OF all the sense and nonsense spoken about the Balochistan situation, two statements stand out: Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti’s truth about the 4,000 miles of roads in the province, and Interior Minister (Pakistani cricket’s pallbearer) Mohsin Naqvi’s SHO balderdash.

Mr Bugti spoke the truth when he said his province had 4,000 miles of highways, and that it was easy for terrorists to find targets and kill civilians. This painful truth is reflected in the comfort with which the terrorists checked the identities of the passengers of a bus on a freeway and murdered them for ethnic reasons. The chief minister’s statement highlights the one basic principle of war on terrorism. You cannot put out fire by tackling flames; you target the source. To wit, you have to destroy the terrorists’ cells, the hideouts of their leaders and, more important, the sources of their financial and military support — local and foreign. An SHO cannot do this. If there is one, let the nation know who that genius is.

Quite often, the seriousness of the issue falls victim to the mantra about the need for wining over the Baloch people and removing their grievances. Of course, given the socioeconomic backwardness of Pakistan’s largest province, the Baloch people have genuine grievances and they must be addressed the way a welfare state does. But talk about improving the lot of the Baloch people shouldn’t eclipse the overwhelming need for facing the challenge posed to the state of Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

The Aug 26 mischief shouldn’t simply be considered an act of terrorism; its dimensions showed, besides strategic planning, the BLA’s contempt for our security forces and their ability to shake Pakistan. It was an act of rebellion against the state of Pakistan. A large number of people, including 14 security personnel, lost their lives in attacks on a variety of targets — buses, railway tracks, police stations, a paramilitary camp, vehicles carrying civilians, drivers of delivery vans; more bodies were found in Bela and Kalat. The damage to railway tracks cut off links with Iran, while a strategic bridge was blown up to cut off Balochistan from the rest of the country. Their most heinous crime was in Musakhel district, where they checked the ethnic identities of bus passengers and murdered 23 of them in cold blood.

The BLA is not working without armed support from foreign powers.

The dimensions of the attack make it abundantly clear the BLA is not working without massive armed support from some foreign powers, which offer them strategic support and training bases.

Iran has its own terrorist problem in its neighbouring Sistan-Baluchestan province. Pakistan often thought that Iranian counterterrorism efforts were not up to what Islamabad wanted, and there is no doubt the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi’s visit was intended to sort this out and expand the area of cooperation. His death in a helicopter crash has left the issue in limbo, and it will take time before the current government takes up the issue. The other genuine reason for Pakistan’s concerns is Afghanistan. Pakistan’s relationship with this country is complicated, and there is a degree beyond which the Kabul government cannot go. This is a subject unto itself.

That the BLA has managed to influence young ones is evident from a list of 137 names released by the government recently. It includes students belonging to the Baloch Students’ Organisation.

Let us now talk about the jewel in the crown — Gwadar. This port city is a thorn in the flesh of some powers because of its geographical location. It is located close to the Gulf, with oil ships brushing past it. More importantly, Chinese trucks co­­ming via the Kara­korum Highway reach the Gwadar port to unload their mammoth cargo for transport onwa­­rd to the Middle East and beyond. If Gwadar were not there, Chinese ships would have to come all the way by sea to reach the Western world.

The speedy movement of Chinese dumpers in Pakistan is possible because of the vast road network already built and being further expanded as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. In this context, one has to see the importance of CPEC. For obvious reasons some foreign powers feel uncomfortable about CPEC because it strengthens Pakistan’s infrastructure, especially its Balochistan part. That the BLA can do greater damage to Pakistan than the TTP points to the lethal quality and massive help it gets from foreign sympathisers. While the conspiracy theory is often made fun of, Islamabad and Beijing would do well to work jointly and frustrate any attempt made by some foreign powers to exploit the Balochistan issue to further their geopolitical interests. The Balochistan quagmire is too important to be considered a provincial issue.

The writer is Dawn’s External Ombudsman and an author.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024