Word: baluch
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...tribal reality of Baluchistan has caused trouble not only for the Pakistani government but also for Iran. The dour, nomadic Baluch tribesmen who make up 60% of the Pakistani province's 2.5 million population have about 1 million kin in eastern Iran and perhaps 300,000 more in Afghanistan. In 1972 Pakistan's Baluch launched a revolt against the regime of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who retaliated harshly over the next four years. At the peak of the fighting, the Shah supplied helicopters and pilots to help 70,000 Pakistani soldiers put down the rebellion...
...across it on the way home from India, two-thirds of the men died. But local folklore has it that Baluchistan's towering hills are carpets covering vast troves of mineral wealth. "We have a saying here," beams one local leader, the portly Khan of Kalat, "that a Baluch child may be born without socks on his feet, but when he grows every step he takes is on gold." The fact is that Baluchistan has a bit of oil, coal and natural gas, but not much else...
Life among the Baluch is in many ways the same as it was in the days of the British raj, although camels are now less prevalent than the gaily painted trucks and triwheeled scooters that chug asthmatically around the streets of the province's capital, Quetta (pop. 250,000). Purdah (seclusion of women) and arranged marriage are accepted practices in this strict Islamic society. The chief source of relaxation is bung, a finely ground concoction of high-powered local marijuana that is chewed like tobacco or drunk as a herbal infusion. Tribal values revolve around honor, which the Baluch...
...suppressed, the major towns of Baluchistan are still garrisoned with 30,000 Pakistani troops, mostly drawn from the populous eastern provinces of Punjab and Sind. At least 70% of the local policemen in the province are also outsiders. One Western diplomat in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad describes Baluch resentment against central government intrusion as "tremendous. For the Baluch there is no qualitative difference between the Punjabis and the army of Alexander the Great. They're both occupying powers." In the garrison town of Khuzdar, where a third of the 15,000 population consists of military personnel, civilians resent...
...Baluch feel that their land is being colonized. Every year hundreds of settlers from the Punjab and Sind are assigned to the province's bureaucracy. Of the twelve provincial secretaries in Quetta, only one is Baluch. There are no Baluch on the staff that administers martial law. Among 1,120 students at the provincial university, only 269 are members of Baluch tribes...