Balochistan - Is there a solution?

[Hopefully Pessimistic]

Two things can be true at the same time:

a) BLA thugs are terrorists. These terrorists who kill innocent people of other ethnicities deserve no sympathy, and Baloch people should not sympathize with these terrorists. But that does not mean that Baloch people sympathizing with these elements should be locked up, that further exacerbates the situation.


b) The Pakistan military/state apparatus has utterly failed in Balochistan.

Yes, there should be no tolerance of anti-state, terrorist activities in the province.

However, the current administration will further worsen the situation in the province, instead of improving the situation.


My approach:

- A zero tolerance policy towards terrorism and violence in the province. Peace and stability is a pre-requisite for development in the province. If there is no peace and stability, there can be no development in the province, and upliftment of the people.

a) The military targets people actual operatives of the BLA/terrorist groups on the payroll of foreign agencies.

They do not target normal civilians sympathetic to Baloch nationalism. Dissenting speech must not be punished. For this, you need actual intelligence that distinguishes between the two.

b) Form a trusted team (not the current military/state apparatus) of civilian technocrats, experts in conflict resolution to reach out to the Baloch people. The military should have no involvement in the workings of this trusted team.

They need to listen to the grievances of the Baloch people, and must make sincere efforts to address those grievances.

Balochistan and the Balochi people in the province must be brought into mainstream Pakistan.

We need more youtube vloggers like this Pakistani guy (Yahya Khan) visiting the different cities of Balochistan, not just Gwadar, Quetta.

But other cities like Taftan, Khuzdar, Chagai, Awaran, Sibi, Dera Bugti, Pasni, Dalbandin, Kharan etc.

Special attention needs to be paid to the conditions of these cities, and bring development there.

Balochistan needs to get more media coverage, not just for terrorism, but in a way that Yahya Khan vlogger provides. Documentaries about Balochistan that increase the awareness of Pakistanis about this province, its different cities, its culture.

To improve conditions there, maybe we can provide a special autonomous status to Balochistan similar to Gilgit-Baltistan or AJK. Preferential treatment in job opportunities given to Baloch/Pashtun residents in the province.

Hopefully when these reconciliation efforts bear fruit, the people in the province can reap benefits of CPEC as well.

These kinds of policies always remain stuck in theory because they are impossible to implement in practise.

Like magically targeting exclusively militants but totally leaving out the civilian networks in the background, recruitment propaganda, local intel providers, political pipelines etc.

This is a first world approach to solve first world problems, not a tribal society that runs on honour and ethno supremacy. I think this is the fundamental reason people always say nonesense here.

Give historical examples of tribal ethno supremacist societies. None of them were successful with this fairytale idea of reaching out and magically differentiating between exclusively militants and huge tribal/civilian networks in the background.

Every single successful example used collective punishment. Not a single one had the Disney movie solutions given here which are easy to write.

 

[unconventional]

There has been an outsourcing of responsibilities from the Pakistani state to corrupt Baloch sardars/elite.

These people have done nothing for their people, and fanned separatism further.

The state has neglected Balochistan, avoided uncomfortable conversations and narratives inside Balochistan; and not worked with the Baloch people to help them devise a clear roadmap for their integration into the Pakistani state.

Some people say the Pakistani military has used kid's gloves in Balochistan, especially in light of what the Indian military has done in Jammu and Kashmir. That is probably true, and yes, the Pakistani military has never deployed even close to their full military might in Balochistan (compared to for example: FATA) for the fear of stoking more separatist sentiments, but they also abdicated their responsibilities towards Balochistan because they could not handle uncomfortable conversations/narratives. Hence, they outsourced those responsibilities to corrupt Baloch sardars/elite, who have made the situation in the province worse.

The Baloch outside of Balochistan; living in Sindh, Punjab etc. are well integrated with the Pakistani state. It is not right for Punjabi laborers just trying to making a living to be gunned down in Balochistan. So the problem is not Baloch people, but specific to Balochistan and how it is governed.

Whereas the situation is opposite in India. Kashmiri Muslims in other Indian state are routinely targeted in other states for who they are. But India is a hard/security state; and has imposed security inside J&K, which gives the illusion that things are better there than in Balochistan. Pakistan has adopted a soft state approach in Balochistan, which results in less outright separatism sentiments in the local population compared to J&K, but more terrorist attacks and casualties.

Anyone can point to all the mistakes the state has made dealing with Balochistan post 1947.

What we don't really get from anyone is a clear roadmap for how to address the issues in Balochistan.

For me personally, as long as the Baloch people are willing to stay within the federation of Pakistan, they should be able to get whatever else they are demanding.

To be extremely generous to their separatist sentiments; one can even understand their fighting military personnel/combatants. But one cannot excuse the killing of Punjabi laborers and other non-Baloch non-combatants in their province, that is simply not acceptable.

There needs to be a clear roadmap devised by the Baloch people (who want to remain with the federation of Pakistan) who want to resolve their issues. Not just complaining about everything that is wrong, but how to address the violence and development issues in Balochistan. And everyone from the Pakistani state should be on-board with this roadmap, there can be no spoilers.

As far as I can recall, there has never been a roadmap provided for what needs to done for Balochistan.

If someone from outside of Balochistan tries to do something for Balochistan; for example, with Musharraf taking out Akbar Bugti (resulting in the resurgence of the BLA and other separatist groups), or CPEC; then it is viewed by the Baloch as overreach and overstepping by the state. Hence, the roadmap needs to come from Balochistan, and implemented by all stakeholders in the nation.

 

[hussain0216]

There has been an outsourcing of responsibilities from the Pakistani state to corrupt Baloch sardars/elite.

These people have done nothing for their people, and fanned separatism further.

The state has neglected Balochistan, avoided uncomfortable conversations and narratives inside Balochistan; and not worked with the Baloch people to help them devise a clear roadmap for their integration into the Pakistani state.

Some people say the Pakistani military has used kid's gloves in Balochistan, especially in light of what the Indian military has done in Jammu and Kashmir. That is probably true, and yes, the Pakistani military has never deployed even close to their full military might in Balochistan (compared to for example: FATA) for the fear of stoking more separatist sentiments, but they also abdicated their responsibilities towards Balochistan because they could not handle uncomfortable conversations/narratives. Hence, they outsourced those responsibilities to corrupt Baloch sardars/elite, who have made the situation in the province worse.

The Baloch outside of Balochistan; living in Sindh, Punjab etc. are well integrated with the Pakistani state. It is not right for Punjabi laborers just trying to making a living to be gunned down in Balochistan. So the problem is not Baloch people, but specific to Balochistan and how it is governed.

Whereas the situation is opposite in India. Kashmiri Muslims in other Indian state are routinely targeted in other states for who they are. But India is a hard/security state; and has imposed security inside J&K, which gives the illusion that things are better there than in Balochistan. Pakistan has adopted a soft state approach in Balochistan, which results in less outright separatism sentiments in the local population compared to J&K, but more terrorist attacks and casualties.

Anyone can point to all the mistakes the state has made dealing with Balochistan post 1947.

What we don't really get from anyone is a clear roadmap for how to address the issues in Balochistan.

For me personally, as long as the Baloch people are willing to stay within the federation of Pakistan, they should be able to get whatever else they are demanding.

To be extremely generous to their separatist sentiments; one can even understand their fighting military personnel/combatants. But one cannot excuse the killing of Punjabi laborers and other non-Baloch non-combatants in their province, that is simply not acceptable.

There needs to be a clear roadmap devised by the Baloch people (who want to remain with the federation of Pakistan) who want to resolve their issues. Not just complaining about everything that is wrong, but how to address the violence and development issues in Balochistan. And everyone from the Pakistani state should be on-board with this roadmap, there can be no spoilers.

As far as I can recall, there has never been a roadmap provided for what needs to done for Balochistan.

If someone from outside of Balochistan tries to do something for Balochistan; for example, with Musharraf taking out Akbar Bugti (resulting in the resurgence of the BLA and other separatist groups), or CPEC; then it is viewed by the Baloch as overreach and overstepping by the state. Hence, the roadmap needs to come from Balochistan, and implemented by all stakeholders in the nation.

Look, you can't impose high minded solutions to ethnocentric apes

We've tried multiple such options

It's the same with the Afghans, and this is because their ethnocentric extremism trumps everything else

Your only option is to impose a hard peace by becoming a hard state


Your wasting time we don't have


Take Afghanistan for example, they are desperate for trade
They desperately require Pakistani ports
They desperately require Pakistani good will and access to cities and trade etc

All Pakistan asked for is respect for Pakistani borders and don't send terrorists

And they couldn't even do that, even after we kept millions of namak harams in the country

How much bending over do you want to do, before you realize that they only option is to close all borders, throw every last one of them out
End all trade
End all connection
And blast them and their kin until they learn to behave

 

[Hopefully Pessimistic]

Declaring emergency rule in select regions/districts only and invading with armed lashkars is new strategy we need to adopt