Musharraf: Buccaneer in Baluchistan

The next time Pakistan's soldier President Pervez Musharraf opens his mouth on Kashmir, some one in India should remind him of a province called Baluchistan where his Army has been merrily enforcing a regime which cannot by any stretch of imagination be called a civilised one. From water supply to University education, the gumboots of Musharraf are running a full-scale martial administration.

No one would have complained if Musharraf had honourable intentions of providing succour to his countrymen, even if they lived in far-off provinces like the Northern Areas and Baluchistan. The problem is Musharraf, a Mohajir eager to please the predominantly Punjabi ruling class of Pakistan, has been exploiting provinces like Baluchistan to feed the minority Punjabi elite-dominated areas.

No one could articulate the oppression and pain of Baluchistan better than Mehran Baluch, a prominent Baluchistan leader. Speaking at the 57th Session of the Commission on Human Rights at Geneva (March 19-April 27, 2001), Mehran Baluch said: "our tragedy began in 1947, immediately after the creation of Pakistan. The colonialist army of Pakistani Punjab forcibly occupied the state of 'Kalat' at gunpoint". Kalat is the heart of Baluchistan. Thereafter, the whole of Baluchistan, was occupied through connivance and machination.

After this forcible occupation, the Baluch have been reduced to the status of slaves in their own country and their land has become a colony. As a result of the usurpation of their rights, the Baluch have become oppressed and deprived, and forced to live in destitution.

Baluchistan is important for Pakistan. It has enormous natural and mineral resources-vast underground and coastal reserves of petroleum, gas, coal and minerals. It has one of the largest uranium reserves in the world. It has tremendous strategic value for Pakistan that is developing a new naval base at Gwadar port on the Mekran coast with the help of China. The groundwork has already begun at Gwadar port where Pakistani and Chinese naval facilities will be located. The port could pose a direct threat to India and US interests in the Gulf. Besides, Baluchistan is also the place where Pakistan carries out its nuclear tests. The Chagai hills in Baluchistan is one of Pakistan's test sites .

To be fair to Musharraf, he is only doing what his predecessors have been doing: keeping Baluchistan firmly under martial rule. For that, like his illustrious predecessors, he is using the Army to suppress any dissent or voice of protest in Baluchistan against the atrocities committed on them. When Baluchis began demanding their rights and a honourable share in the economic resources, Islamabad sent troops and air force jets to shut them up. For six years, from 1973 to 1979, the Army, the ISI and the police hunted down unarmed Baluchis. It is reported that over 15000 Baluch men, women and children died in the Army operation. Mehran Baluch's father, Nawab Khair Buksh Marri, was a prominent leader of Baluchistan and had to flee to Afghanistan in 1979. Mehran alleged before the Commission of Human Rights that his 73-year old father was detained once again on January 11 this year after the ISI engineered the murder of a prominent Baluchi, Justice Nawaz Marri.

According to Mehran, the reason for Pakistan's belligerence in Baluchistan is economic. Musharraf is desperate to exploit the petroleum and gas resources of Baluchistan; local leaders oppose the move. Leaders like Nawab Marri are demanding adequate dividends and environmental protection for the locals. Mehran says when natural gas was discovered in the Sui area of Baluchistan, it was piped straight to Punjab and other parts of Pakistan. No one in Baluchistan got it. As the protest against this exploitation is gaining momentum, Musharraf has unleashed his martial might to silence the popular voice of Baluchistan. Hundreds of Marri tribesmen and Baluch followers of Nawab Khair Buksh Marri have been unlawfully arrested by the army, and are being tortured by the State in custody. Scores of them have just disappeared. The Army, according to newspaper reports, has also launched operations in Baluch and Pushtun, targeting leaders of Baluchistan like Sardar Ataullah Mengal and Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

The people of Baluchistan have also been protesting against the use of their land for nuclear tests. They allege that nuclear tests at the Chagai hills have devastated the ecology of the area. Water has been contaminated by radiation caused by nuclear tests. Skin disease, ailments, and mental and physical disorders have been recorded in Chagai and surrounding areas.

There are quite a few other faces of Baluchistan that the world must know to realise the threat martial dictators like Musharraf pose to global peace. It would be more appropriate to quote from a respected Pakistani weekly, Friday Times (March 23-29, 2001), to highlight the increasing incidents of attacks on minority communities in Baluchistan, especially after the forcible takeover Musharraf executed in October 1999. The weekly reported that "persecution of the Ahmediyas seemed to be on the rise across the country last year with about 2000 incidents. The incidents included the murder of four Ahmediyas, forcible seizure of their places of worship, bodies of Ahmediyas buried in graveyards being disinterred and fatwas issued against the Ahmediyas by Sunni Mullahs. While the military regime has not been permitting the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to hold rallies for democracy, it did not stop a public function in a Multan mosque by Sunni extremists to award the title of the "Conqueror of Ahmediyas' to Maulana Manzoor Ahmed Chinioti, a Sunni extremist, who has been in the forefront of the campaign for the extermination of the Ahmediyas.

The report then highlights the systematic attacks on Hindus. "Hundreds of Hindus have been forced to flee their homes and cross over into Sindh. Three Hindus were reported to have been killed in the town of Chaman after clashes in October between Hindus attempting to protect their homes, and Muslim mobs. Temples and homes were set ablaze and property, including Hindu shops, destroyed as the growing social intolerance assumed alarming new proportions in Baluchistan. In all cases, local extremist groups played a role in triggering the attacks. Though the precise number of families that fled was unknown, reports suggested almost half the community of 10,000 Hindus in Lasbela had been forced to leave their homes over the year. In almost all cases, the increased activism by militant religious groups imposed new strains on relations between the majority Muslim and the Hindu communities, who had lived peacefully alongside each other for many decades. The efforts to forcibly convert the Hindus, especially female school students, had a direct role to play in violence against Hindu settlements".

All those who talk of the rights of minorities and human rights in Kashmir and elsewhere in India should take a look at these facts and realise how cleverly General Musharraf is hiding his sins and making India look like the sinner. The Indian leadership, which seems to go on the defensive every time they see Musharraf, should learn to pinch the General where it hurts. What he is doing in Baluchistan hurts not only the Baluchis but also his assiduously-crafted image of being a statesman in the making. Somewhere in the story of Baluchistan is a moral for the likes of the Hurriyat who see Musharraf as the saviour of Kashmir. For Musharraf, Kashmir is just another Baluchistan.