Islamic State and Baloch militants

Pakistani counter terrorism agencies' operations against the IS has, by and large, been reactive rather than proactive

The biggest stronghold of the global terrorist and militant organisation, the Islamic State (IS), in Pakistan has been shattered. The said base of the IS reportedly was smashed in a security operation conducted in a far-flung area of Balochistan’s Mastung district.

This is Pakistan’s counterterrorism agencies greatest achievement against the IS. However, Ejaz Bangulzai, who was controlling the IS activities in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab reportedly escaped. The cave complex was being used by the IS and its local affiliate Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

But it must be admitted that Pakistani counterterrorism agencies operations against the IS have, by and large, been reactive rather than proactive. The recently conducted operation in Mastung points towards this fact. The operation was conducted after attack on the Deputy Chairman of Senate, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, and the abduction and presumed execution of two Chinese teachers based in Quetta. Reportedly, during the Mastung operation the vehicle in which the Chinese nationals were abducted was recovered but their whereabouts could not be traced, while officials also claimed to have killed Haideri’s attackers.

The kidnapping of the two Chinese teachers allegedly by the IS at a time when work is under way on CPEC is profoundly purposeful. So far neither the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) nor al Qaeda or any of their foreign and local affiliates have claimed or vowed to attack the CPEC projects and personnel engaged in work on these projects.

Irrespective of the presence of the IS, the scale of the threat it poses and counterterrorism operations against the group there is another important aspect to the recent dismantling of the IS network in Balochistan. The revelation that the largest stronghold of the IS in Pakistan was in Mastung and the group is being led by a Baloch, Bangulzai, is very surprising. Previously, there has been negligible presence of Baloch within the religiously-oriented militant and terrorist groups operating in Pakistan. Almost all of these groups have been dominated by Pashtuns and Punjabis. Contrarily, a sizeable number of Baloch have been part of non-religious separatist militant terrorist groups like the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and the Baloch Liberation Front, and these groups never espoused an Islamist agenda.

Within that context it is not difficult to understand that Bangulzai must have got support and funding from state and non-state actors, which are against stability in Pakistan and resultantly against economic corridor. Here it is important to note that already an Iranian Baloch nationalist and sectarian group, Jundullah, founded by Abdul Malik Regi, struggling to separate Balochistan and Sistan-Baluchestan province of Iran to create an independent Baloch state used religion as its foundational and operational agenda. Hence, Pakistani Baloch separatist militant and sectarian groups failing to get a separate state after decades of struggle with support from India and Afghanistan may now want to join hands with Jundullah or follow it. But for the time being, these groups and individuals would like to use a religious façade only to create problems for CPEC.

It is also pertinent to note that militant groups like the TTP, al Qaeda or sectarian groups such as LeJ have never been potent in the Baloch inhabited parts of the province or for that matter the entire Balochistan. This compels one to understand why the IS or LeJ want to create their networks in the province and not in the remote and relatively more mountainous and inaccessible Fata. They might have been provided sanctuaries by Baloch nationalists in the province to create problems for the state of Pakistan and its security forces, aiming to sabotage CPEC. Let’s not forget Mastung has been a stronghold of the BRA.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2017.

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