Missing Persons: Subversive Activities in Balochistan

By Sajjad Shaukat

A Gallup survey for the UK international official body, Department for International Development (DFID) conducted on July 20, this year, revealed that the vast majority of the Baloch people oppose the idea of an independent Balochistan. According to the survey, 67 percent of the people of Balochistan including Baloch and Pashtuns, oppose independence and support greater provincial autonomy, while among the Baloch, 37 percent favour independence.”

This British survey has further proved that some external elements which have been conducting subversive activities in various provinces of Pakistan through their secret agents and affiliated militant outfits are also doing the same in Balochistan by backing the minority groups which want to separate the largest province of Pakistan.

While taking note of the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, the civil government and the Supreme Court of Pakistan have continuously been focusing on Balochistan in order to redress the grievances of the Baloch people, while paying attention on the missing persons.

In this regard, federal and provincial governments are making strenuous efforts to restore peace and order in the province. For this purpose, a paramilitary committee has also been formed by the ruling party to hold negotiations with the disgruntled elements including other such options. On the other hand, on the direction of some foreign elements, Baloch separatist leaders have flatly refused the offer of the government for dialogue, while emphasising the independence of Balochistan.

It is mentionable that America which signed a nuclear deal with India in 2008, intends to make India a mini-super power of Asia to contain China and destablise Pakistan as well as Iran. Balochistan where China has invested billion of dollars to develop Gwadar seaport is considered a greater threat by Washington, New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

Reality behind the worsening circumstances and the missing people of Balochistan is that secret agencies like American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad which have well-established their collective network in Afghanistan are in collusion, and have perennial been supporting bomb blasts, suicide attacks, abductions, target killings, ethnic and sectarian violence in Balochistan through their affiliated militant groups such as Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Jundollah (God’s soldiers), and Baloch feudal lords (Sardars) in order to fulfill their secret strategic designs so as to dismember Pakistan and Iran.

These foreign-backed insurgent groups are responsible for target killings of Punjabis, Pushtuns, people of Hazara community and patriot Balochis including Pakistani and Iranian Shias. Their subversive activities have resulted in missing persons in Balochistan.

Notably, Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik disclosed in his recent statements that he also showed proof about training camps being run in Afghanistan, and supply of arms and ammunition by the Afghan government to Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti and his operators inside Balochistan. Malik explained that BLA has owned 299 terror attacks in the province in which more than 170 personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) were martyred.

Earlier, Inspector General of the FC Maj-Gen. Obaidullah Khan Khattak disclosed that teachers, doctors and many civilians have fallen prey to targeted killings. He elaborated that foreign powers had their eyes on the province as part of a well-planned conspiracy, hatched for propaganda against the FC and intelligence agencies.

During his visit to Balochistan, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, while hinting towards US, India and Israel including insurgent groups said on July 13, that there were some external and internal forces involved in creating unrest in the province.

However, BLA and Jundollah which have been fighting for secession of the province gets logistic support from CIA, Mossad and RAW and are also working against the cordial relationship of Pakistan with China and Iran. In the past few years, their militants kidnapped and killed many Chinese and Iranian nationals in Pakistan. Besides Pakistan nationals, these foreign citizens also fall in the category of the disappeared people.

Notably, on October 18, 2009, a deadliest suicide attack had killed several officers in the Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan. Jundullah, a Sunni militant group which is pro-active against the Iranians, claimed responsibility for the incident. Similarly, on December 15, 2010, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a mosque in Iran, killing 39 people. In the recent past, these sorts of subversive acts have continued in Iran intermittently. Particularly, Tehran had repeatedly pointed out US and CIA for patronage and funding of those types of terrorist attacks.

On a number of occasions, BLA claimed responsibility for various acts of sabotage, forced abductions and killing of non-Balochis, while Jundollah did the same in case of Shias of Pakistani and Iranian origin.

While taking cognisance of the US and Indo-Israeli plot against Islamabad and Tehran, the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi had stated, “It is obvious that the same forces which are working in Pakistani Balochistan are also working in Iranian Sistan.”

In this context, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had indicated, “The bloody actions being committed in Iraq, Pakistan and Iran are aimed at creating a division between the Shias and Sunnis…those who carry out these terrorist actions are directly or indirectly foreign agents.”

It is of particular attention that on February 8, 2012, the hearing of the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Dana Rohrabacher discussed target killings and human rights violations in Balochistan, blaming Pakistan’s security agencies. He also favoured an independent Balochistan. It has exposed US backing to the Baloch separatists who are responsible for the missing persons.

In this connection, with the help of Baloch separatist leaders who have taken refuge in western countries, US-led entities are launching false campaign to distort the image of Islamabad and its security agencies.

It is worth-mentioning that the agents of CIA, RAW and Mosssad are well-penetrated in the foreign and Pakistani media, various NGOs and human rights organisations which are being used for vile propaganda against Pak Army and country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) including FC in relation to the disappeared persons. In this context, on July 31, 2011, a rally was organised by Baloch Human Rights Council in UK in front of the US Embassy in London, which raised false allegations such as inhuman torture and extrajudicial murder of the Baloch intellectuals by the Pakistan’s security agencies.

Besides, a demonstration was held outside the United Nations in Genva on the occasion of the 19th Session of UN Human Rights Council to condemn the human rights violations in Balochistan. The demonstrators accused the the Pakistan’s security and intelligence agencies of extrajudicial killings. Apperently, the demonstration was organised and  led by Mehran Baloch, Balochistan’s representative at the United Nations and Noordin Mengal, but in fact, it was arranged by anti-Pakistan NGOs, human rights groups and Indo-Israeli lobbies with the cladestine assistance of America.

Nonetheless, the Baloch feudal lords who have been fighting for their own so-called status, prestige and influence did not want to give up the old system of feudalism. With the backing of US-led India and Israel, they incite the Baloch separatist elements for independence of the province, while a majority of Baloch people does not favour separation of Balochistan. No doubt, these foreign-supported elements are behind missing persons who have been killed in various subversive activities in Balaochistan.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com