Baluchistan A Brief History and US, Indian role in Baloch insurgency

Baluchistan

A Brief History and US, Indian role in Baloch insurgency

Baluchistan is known to be the largest province and one of the four provinces of today's Pakistan. The British Empire on October 1, as paramount power in the region reached a security agreement with the princely state of Kalat which was ruled by the Khan of Kalat 1887 but the kingdom retained its sovereignty in all other respects. In 1947, when Pakistan became independent, 

Pakistan signed a standstill agreement with the state of Kalat (a land-locked state surrounded by Pakistani territory and covering 23% of the territory of the current province of Balochistan) which recognized its autonomy and sovereignty, subject to future negotiation of the relationship. However, both houses of the Kalat parliament had asserted independence in 1947 and the Khan subsequently acknowledged that he had no right to accede to Pakistan's demand for annexation which he said he had only done under the threat of military force. Since then, a number of separatist groups in the province have engaged in an armed struggle against the Pakistani government; 

the first was led by Prince Karim Khan in 1948, and later by Nawab Nowroz Khan in 1968. These tribal uprisings were limited in scope, a more serious insurgency was led by the Marri and Mengal tribes between 1973 and 1977. All these groups fought for the existence of a "Greater Balochistan" — a single independent state ruled under tribal jirgas (a tribal system of government) and comprising the historical Balochistan region, found within Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2005 there was another struggle to achieve these aims, in 2006, the Pakistan army killed Nawab Akbar Bugti, the man they blamed for the violence. 

Although Bugti had been proclaimed an offender by former president Pervez Musharraf he has become a hero for separatists..However he is accused of devouring federal funds for the development of the province, as well as gas royalties, and was also accused of operating unauthorized jails and dungeons in his territory.

In a tit for tat move, the Pakistani government has started preparations to provide proof of US and Indian intervention in Balochistan to the Parliament House and parliamentary committees following the introduction of a resolution on Balochistan in the Untied States Congress. 

Highly reliable sources privy to the development say the US has been active for a long time to encourage Baloch separatist elements gain independence from Pakistan through the help of India, which is playing the lead role. 

Former president Pervez Musharraf had also raised the point with US officials in September 2007. According to a memo, he had asked the US to intervene on “the ‘deliberate’ attempt of Kabul and New Delhi to destabilize Balochistan.”

Musharraf told officials that Pakistan had proof that India and Afghanistan were “involved in efforts to provide weapons, training and funding for Baloch extremists through Brahamdagh Bugti and Baloch Marri, two Baloch nationalists, who were living in Kabul.”

“We have letters instructing who to give what weapons [and] to whom,” he said.

Sources said the government, in order to avoid further tensions in relations with the US and India, kept silent in the past over the interference of the two countries in Baluchistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), but that now it has decided to take the parliament into confidence with solid proof. For this purpose, sources said, special briefings would be given to the relevant parliamentary committees. 
Sources said the government was also mulling the option of launching a diplomatic offensive by raising the issue of foreign intervention in Balochistan at various international forums. 
They said the United States had been encouraging India to strengthen its spy network in Afghanistan by helping it open consulates along the Afghan border with Pakistan. Sources said the consulates were being used as bases of Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). 
“Through these centers, RAW is openly extending financial and material support to the anti-state elements in Balochistan,” sources said, adding that the US government was also partly financing some militant groups. 

The US has been pressing Pakistan to allow it to open a consulate in Quetta and deploy CIA staff there under the pretext that Washington needs to keep an eye on the so-called Taliban-linked Quetta Shoora. However, the government, fully aware of the US intentions, did not allow the US to open a consulate in Quetta, sources said. 

They pointed out that when Shahzain Bugti, the grandson of slain Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, was arrested by the Frontier Constabulary in Quetta; he first of all contacted the US Embassy in Islamabad. They said the incident was a clear proof that the Americans were in league with the separatist elements in Baluchistan and were providing them arms and finances to achieve their nefarious designs against Pakistan.