Growing violence in Balochistan

That the Balochistan Chief Minister, Nawab Aslam Raisani, came under a murderous attack on Tuesday only a week after the provincial governor, Nawab Zulfikar Magsi, narrowly escaped a similar attempt on his life - that is a measure of the momentum the insurgency in Balochistan seems to be gaining. The chief minister was attacked in daylight in the heart of Quetta, the provincial seat of power said to be fully braced to counter terrorism that is always feared in the days of Muharram.
He was lucky to escape the attack, believed to have been carried out by a suicide-bomber as his motorcade was moving to the provincial assembly building from his residence. However, his security escort was less fortunate; five of them and another five passers-by were wounded, two of them seriously. The attack on Governor Magsi was said to have been carried out by a remote-controlled explosive device. In between these two incidents, on last Wednesday, a gun battle rattled the city of Turbat between the FC personnel and the people, in which two cousins of the former provincial governor Sardar Akhtar Mengal were killed along with five others, including three FC men.
That incident was variously described as an encounter and an attack on the residential quarters of a local political leader. Of course, details as to the nature of these incidents vary, but all unmistakably point out that Balochistan is in the grip of violence, much more severe than in the past, when it was attributed to the military presence and was thought to go away with the advent of democratic rule. Now the province is ruled by an elected government, yet violence has gone up by many notches, proving the point of view that trouble in Pakistan's largest province is funded and fomented from abroad.
As to how multifaceted is the nature of the ongoing turmoil in Balochistan, there are various claims seeking responsibility while the top leaders' initial comments present the gravity of situation in its direst form. To begin with, a lesser known but said to be an affiliate of the al Qaeda outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi al-Alami, claimed responsibility, but not before long it was refuted by the Laskhar-e-Jhanghvi spokesman. Then came the announcement by the Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) owning responsibility for the attack on Chief Minister Raisani, insisting that the attack was carried out by a remote-controlled device - perhaps, to suggest that the attack was in line with the earlier assault on Governor Magsi's motorcade.
As to who is really the culprit in the latest attack, there is some confusion. But not with the governor and the chief minister as they both say that they 'know' their enemies. CM Raisani 'knows who is behind attack and the involvement of foreign hand cannot be ruled out...They want to take Balochistan into civil war'. Governor Magsi endorses this, but giving it a tribal slant says 'both of us can react but consequently, a civil war would start in the province'. And, both would like to sit with their detractors for what the governor called a "final round" of talks. The question: Is the latest spurt in violence in Balochistan a sequel of the rivalry between the sardars and nawabs, who seem to be fighting for turf, a battle that has acquired new intensity while the world looks Balochistan as an El Dorado in the near future.
Balochistan is perhaps the only place on the planet Earth where society is still held in the tight clutches of the tribal chieftains. Political analysts had predicted the sardars and nawabs losing out to the nationalists in case fair and free elections were held in Balochistan. But that was grossly misplaced optimism; the last general election threw up a mosaic with the vast majority of elected representatives coming from the tribal chieftains. And as always, when they are in power they espouse the cause of a strong federation and stand by the Establishment.
And those in opposition or out of power tend to promote anti-federation feelings. In some cases these disgruntled leaders even take the side of the devil; they willingly become part of forces that are committed to an anti-Pakistan agenda. As this polarisation accentuates, myriad interest groups join the fray with their own narrow agendas of sectarian divide and ethnic cleansing. All this calls for a much sharper focus of Pakistan's political and administrative powers on Balochistan, for its troubles are more dangerous than what we have in the north-west, including the tribal agencies. What we have in Balochistan is insurgency in support of a move to break away from the federation, with a foreign hand patting the back of the insurgents.