Baluchis Are
Being Taken for a Ride
By Dr Moeed Pirzada
Editor World Affairs
ARY One World Europe
London, UK
We are all condemning army's killing of Nawab
Bugti for different reasons: some of us are condemning
it as a violation of civil and human rights, others
as a cruel way of dealing with the minorities,
yet others as a strategy that will surely backfire
in the long run.
Though Pakistani state has definitely put itself
in a difficult spot with this and similar actions,
we also need to understand that Nawab Bugti, in
his struggle against the State, was no Jerry Adams.
The norms of struggle in this country are different.
Even in its hey days of so-called terrorism or
overt violence, IRA will not pick state targets
with the impunity Baluch nationalists did in the
last few years. Pakistani state lead by its unwise
army has abandoned the path of political negotiations
but even the Baluch nationalists - clearly encouraged
by foreign elements - have followed a path that
could only lead to greater disaster. Violence
begets violence.
What is tragic in this conflict for all of us
(Pakistanis, Punjabis, Muslims, Baluchs etc. however
we may define ourselves) is that both sides -
Pakistani establishment and Baluch nationalists
- are allowing foreign interests to pursue strategies
that wont lead anywhere except greater bloodshed
and instability. Many in the West talking of Baluch
rights are only interested in using "instability"
in that important corridor to pressurize Pakistani
state to make more concessions in South Asia,
or to stop the balancing effects of China in the
region. What Baluch nationalists - because of
their inability to understand the current of International
politics have been made to believe - will never
be possible for it is beyond the ability of the
West to grant it to them. Geography and demography
militate against any plans for a Free or Greater
Baluchistan. Any one who doubts only need to look
at Iraq. Baluchis are being taken for a ride -
like the Iraqi dissidents - and they just don't
get it.
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