A series of terrorist attacks across Balochistan late on Sunday night and early on Monday morning have raised many questions in the rest of the country.
Extremists, per officials, offloaded 23 people from buses and trucks, checked their ID cards, and shot dead those of Punjabi origin. At the same time, terrorists targeted law enforcers and public infrastructure, damaging a railway bridge, impacting the province’s connectivity with the rest of the country. Unfortunately, this is a continuation of a long pattern of extremism in the restive province. Scholars blame the unrest on an insurgency led by Baloch separatists and various Islamist militant groups against the governments of Pakistan and Iran, covering the Pakistani province of Balochistan and Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan. While the separatists tend to attack people from outside Balochistan, sectarian groups have attacked Shia Muslims, further boosting tensions in the province. Despite being rich in natural resources, these areas remain underdeveloped, partially due to the armed groups’ demand for greater control of natural resources and political autonomy.
Since Partition in 1947, Pakistan has seen Baloch insurgencies in 1948-50, 1958–60, 1962–63 and 1973–1977, with an ongoing low-level insurgency beginning in 2003. The current insurgency was on the wane until the return to power of the Afghan Taliban in Kabul, which saw the revival of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its eventual link-up with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The state has attempted to achieve peace by encouraging militants to give up arms and join the political process, but the initiative is hampered by many Baloch questioning why their province continues to trail behind the rest of the country, especially in terms of development.
The largest group involved in the insurgency is the BLA, which has conducted numerous deadly attacks on Pakistani military troops, police, journalists, civilians and education institutions. Muddying the waters are accusations of the Government of Pakistan violating human rights in its myriad attempts to suppress the insurgency. However, a key point to note is that a majority of Baloch, per a Gallup survey conducted in 2012, do not favor independence from Pakistan, rather they want greater provincial autonomy. The 18th Amendment was meant to achieve this, but the province’s political class appears unable to capitalize on the rights accorded to it through the legislation. There are no easy solutions; ending the unrest requires a holistic approach that incorporates both removing the sense of deprivation in Baloch, as well as strict action against all militants that seek to disturb peace and attack innocent civilians.