There is deep public outrage in Balochistan against an operation conducted by the Frontier Corps (FC) on January 2 in Mashky area that killed a mother and four of her sons.
Similar operations have increased in the district of Khuzdar. The FC and the Home and Tribal Affairs Department have confirmed that these operations were actually conducted. But they paint a picture that looks different from the local people’s account concerning the killing of women and terrorizing children. The government says these operations were carried out against the Baloch insurgents. This is partly true given that BBC Urdu quoted a spokesman for the underground Lashker-e-Balochistan confirm that one of its commanders and three fighters were killed in a recent clash with the security forces.
On January 4th, the Baloch National Front (BNF), an alliance of pro-free Balochistan political organizations, called a shutter down strike in the province to protest against the military operations being carried out in different parts of the province. The call for the strike paralyzed every day life. But military operations and subsequent calls for shutter down strikes have become the order of the day for the past many years now. Neither the security forces stop carrying out these operations nor do these political rallies, protests and hunger strike camps from the Baloch nationalists and human rights organizations improve the conditions on the ground.
The beginning of reckless operations in Balochistan does no bode well for the new year we have just started. Generally people start the year with setting new goals and hope for better and peaceful days. At this point, we have to pause for a moment and reflect what has gone wrong in Balochistan and why these operations are still taking place one and half year after the democratic elections and the induction of a seasoned Baloch nationalist as the chief minister.
The military operations across Balochistan show that Dr. Malik Baloch, the Chief Minister, has failed in fulfilling the responsibility he was entrusted. The Chief Minister’s party, the National Party, did not appear as the number one or two on the list of election winners. In spite of that, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif supported the idea of electing Dr. Malik as the provincial chief executive. They hoped that he would be able to initiate negotiations with the Baloch armed groups and their leaders in exile.
Since taking over, the Chief Minister has been engaging in work avoidance and buying time instead of focusing on the actual goal of brining peace to the province. His actions for conflict resolution are limited to lip service while his commitment and capabilities are also questionable. These fresh operations will only make it much harder for him to convince the Baloch armed groups to go on the negotiating table.
After the Mashky incident, Akbar Hussain Durrani, Balochistan’s Home Secretary, told BBC Urdu, “we don’t need permission from anyone to carry out these operations.” That is clearly stepping out of one’s institutional and constitutional authority. Even if the security forces have credible evidence about the presence of insurgents in civilian areas, we strongly discourage extrajudicial killings. The security forces have an obligation under the constitution and the international law to prove the charges against the individuals they suspect of engaging in ‘terrorism’. In addition, under no circumstances should any citizen be denied the right to access a lawyer and face free, fair and transparent trial. The security forces in Balochistan are brazenly violating all these these prerequisites while dealing with the Baloch population. The Home Secretary or the Inspector General of the FC cannot become the judge, jury and executioner at the same time.
The extraconstitutional actions of these senior government officials indicate that perhaps the Chief Minister has no control over them or covertly supports them only to save his own job. When the government forces kill an unarmed mother with four of her sons, this will naturally redirect the rest of the families to look up to the armed groups as their savior. These actions generate support for the insurgents and make the government operations totally ineffective in whatever goals they are intended to achieve. How would the insurgents trust the government and agree to negotiate when these operations are so indiscriminate against the unarmed civilians?
With nearly four decades of rich experience in progressive politics, CM Malik will only be disfiguring his political legacy by staying quiet against the same operations which were once carried out during General Musharraf’s time against the Baloch population and the current CM used to oppose them as an opposition leader.
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