that the province continues to be viewed primarily through a security lens.

It is the civilian government in Balochistan, which after all has an elected set-up and assembly, that should take the lead in finding a durable political resolution to the impasse — including attempts to engage the insurgents, and any security operations should be announced by the prime minister, not the army chief. Instead, the military’s highly visible role simply adds fuel to the fire and makes Dr Abdul Malik’s government appear powerless.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2015

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