EDITORIAL: A vicious cycle of violence continues to plague Balochistan. In the wee hours of Tuesday armed men barged into a police station near Turbat and opened indiscriminate fire killing four labourers and injuring two others.
A policeman also lost his life while resisting the intruders. At the time of the attack some 17 labourers, all hailing from southern Punjab, had taken refuge at the police station due to a security threat.
In a similar attack two weeks earlier, six labourers, also from Punjab, were gunned down and several others wounded around the same area.
An insurgent group, the self-styled Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which took credit for that atrocity is believed to be involved in the present one as well.
All the targeted victims in the two incidents were poor daily wage earners who neither understood why anyone would want to kill them nor the power to do anything about it. These barbaric brutalities are the result of flawed state policies.
As is usual after such acts of terrorism, leaders both in and out of government issued ritual statements. Condemning the attack, caretaker Chief Minister of the province Ali Mardan Khan Dhomki said taking the life of guest workers was against the Baloch tradition of hospitality, and vowed to “go to any extent to suppress anti-peace elements”.
Likewise, interim Home Minister Jan Achakzai and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani denounced the killings with the latter terming the incident “a part of a nefarious conspiracy to sabotage the atmosphere of peace in Balochistan.”
In his reaction, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called it “brazen terrorism” and offered his condolences and sympathies to the families of the slain policeman and four labourers. He also said that “the country cannot afford any more delay in implementing the National Action Plan”.
The NAP, however, was directed mainly at the TTP terrorists. Although that terror outfit is reported to have formed a nexus with Baloch insurgent groups, they have different interests.
There are hardly two opinions on that the root cause of the trouble in Balochistan are genuine political issues, which need to be addressed through political means rather than use of force.
Imposition of an unrepresentative political construct has not, will not, resolve anything. Leaders of even mainstream political parties in that province have consistently been complaining of being powerless to deal with the long-standing Baloch grievances, triggering unrest and violence. They rightly grumble of being meted out step-motherly treatment by the Centre.
As a matter of fact, the Eighteenth Amendment grants substantial autonomy to the provinces, yet the affairs in that part of the federation are still micromanaged by the Centre. This only enhances the Baloch people’s sense of deprivation, adding fuel to insurgency.
It is about time Islamabad in particular acknowledged the gravity of the situation and rightly saw the problem for what it is. It must take steps aimed at redressing injustices in a meaningful manner.
The place to start is to let the people decide in a fair and free election who should represent them in government, which must have full and complete authority to do whatever it takes to extinguish violence perpetrated by insurgents.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023