OVER the past few days, some 50 Baloch insurgents have surrendered to the government. On Saturday, two leaders of the banned separatist groups United Baloch Army and Baloch Liberation Army along with 47 companions laid down their arms, while on Sunday two more leaders — this time of the Baloch Liberation Front and Lashkar-i-Balochistan — accompanied by some associates, did the same. The surrender ceremony, followed by a news conference and attended by top officials, was a public relations coup for the Balochistan government which has found itself increasingly cornered by the resurgent separatist movement. The surrendering militants spoke of how they had been misled, and that they had come to realise the duplicity and financial self-interest of nationalist Baloch leaders in exile abroad, and the role played by foreign countries in stoking the insurgency. Government leaders also used the occasion to urge other young Baloch to follow the same path, abandon militancy and join mainstream politics which, they said, was a more viable way to secure their people’s rights.

Given the murky situation in Balochistan, it is of course, difficult to state with certainty whether those surrendering are in fact militants or not, or whether this is a ruse — entirely acceptable within the domain of counterinsurgency — to sow division among the ranks of the separatists. It is also possible that some militants have indeed decided to turn their backs on the insurgency. Defections and dissent are part and parcel of militant movements, particularly prolonged ones that become susceptible to internal crises, especially when the avowed objectives appear as elusive as ever. Moreover, the security forces have made it clear that they are not prepared to give any quarter in their efforts to crush the Baloch insurgency. However, whatever the reality behind the militants’ surrender, it does not take away from the fact that the Baloch do have legitimate grievances. These must be addressed, and the province granted the sovereignty over its natural resources that is its right under devolution, but which it does not yet possess in actual fact.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2015

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