SARDAR Ataullah Mengal's comments, after Mian Nawaz Sharif called on him, made front-page headlines unlike the almost daily reports of dumped bodies in Balochistan.

The news stories of the discovery of the latest batch of dumped, tortured bodies are often, if at all, found on the inside or back pages of most newspapers. One is unaware if TV bulletins carry these at all though one has watched the occasional programme on the issue.

The reason isn't necessarily that the whole media endorses the kill-and-dump policy of the security forces. It is more indicative of the fact that so many dumped bodies are found every week that perhaps the news 'value' of such incidents isn't as high as the latest twists and turns in the political arena.

On a recent trip to Balochistan, a friend asked if I knew the significance of Dr Allah Nazar's role. Continuing, my knowledgeable friend reminded me the doctor runs one of the most potent separatist militant groups in Balochistan today.

“With Brahamdagh Bugti's move to Switzerland, there is a discernible reduction in the Bugtis' militancy. The Marris are still active but the most active and organised appears to be Dr Allah Nazar's group. Allah Nazar is middle class and is not a tribal leader.”

Sardar Ataullah Mengal was perhaps right in telling journalists in Karachi, as he stood alongside Mian Sahib that things were “out of my control” and now in the hands of those who had been pushed to the mountains.

Ataullah Mengal, who was once elected chief minister and had taken oath under the constitution, also lamented that the army was treating him (the Baloch) like they weren't part of Pakistan. “So don't say it is my fault if I feel this way.”

Akhtar Mengal, the sardar's elder son who was also a chief minister in the 1990s and remained imprisoned under Musharraf on the flimsiest of charges, has apparently given up politics and was content to get a safe passage abroad.

The history is long as any Baloch will tell you. But surely in its latest phase, the whole saga was triggered by the rape of a woman doctor in Sui who alleged the rapist was a serving army captain. Gen Musharraf who was then at the helm prejudged the inquiry and proclaimed his officer's innocence.

When Nawab Akbar Bugti sided with the rape survivor, calling for justice, an enraged Musharraf blew a fuse himself and was also wound up by his relative and (according to some friends of his) the highly inflammable director-general military intelligence, Maj-Gen Nadeem Ijaz Mian.

The army normally uses the Inter-Services Intelligence in such issues, but Musharraf tasked the Military Intelligence with sorting out those GHQ calls 'miscreants'. And the MI went about its task with gusto.

The agency made a politician, who wasn't averse to cooperating with the establishment in the past, into an inspirational rebel leader. This wasn't all. Akbar Bugti was killed and the Baloch separatist cause gifted a legitimate high-profile martyr.

Once the Baloch movement was labelled 'foreign-backed' (which elements of it may well be), disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings of Pakistan's own sons became acceptable as it was now a 'national security' issue.

Another explanation for the callous neglect towards these murders could also be that Baloch nationalism has manifest itself in tragic, ugly ways with the killing of innocent non-Baloch teachers/other settlers.

If one researcher is to be believed, bodies have also been found with 'Pakistan Zindabad' inscribed on them with sharp, knife-like objects, drawing blood. Mindless it may be but it doesn't stop here. According to sources, after Musharraf's exit, the influence of the MI was curtailed and ISI again given the upper hand,

Although the ISI is now providing the 'intelligence' that FC troops act on, if those usually across developments in Balochistan are to be believed, the other agency is also involved.

“Just find out who took a prominent Baloch separatist leader to Karachi for treatment,” said one source. “If you can get an answer, you'll also know there is a sinister game on in our blighted land. What a political dialogue could have delivered appears more and more distant now thanks to the games the agencies are playing here.”

For their part, officials in Balochistan insist that no 'innocent' Baloch has ever been killed. According to one official, “Gen Javed Zia [the recently retired corps commander] used to ask politicians to inform him if they ever found out about anyone targeted unjustly. No one ever complained.”

However, it isn't clear who the intelligence set-up and the FC teams assigned to work with it consider innocent. To them, it appears, the 'guilty' aren't necessarily those cited in (not convicted of) killing of innocent civilians or other militant activities alone.

Anyone believed to be 'inciting' separatism, the independent-minded intellectual for example, is said to be guilty too and punishable by death, a horrible death, without trial as the bodies testify. That there is no attempt to secretly bury the bodies, points to the blatant message. The officials gleefully point to the 'decline' in separatist violence as a success of their brutal policy. They are oblivious to, or don't wish to see, the widespread simmering discontent one witnessed on a recent visit. Conversations with many locals painted a hugely alarming picture.

It ought to be mind-boggling that an establishment which all but charges an elected government with threatening national security and wants the issue to be dealt with 'on merit' in courts, dispenses with the legal process in a part of the country crying out for justice.

But it isn't. What else would you expect from a military leadership that believes that fanatical zealots, including those avowedly inspired by Osama bin Laden, are the country's second line of defence, despite its own tragic losses?

Just look at the recent line-up of the patriotic luminaries under the 'Difa-i-Pakistan' banner in Lahore. Tell me if this was Mr Jinnah's dream come true or something he would be wary of, terming it his worst nightmare.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn .

abbas.nasir@hotmail.com