The operation in Turbat that led to the death of twelve militants and one member of the FC Corps poses a plethora of questions regarding the stability of the region. Which group did these militants belong to? Did they have anything to do with the attack on the office of the Online News Agency? How much control did they have in Gomazi, the area in which they were found? Pockets of militancy are spread out over all of Balochistan, and their presence, coupled with the armed forces, the tribes and the separatists makes the entire province more volatile than most other areas in Pakistan.
Twelve militants is no small number, and the three hours that it took to end the operation means that it was no walk in the park. Khan Wasay, the spokesperson for the FC Corps, also stated that a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the militants, although this could not be confirmed by any independent sources. The lack of information that comes out of Balochistan makes every instance such as this very murky, and the armed forces are hardly the most reliable source of information when Balochistan, or even North Waziristan, is concerned.
Given the presence of the security forces, their neglect of the voice of Balochis and their treatment of all those they consider to be dissenters, any operation that fails to specify who was targeted leaves a lot of room for skepticism. Has Balochistan become a police state? Political activists, journalists, students and professors have all been killed time and again for dubious reasons. It has become a narrative that we have just started accepting, that there were X or Y number of deaths and all of these death were of militants. With the government as an idle bystander, if not an active participant in most cases, the people of Balochistan are bereft of any hope of justice.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Balochistan: Turbulent Turbat
The operation in Turbat that led to the death of twelve militants and one member of the FC Corps poses a plethora of questions regarding the stability of the region. Which group did these militants belong to? Did they have anything to do with the attack on the office of the Online News Agency? How much control did they have in Gomazi, the area in which they were found? Pockets of militancy are spread out over all of Balochistan, and their presence, coupled with the armed forces, the tribes and the separatists makes the entire province more volatile than most other areas in Pakistan.
Twelve militants is no small number, and the three hours that it took to end the operation means that it was no walk in the park. Khan Wasay, the spokesperson for the FC Corps, also stated that a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the militants, although this could not be confirmed by any independent sources. The lack of information that comes out of Balochistan makes every instance such as this very murky, and the armed forces are hardly the most reliable source of information when Balochistan, or even North Waziristan, is concerned.
Given the presence of the security forces, their neglect of the voice of Balochis and their treatment of all those they consider to be dissenters, any operation that fails to specify who was targeted leaves a lot of room for skepticism. Has Balochistan become a police state? Political activists, journalists, students and professors have all been killed time and again for dubious reasons. It has become a narrative that we have just started accepting, that there were X or Y number of deaths and all of these death were of militants. With the government as an idle bystander, if not an active participant in most cases, the people of Balochistan are bereft of any hope of justice.
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