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Baloch insurgents escalate attacks in
Pakistan
Violence in the Balochistan province is
adding to Pakistan's border and infrastructure headache.
By Tarique Niazi for The Jamestown Foundation (24/05/06)
Since 2002, Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan has remained
gripped by insurgent violence. In the last few months, this violence has
increased in frequency and intensity. The favorite targets of insurgents
are energy production sites - such as Sui in Dera Bugti - and energy
infrastructure that supplies natural gas to Pakistan's industrial hub in
Punjab and Karachi (Terrorism Focus, 21 March). On 19 May, two main gas
pipelines to Punjab were blown up, cutting off gas supplies to the
province (Dawn, 20 May).
Although it is easy to damage Pakistan's extended but unguarded network of
gas pipelines, insurgents are now hitting harder targets such as gas
production sites. On 19 May, the gas supply line to one of the gas plants
in Sui was blown up (Dawn, 20 May). Sui sits on the country's largest
reserves of natural gas, which has been in production since the 1950s.
Pakistan's commercial, industrial and residential consumers are heavily
dependent upon gas from Sui, the disruption of which can shut the country
down. Besides Sui, there are three other gas fields in Pir Koh, Loti and
Uch, which each make a tempting target for insurgent attacks. On 17 April,
"the regulator of the Pir Koh gas plant was blown off" (Daily Times, 18
April). In a similar incident on 19 May, the gas pipeline that supplies
gas from the Loti gas field to one of the Sui gas plants was also bombed
(Dawn, 20 May).
Like gas pipelines, railway tracks are another easy target of insurgent
violence to disrupt human as well as freight traffic between Balochistan
and Punjab provinces. On 22 April, a railway bridge near Kari-Dor in
Balochistan was blown up, stopping all major passenger trains—Chiltan
Express, Balochistan Express, Jaffar Express and Bolan Mail—that run
between Balochistan and Punjab and Balochistan and Sind (Daily Times, 23
April). In the past two months alone, insurgents mounted 12 attacks on
railroad infrastructure on the Sibi-Harnai section (Daily Times, 23
April). On 19 May, the railway track between Quetta and Chaman (the latter
a border town on the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan), which
largely remains under heavy use by security forces, was blown up (Dawn, 20
May).
Islamabad has bolstered security in and around the gas production sites as
well as the railroad tracks. The major focus, however, has been on the
protection of the Sui area where Pakistan has heavily-deployed military
and paramilitary forces that also come under frequent attacks. For
instance, "On 17 April, 'suspected tribal militants' fired 19 rockets at
security forces in Dera Bugti" (Daily Times, 18 April). No casualties were
reported, however. The day before, on April 16, seven rockets were fired
on security forces' check posts in Sibi, which is a land route to Dera
Bugti and the Sui area (Daily Times, 17 April). Bridges on the Sibi-Harnai
section, which is a major means of transportation for security forces in
Dera Bugti, have been routinely hit by insurgents. On 16 April, a section
of the bridge was damaged in rocket attacks (Daily Times, 17 April). On
April 22, two bridges on Sibi-Harnai section were blown up. On 13 May, a
civilian official was abducted together with his driver and two bodyguards
on his way to Uch (Dawn, 15 May). The next day, his beheaded body was
found and his driver and bodyguards were missing.
Additionally, insurgents are now using "unmanned" weapons such as
landmines to attack security forces. The area around the Sui production
site is heavily mined, which has caused significant loss of life. On 11
March, 28 civilians were killed in a landmine blast (Arab News, 11 March).
As recently as 17 April, three security officials were wounded in a
landmine explosion in Sangsila in Dera Bugti (Daily Times, 18 April).
Besides security forces, agencies engaged in the exploration of oil and
gas in the remote areas of Balochistan are also targets of insurgent
violence. One such agency is Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP). On 19
May, a hand grenade was lobbed at the house of an important official in
the GSP's residential colony in Quetta (Dawn, 20 May). The grenade
exploded in the front yard of the house and shattered its windows, but
caused no casualties. Such incidents should be seen as warnings for lethal
violence to come.
The government blames violence in Balochistan on Afghanistan, Baloch
tribal chiefs and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) (APP, 26 April;
Dawn, 20 May). On 26 April, Balochistan's minister for home and tribal
affairs said that "foreign hands" are sending "arms and terrorists" into
the province. Similarly, the federal minister for the interior claimed on
19 May that a tribal chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, has links to
"trouble-makers" in Balochistan. He has banned Nawab Bugti, many members
of his family and his nephew Shahid Bugti, who is a member of the Senate
of Pakistan, from traveling abroad. Similarly, the government has recently
outlawed the BLA, which it blames for attacks on human and property
assets. Yet, the government is far from stemming the raging wave of
violence in Balochistan.
Although violence in Balochistan has its own roots, its ebb and flow is
amenable to the intensity of violence in neighboring Afghanistan and
neighboring northwestern Pakistan, especially the latter's Waziristan
agencies. Islamabad's strategy to divide Baloch tribes and arm those who
do its bidding is further enflaming the existing perilous situation. It is
important to understand that the violence in Balochistan is a reaction to
President Pervez Musharraf's illusory "strategic objectives"- such as the
building of the Gwadar naval port, air bases around the Arabian Sea coast
and military installations in the energy-rich section of the province -
which are exacerbating an already difficult "situation that could lead to
the break-up of Pakistan" (Khabrain, 21 May). The reason the government
has thus far failed to end violence in Balochistan is the depth and
breadth of mass discontent in the province against the government that
knows no political and class divides.
Source: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=15975
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