Pakistan- the Balochistan Conundrum

by Tilak Devasher

  3. Amnesty International, ‘Denying the Undeniable: Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan, 2008’, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/.../asa330182008eng.pdf, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  4. Declan Walsh, ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War’.

  5. Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, ‘Balochistan: Insecure Security’, South Asia Intelligence Review, Vol. 16, No. 44, 30 April 2018, https://www.satp.org/south-asia-intelligence-review-Volume-16-No-44, (accessed on 15 May 2018).

  6. ‘About 1,000 bodies found in Balochistan in six years’, The News, 30 December 2016, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/175521-About-1000-bodies-found-in-Balochistan-in-six-years, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  7. Naseer Memon, ‘The Balochistan conundrum’, The News on Sunday, 16 April 2017, http://tns.thenews.com.pk/balochistan-conundrum/#.WPN5pdKGPIU, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  8. Jon Boone and Kiyya Baloch, ‘A new Shenzhen? Poor Pakistan fishing town’s horror at Chinese plans’, The Guardian, 4 February 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/pakistan-new-shenzhen-poor-gwadar-fishing-town-china-plans, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  9. HRCP Report, 2006, pp. 2, 13 .

  10. Ibid., p. 2.

  11. Amnesty International, ‘Denying the Undeniable: Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan, 2008.

  12. The HRCP also noted an acute sense of fear in the province, in particular among those whose relatives had gone missing or had been released after their enforced disappearance. People were hesitant to pursue the cases for fear that other members of their family might be targeted. See Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Blinkered Slide into Chaos, Report of the HRCP, Fact-Finding Mission’, Lahore, June 2011, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/6.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  13. Declan Walsh, ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War.

  14. Zohra Yusuf, ‘Trigger-happy in Balochistan., The Express Tribune, 9 June 2011, http://tribune.com.pk/story/184794/trigger-happy-in-balochistan/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  15. Faiz M. Baluch, ‘Background Notes on the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons March’, The Naked Punch, 21 November 2013, http://www.nakedpunch.com/articles/189#sthash.qLiG7Tnq.dpuf, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  16. Hamid Mir, ‘72-year-old Mama Qadeer Baloch breaks record of Gandhi after 84 years’, The News, 25 February 2014, https://www.thenews.com.pk/archive/print/636350-72-year-old-mama-qadeer-baloch-breaks-record-of-gandhi-after-84-years, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  17. Faiz M. Baluch, ‘Background Notes on the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons March’.

  18. ‘Balochistan: Enforced Disappearances Reach Alarming Records in 2015’, UNPO, 5 January 2016, http://www.unpo.org/article/18818, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  19. Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, ‘Pakistan: Ethnic Carnage in Balochistan’, South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR), 28 November 2017, https://www.satp.org/satporgtp/sair/Archives/sair16/16_22.htm, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  20. ‘Two missing Baloch men found dead in Karachi’, Dawn, 21 August 2013, https://www.dawn.com/news/1037320, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  21. ‘Mama Qadeer barred from foreign travels’, The News, 6 March 2015, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/27595-mama-qadeer-barred-from-foreign-travels, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  22. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Pushed to the Wall’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission to Balochistan, October 2009, p. 5, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/14.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  23. ‘Balochistan at point of no return, Mengal tells Nawaz’, Dawn, 20 December 2011, https://www.dawn.com/news/681889, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  24. HRCP Report, 2011, p. 3.

  25. Ibid., p. 4.

  26. Ibid.

  27. HRCP Report, 2009, p. 13.

  28. HRCP Report, 2011, p. 12.

  29. Declan Walsh, ‘UN Presses Pakistan Over the Fate of Hundreds of Missing People’, The New York Times, 20 September 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/world/asia/united-nations-presses-pakistan-on-disappearances.html, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  30. According to the Baluch Sarmachar of 19 September 2012, members of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons later wrote to the UN and the Supreme Court of Pakistan about the death threats they had received from the Tehrik Nefaz Aman (TNA), one of the death squads supported by the intelligence agencies, after they appeared before the delegation, cited in Frederic Grare, ‘Balochistan: The State Versus the Nation’, Washinton DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2013, p. 22, http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  31. ‘Balochs Welcome U.S. Human Rights Intervention at UNHCR’, Tamil Guardian, 28 March 2012, cited in Frederic Grare, ‘Balochistan: The State Versus the Nation’.

  32. Amnesty International, ‘Denying the Undeniable’.

  33. The Constitution of Pakistan, cited in International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Pakistan: The Forgotten Conflict in Balochistan’, Asia Report, 22 October 2007, pp. 3–4, https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/pakistan/pakistan-forgotten-conflict-balochistan, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  34. Malik Siraj Akbar, ‘Munir Mengal not released despite court order’, Daily Times, 14 September 2007, cited in ICG Report 2007, p. 5.

  35. ‘West “will fail” without Pakistan’, BBC News, 30 September 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5394278.stm, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  36. Inamullah Khattak, ‘Jihadi groups blamed for disappearances’, Dawn, 28 March 2007, http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/28/top2.htm, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  37. Ibid.

  38. Human Rights Watch, ‘We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years: Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan’, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/pakistan0711WebInside.pdf, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  39. HRCP Report, 2009, p. 14.

  40. Ahmar Mustikhan, ‘How Pakistan is abducting, torturing and killing Baloch journalists’, Daily O, 21 January 2015, http://www.dailyo.in/politics/balochistan-the-world-capital-of-enforced-disappearances/story/1/1598.html, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  41. Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, ‘Balochistan: Shooting the Messenger’, South Asia Intelligence Review, Vol. 13, No. 44, 4 May 2015, http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/sair/Archives/sair13/13_44.htm], (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  42. Declan Walsh, ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War’.

  43. Kalbe Ali, ‘Malik Admits Failure On Missing Persons’, 13 December 2015, http://www.dawn.com/news/1226082, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  44. Jon Boone and Kiyya Baloch, ‘A new Shenzhen? Poor Pakistan fishing town’s horror at Chinese plans’, The Guardian, 4 February 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/pakistan-new-shenzhen-poor-gwadar-fishing-town-china-plans, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  45. Amnesty International, ‘Pakistan: Mass graves a stark reminder of violations implicating the state in Balochistan’, Public Statement, AI Index: ASA 33/001/2014, 5 February 2014, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/8000/asa330012014en.pdf, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  46. Selig S. Harrison, ‘Pakistan’s Baluch insurgency’, Le Monde diplomatique, October 2006, https://mondediplo.com/2006/10/05baluchistan, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  47. Nosheen Ali, ‘The terribly sad state of Balochistan’, The Express Tribune, 23 May 2011, https://tribune.com.pk/story/174433/the-terribly-sad-state-of-balochistan/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  48. Declan Walsh, ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War’.

  49. Nasir Jamal, ‘Settlers caught in crossfire’, Dawn, 28 June 2011, https://www.dawn.com/news/640059, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  50. Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, ‘Balochistan: Festering Wound’, South Asia Intelligence Review, Vol. 17, No. 19, 5 November 2018, https://www.satp.org/south-asia-intelligence-review-Volume-17-No-19, (accessed 8 November 2018); Saleem Shahid, ‘Six labourers gunned
down in Kharan’, Dawn, 5 May 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1405713/six-labourers-gunned-down-in-kharan, (accessed on 10 May 2018).

  51. Nasir Jamal, ‘Settlers caught in crossfire’.

  52. ICG, Crisis Group interviews, Karachi and Quetta, May–July 2007, ICG Report 2007, p. 8.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Declan Walsh, ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War’.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Amnesty International, Pakistan, ‘Mass graves a stark reminder of violations implicating the state in Balochistan’.

  58. Carlotta Gall, ‘In Remote Pakistan Province, A Civil War Festers’, The New York Times, 2 April 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/world/asia/02pakistan.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  59. Zoya Anwer, ‘Balochistan has no say in national policy making’, The News, 12 February 2018, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/279759-balochistan-has-no-say-in-national-policy-making, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  60. UNICEF, ‘Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Children and Women among Temporary Migrant Population in the Districts Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Quetta’, July-August 2006, cited in ICG Report 2007.

  61. Carlotta Gall, ‘In Remote Pakistan Province, A Civil War Festers’.

  14. The Judiciary

  1. International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Pakistan: The Forgotten Conflict in Balochistan’, Asia Report, 22 October 2007, p. 4, https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/pakistan/pakistan-forgotten-conflict-balochistan, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  2. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Pushed to the Wall’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission to Balochistan, October 2009, p. 14, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/14.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  3. Maqbool Ahmed, ‘CPEC: Hopes and fears as China comes to Gwadar’, 14 March 2017, https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153685, (accessed on 2 Marh 2018).

  4. ‘HRCP questions official figures of forcibly disappeared in Balochistan’, Dawn, 25 December 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1453426/hrcp-questions-official-figures-of-forcibly-disappeared-in-balochistan, (accessed 3 January 2019).

  5. Zia Ur Rehman, ‘Long Way’, The Friday Times, 29 Nov 2013, http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/long-way/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  6. ‘No Respite in Balochistan: Pakistan on the offensive’, The Citizen, 8 February 2016, http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/newsdetail/index/2/6777/no-respite-in-balochistan-pakistan-on-the-offensive-report, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  7. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Blinkered Slide into Chaos’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, June 2011, p. 12, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/6.pdf, p. 45, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  8. Human Rights Watch, ‘We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years: Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan’, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/pakistan0711WebInside.pdf, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  9. HRCP Report, 2009, p. 15.

  10. HRCP Report, 2011, p. 12.

  11. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Balochistan: Giving the People a chance’, Report of a Fact-Finding Mission, June 2013, p. 34, http://www.hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/Balochistan%20Report%20New%20Final.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  12. Azam Khan, ‘Missing Persons case: Fiery SC lays down the law for spy agencies’, The Express Tribune, 2 March 2012, https://tribune.com.pk/story/344312/missing-persons-fiery-sc-lays-down-the-law-for-spy-agencies/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  13. Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), ‘Balochistan: Civil–Military Relations’, Islamabad, March 2012, p. 25, https://pildat.org/civil-military-relations1/balochistan, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  14. Shezad Baloch, ‘Balochistan Unrest: Apex Court Issues Ominous Warning’, The Express Tribune, 24 May 2012, https://Tribune.Com.Pk/Story/383495/Balochistan-Unrest-Apex-Court-Issues-Ominous-Warning/, (accessed 3 March 2018).

  15. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Conflict in Balochistan’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, August 2006, p. 16, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/20.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  16. Frederic Grare, ‘Balochistan: The State Versus the Nation’, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2013, p. 20, http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  17. Mohammad Zafar, ‘Balochistan Conundrum: Hearings Spotlight “Crumbling” Khuzdar Situation’, The Express Tribune, 11 October 2012, https://tribune.com.pk/story/449940/balochistan-conundrum-hearing-spotlights-crumbling-khuzdar-situation/, (accessed 27 February 2018).

  18. Frederic Grare, ‘Balochistan: The State Versus the Nation’, p. 21.

  15: The Media

  1. Raza Rumi, ‘Not Being Dead Is A Victory For Balochistan’s Journalists’, Dawn, 12 September 2014, http://www.dawn.com/news/1131535, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  2. Malik Siraj Akbar, ‘Why Pakistan Is Embarrassed to Talk About Balochistan’, Huffington Post, 13 March, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malik-siraj-akbar/why-pakistan-is-embarrass_b_4937159.html, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ather Naqvi, ‘The windows of opportunities for peace were squandered through arrogance’, The News on Sunday, 23 August 2015, http://tns.thenews.com.pk/balochistan-mir-ali-talpur-windows-opportunities-peace-squandered-arrogance/#.WsDZXa2B10s, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  5. ‘22 Balochistan journalists killed in four years’, Dawn, 9 July 2012 https://www.dawn.com/news/732853, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  6. Shah Meer Baloch, ‘Journalists in Balochistan: Caught Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea’, The Diplomat, 22 November 2017, https://thediplomat.co.m/2017/11/journalists-in-balochistan-caught-between-the-devil-and-deep-blue-sea/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  7. Committee to Protect Journalists, ‘Abdul Haq Baloch Killed’, 29 September 2012, https://cpj.org/data/people/abdul-haq-baloch/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  8. Committee to Protect Journalists, ‘Equipment stolen, burned in raid on pro-Baluch paper’, 8 April 2013, https://cpj.org/2013/04/equipment-stolen-burned-in-raid-on-pro-baluch-pape.php, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  9. Ahmar Mustikhan, ‘How Pakistan is abducting, torturing and killing Baloch journalists’, 21 January 2015, http://www.dailyo.in/politics/balochistan-the-world-capital-of-enforced-disappearances/story/1/1598.html, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  10. Muhammad Akbar Notezai, ‘The Dangers of Being a Journalist in Balochistan’, The Diplomat, 4 November 2014, http://thediplomat.com/2014/11/the-danger-of-being-a-journalist-in-balochistan/, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  11. Karlos Zurutuza, ‘A black hole for media in Balochistan’, Al Jazeera, 5 February 2014, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/black-hole-media-balochistan-2014238128156825.html, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  12. Ibid.

  13. Ibid.

  14. ‘The tragedy of journalists in Balochistan’, The News, 2 October 2012, http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-17846-The-tragedy-of-journalists-in-Balochistan, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  15. Karlos Zurutuza, ‘A black hole for media in Balochistan’.

  16. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Conflict in Balochistan’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, August 2006, p. 13, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/20.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  17. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Pushed to the Wall’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission to Balochistan October 2009, p. 7, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/14.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  18. ‘Threat to journalists’, editorial in Dawn, 27 October 2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1366483/threat-to-journalists, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  19. Shah Meer Baloch, ‘Journalists in Balochistan: Caught Between the Devil a
nd Deep Blue Sea’.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Nasir Jamal, ‘Settlers caught in crossfire’, Dawn, 28 June 2011, https://www.dawn.com/news/640059, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  22. ‘Muzzling the media’, editorial in Dawn, 28 January 2018, www.dawn.com/news/1381478/muzzling-the-media, (accessed on 27 February 2018).

  VI: ENDURING INSURRECTION

  16. The Separatist Challenge

  1. Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo’s speech to the Kalat State Assembly on 12 December 1947, cited in Martin Axmann, Back to the Future: The Khanate of Kalat and the Genesis of Baloch Nationalism 1915–1955, Karachi: OUP, 2008, p. 230.

  2. Malik Siraj Akbar, ‘The Days to Fight Political Battles Are Over: Mengal’, 22 November 2006, cited in Frederic Grare, ‘Balochistan: The State Versus the Nation’, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2013, p. 10, http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  3. Syeda Abida Hussain, Power Failure: The Political Odyssey of a Pakistani Woman, Karachi: OUP, 2015, p. 631.

  4. Zahid Hussain, ‘It’s war now: A major rebellion puts President Musharraf’s policies to test’, Newsweek, 16 January 2006, cited in International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Pakistan: The Worsening Conflict in Balochistan’, Asia Report No. 119, 14 September 2006, p. 13, https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/119-pakistan-the-worsening-conflict-in-balochistan.pdf, (accessed on 2 March 2018).

  5. ICG, Crisis Group interview, BNP President Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Quetta, March 2006, ICG Report, 2006, p. 13.

  6. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Blinkered Slide into Chaos’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission, Lahore, June 2011, p. 8, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/6.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).

  7. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), ‘Pushed to the Wall’, Report of the HRCP Fact-Finding Mission to Balochistan, October 2009, p. 11, http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/wp-content/pdf/ff/14.pdf, (accessed on 3 March 2018).