Balochistan home department report: Separatist outfits singled out as culprits behind violence

Cases of missing persons lumped under target killing category; external forces blamed for aiding banned outfits.

ISLAMABAD:

Sectarian, ethnic, or otherwise, a Balochistan home department report has largely placed the blame for incidents of violence across the province on Baloch separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army, the Balochistan Republican Army, the Baloch United Liberation Front, and Baloch Liberation Front – who, the report has it, work in tandem with banned religious outfits.

A total of 1,493 innocent citizens have been killed and 3,313 injured in 1,718 incidents, mostly in target killings and sectarian attacks during the period from 2007 to February 15 2012.  According to the findings of the home department, a nexus between separatist outfits and ‘external forces’ enables such sustained violence.

“This nexus gave substance to the sectarian killings in the province. Balochistan Liberation Army, Balochistan Republican Army, Baloch United Liberation Front, Baloch Liberation Front and other criminal gangs have developed this nexus from 2007 to 2011 … There is a strong probability that some outside forces are actively patronising the activity,” added the report.

A breakdown of the figures show that in this time, attacks targeted 227 policemen, 250 FC personnel, 259 settlers, 256 sectarian targets and 201 categorised merely as ‘others’.

So what’s missing?

What stands out in the home department’s report is that the increasing incidents of missing persons, many of whose bodies are found dumped around the province, were not deemed sufficient for a separate category. The ‘kill and dump’ operations were simply categorised by the home department under the sectarian category and the wide-ranging target killing categories. In spite of widespread allegations that intelligence and security agencies are behind such killings, there is no specific mention of any culprits behind the violence except the Baloch separatist organisations already mentioned, and the ‘external helpers’.

According to the report the members of these banned organisations were trained in Afghanistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, meanwhile, confided to the media on Sunday that Kabul had closed down a number of camps run by Baloch nationalist groups, where some 5,000 people were being trained.

Some categories of people who were specifically targeted were the Shia community, Frontier Constabulary personnel and policemen. Other categories of victims widely written about have, however, not found a mention in the report, such as political and human rights activists, and journalists. In the list of reasons for convictions, while kidnapping for ransom is mentioned specifically, abductions which do not call for ransom are not.

Most-wanted list

Meanwhile, the government of Balochistan has announced Rs14.5 million as head money for the 13 most wanted terrorists involved in target and sectarian killings in the province. Usman Saifullah Kurd, alias Gul Muhammad, is the head of one such gang and his head money is Rs2.5 million. The Balochistan Police said that Usman, and another criminal Shafiq, had escaped from prison in Quetta in 2008 and were hardened sectarian criminals.

Others that the home department has identified as terrorists trained in Afghanistan are: Attaullah alias Bomber Khan, Zia-ul-Haq alias Abdullah, Ghulam Farooq, Naseerabad, Dilshad Bangulzai, Muhammad Jan, Asghar Ali alias Juma, Naseer alias Sajjad Ali, Hafeez Wazir Ahmed alias Hakeem, Abdul Rehman alias Abid Ali, Sodanis and Khudaidad alias Karbalai.

The police have also arrested Hafiz Muhammad Usman, identified as being involved in different sectarian cases. Accused Dawood Badeeni, Abdul Jalil Ababkki, Shafiq Rind, Habibullah Shamim Ahmed, Haidar Khan, Mohammad Jan, Abdul Waheed, Mohammad Qasim, Shoukat Ali and Abdul Hakeem have also been put in jails for trial. Over 985 people have also been convicted in cases related to crime and terrorism while 875 cases are under trial in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2012.