The Baloch freedom-fighters continue to wage a determined struggle againstthe Pakistan Army and the Punjabi feudal aristocracy, which has colonised theirhomeland with Chinese assistance. Their struggle is against thePunjabi-dominated Army and not against the common people, wherever they arefrom.
The operations of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and other groups, whichhave joined this freedom struggle, are directed against the externalmanifestations of the Punjabi colonisation such as the Army, the Air Force andpara-military forces as well as the infrastructure through which the valuableresources of the Baloch people are being taken away to add to the wealth andcomfort of the Punjabis, while the Balochs themselves continue to suffer inabject poverty and misery.
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Despite the deployment of nearly 40,000 troops and para-military forces andthe use of the Air Force, including the helicopters donated by the US foroperations to hunt for Osama bin Laden and his No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri,President General Pervez Musharraf has not been able to suppress the freedomstruggle being waged by the Balochs.
In the meanwhile, the international community and opinion makers in the UShave been taking increasing notice of the freedom struggle and the grievances ofthe Balochs. The Pakistan Human Rights Organisation headed by the renowned Dr.Asma Jehangir has also been highlighting the continuing gross violations of thehuman rights of the Balochs.
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Frustrated in their attempts to crush the independence struggle through theirmilitary might, Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment have embarked ona campaign to discredit the movement by planting mines on roads and routes usedby innocent civilians and blaming on the BLA and other organisations fightingfor independence the resulting civilian casualties.
In a tragic incident on March 10, 2006, a wedding party of 30 civiliansperished after the bus in which they were traveling hit a land-mine in the DeraBugti area of Balochistan. An insidious campaign has been unleashed by theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to blame the Baloch freedom-fighters for thisincident as well as earlier incidents in which civilians were killed byland-mines.
Well-informed sources say that these mines, many of them of Chinese origin,were planted by the Army and the ISI in order to discredit the freedom struggleand weaken the growing external support for it. They assert that the BLA and itssister organisations do not have any land-mines.
The Chinese have also been playing a deplorable role in the efforts of theArmy to crush the independence struggle, by providing the Pakistani militaryunits deployed in Balochistan with arms and ammunition and by sharing with themthe intelligence collected by Chinese intelligence officers posted in Gwadar andother places under the cover of engineers.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India,and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.
