Word: baluchistan
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When I made a reporting trip to Pakistan's rugged Baluchistan province in 2004, I expected to encounter strong feelings against the central government in Islamabad. Baluchistan was in the grips of a low-level insurgency, with tribesmen demanding greater autonomy for the province. Just days before my trip, a roadside bomb in the Baluch fishing village of Gwadar had killed five Chinese engineers working on Pakistan's premier development project: a massive new port. So I was surprised to see children in Gwadar playing cricket in replicas of the uniforms of Pakistan's national team. In fact, the only...
...years later, the insurgency in Baluchistan has grown. And last week's announcement by the army that it has killed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti is a sign that the military has failed to understand that its belligerent tactics only make matters worse. Bugti was a rebel leader and a member of an oppressive class of tribal chieftains who control much of Baluchistan as their personal fiefdom. But he was also a former governor of the province and a respected elder to many Baluch. His death, which has triggered unrest and rioting in Baluchistan, is symbolic of our government's refusal...
...fissures are visible at multiple levels. The most obvious example is that of attack helicopters hunting down rebels in Baluchistan and the tribal areas of our northwest frontier?rebels who are our fellow citizens. But equally dangerous is the chronic failure of our provinces to agree on new dams essential to meeting our future needs for water. Or the inability of our society to channel dissent into debate, an inability that means the publication of cartoons in a newspaper in Denmark is able to provoke not just a response in our own newspapers but also riots that transform our cities...
...conflict in Baluchistan has consequences beyond its desert wastes. Pakistan is one of Washington's bulwarks in the war on terror, and receives around $600 million a year in U.S. military aid. According to Baluch rebel sources in Quetta and military sources in Islamabad, U.S. helicopters supplied to Pakistan for hunting members of al-Qaeda have been redirected to Baluchistan's deserts to fight Bugti and his two comrades-in-arms. Three Cessna aircraft, outfitted with sophisticated surveillance equipment and given to Pakistan last year by the U.S. to help catch heroin smugglers, have also been drafted into service against...
...killing three Frontier Constabulary guards, government security forces went on a rampage executing 12 civilians. Two tribal elders sent to recover the bodies were also shot, says the Human Rights Commission. Pakistani army officials deny that soldiers have engaged in abuse or indiscriminate killing. A Pakistani military commander in Baluchistan told Time that "the reason we are not going for a massive, one-to-end-it-all strike is the fear of collateral damage...