US designation
of BLA as terrorist group
The US State
Department on July 2, 2019 designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as
a ‘global terrorist group’, making it a crime for anyone in the US to assist
the militants. Separately, the US Department of the Treasury has frozen all BLA
assets in the US (if there are any) and forbidden US citizens worldwide from
any financial dealings with the BLA or people associated with it. Our Foreign
Office has welcomed the US decision, seeing it as validation of Pakistan’s view
on the question. Comment in the media holds the development as a reflection of
improving relations between the US and Pakistan in the context of the search
for a peaceful settlement of the Afghan war. Although BLA is listed as a
proscribed organisation in Pakistan and the UK, the latter has allowed the BLA
leader Hairbyar Marri to reside in Britain as a refugee, despite Pakistan’s
protests. BLA has been waging a guerrilla struggle in Balochistan since 2002,
and has mounted spectacular attacks of late on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi
and a five-star hotel in Gwadar. Islamabad may be feeling chuffed at the
recognition of its case against the BLA by Washington, but Pakistan needs to
revisit its policy vis-à-vis troubled Balochistan in its own interest.
Post-9/11, the distinction between political struggles and terrorist campaigns
the world over has not just been blurred but obliterated. Now all armed
struggles by non-state actors and opposition groups, including the struggle for
self-determination in Kashmir, have been lumped in the terrorist basket. This
may be a ‘convenient’ stick to beat all such movements with, but it runs the
risk of a ‘one size fits all’ approach, which obliterates nuance, differences,
and context. Balochistan is wracked currently by the fifth insurgency since
Pakistan’s independence. Each such outbreak, owed to varying historical and
fresh reasons, has been ‘handled’ by wielding the big stick. The fact, however,
that each generation in Balochistan since Pakistan’s independence has felt
compelled to pick up the gun to highlight grievances that otherwise go unheard,
should give pause for thought. As Einstein so succinctly put it years ago: the definition
of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results. The ‘results’ of quelling the spate of insurgencies in Balochistan in
our history are the possibility that despite recent setbacks to the BLA and
other insurgent groups at the hands of the military and security forces, which
have reduced the struggle to a low-level insurgency, the troubles in
Balochistan seem destined to continue indefinitely. This obviously has
implications for CPEC, a large length of which passes through troubled
Balochistan and where Gwadar is located.
The prevailing
narrative of the establishment seeks to relegate the Balochistan insurgency
simply to an India-backed campaign. No credible evidence of this has been produced
so far, but even if the assertion is accepted at face value for the sake of
argument, foreign interference in our internal affairs can only take place if
our house is on fire. Off again, on again attempts to hold talks with the
exiled leaders of the insurgency have so far come to naught. But even the
concerns of parties from Balochistan such as the Balochistan National
Party-Mengal that are in the parliamentary mainstream await satisfactory
resolution. Short of separatism, and within the four corners of the
Constitution and law, surely there is space for changing the political dynamic
in favour of a negotiated political settlement leading to peace in the largest
but least developed province of Pakistan. Difficult as this enterprise appears,
the alternative of a purely military solution (and its concomitant manipulated
political dispensation in Quetta), does not appeal to logic or sense as offering
a long term or permanent solution, if the track record and history are kept in
view. A fresh political approach, despite the obstacles, still suggests itself
as the option worth adhering to.
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