Former chief minister is on record having said that the FC is already running a “parallel government in the province”
SELANGOR, MALAYSIA: To answer this question, we need to understand the problem of Balochistan which is not limited to the Hazara genocide but went much more beyond that. On one side there are Baloch separatists and on the other are the Frontier Corps and the state intelligence agencies battling the separatists in many ways. In the crossfire of these two sides, the victims are mostly innocent civilians. Also, how will the sacking of the chief minister and his government do anything to resolve the issue of missing persons?
The issue of missing persons is not new, and it goes back to General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s regime when the military operation began in parts of Balochistan. The blame of the abduction and deaths of hundreds of Baloch is a question mark. The senior person of the FC blames it on the separatists, while the majority of the local population and even some well-known human rights organisations blame Pakistani security agencies.
The ongoing violence against the Hazara and Shia community in Balochistan indicates a complete breakdown in the state’s writ and here, too, it is not clear how merely dismissing the government will help. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) openly claims most such attacks, so the question now arises is that why doesn’t the FC or the military conduct an operation against the LeJ?
The recent military action in Mashkay area of Balochistan has further raised serious questions since the state conducts a full-fledged operation against Baloch nationalists but does nothing to catch sectarian terrorists in the province. The Frontier Corps and the Pakistan Army have to make it clear to the people of Balochistan that they will go after the terrorists such as the LeJ.
The Pashtuns and the Hindu community in Balochistan are also not safe. Hindu traders have been abducted for ransom and little is done to recover them. The former chief minister is on record having said that the FC is already running a “parallel government in the province”.
Sikander Bizenjo
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2013.
