For over two and a half decades Pakistan has been provoking India by fuelling insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, training, arming and infiltrating terrorists and potential terrorists into the troubled state. India has been complaining about it with breath-taking regularity but there has been little effect on either Pakistan or the US which has in the past had some leverage with Islamabad and used to earlier profess that it would bring Pakistan to heel.
In recent months, the Pakistanis have stepped up their activities in Kashmir and are increasingly cocking a snook at India. As for the Americans who once pretended to be interceding with Pakistan to close terrorist-training camps and stop infiltrating terrorists, they have now virtually stopped reacting to Indian protests.
While it may sound outlandish for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rake up the revolt against authority in the Pakistani province of Balochistan and in Pak-occupied Kashmir in his Independence day address to the nation, which strictly speaking should be deemed to be the internal affairs of the neighbouring country, this has to be seen in the context of Pakistani stoking of flames in India for decades.
The manner in which State-sponsored rallies were held in Pakistan to openly provoke a revolt in Indian Kashmir upon the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani was a blatant and direct assault on Indian sovereignty. The Prime Minister’s message to Pakistan is that if a terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir is a freedom fighter to them, then crusaders in Balochistan against Pakistani repression seeking freedom from Pakistan can surely be deemed by India to be freedom fighters too.
Pakistan cannot have one standard for itself and another for India. The manner in which Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif provoked India through fiery rhetoric in recent days, he should have been prepared for retaliation from his Indian counterpart. It cannot be a one-way traffic is Modi’s message.
Under prodding from his army, Nawaz Sharif has been behaving increasingly hawkish in his fulminations against India but this country cannot always condone his behaviour as something dictated by domestic compulsions. In the position that he holds, Sharif has to be held accountable for his statements.
While Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held India accountable for the ongoing violence in Kashmir in his Independence Day speech on August 14, Indian Premier Narendra Modi retaliated by pointing out to Pakistani oppression in the western Balochistan province in his August 15 speech.
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit’s dedication of his country’s Independence Day to Kashmir’s freedom, close on the heels of Sharif’s provocations have soured the pitch further between the two countries. Modi’s reference to revolts in Balochistan and PoK are a reflection of his anger over Pakistani excesses in words and deeds.
The Balochis have risen against Islamabad in armed uprisings five times during the last seven decades of Pakistani occupation since March 1948. With repression let loose by the army, it has been routinely trampling over human rights. Even drone attacks have been unleashed by the army on Balochis and with India maintaining a studied silence, Pakistan has been getting away with wholesale repression and ruthless killings by the army.
However, with Pakistan having decided to use its president and prime minister’s speeches to focus on exaggerated reports of State repression in Jammu and Kashmir where freedom of expression is much greater than in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan, India has consciously decided to pay the Pakistanis back in the same coin.
Whether Prime Minister Modi’s strong words in his I-Day address would be followed up with the stepping up of Indian intelligence and with covert operations in support of the Balochi insurgents is a moot point.
There are indeed two schools of thought on this. One school is critical of Modi for having contributed to internationalising the Kashmir issue by returning the blatant interference in India’s internal affairs with India’s interference in Pakistan affairs. The other school of thought says that’s the only way Pakistan can be deterred to give up terror in Kashmir.
Experts say that while Modi’s Balochistan comments may highlight the much-neglected conflict, it could also sabotage the image of an indigenous movement, similar to what Pakistani involvement in Kashmir has done to the once-peaceful struggle by a few.
Having given the bilateral talks path a fair trial and failed to rein in Pakistan, it is now time to give up pacifism and take to the more aggressive path.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province. It lies in southwest Pakistan. It shares its border with Iran, Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea. Apart from being of great strategic importance to Pakistan, Balochistan has great value because it is rich in natural resources.
During British rule, Balochistan was divided into four princely states, Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat. Between 1947 and 1948 all of them gradually merged with Pakistan. But, several insurgent groups, led by the Balochistan Liberation Army, have been seeking independence and a larger share in the natural resources since 1948.
The trouble is now escalating with the insurgents making frequent raids and the neighbours also interfering in Balochistan.
In late 2015, Iranian forces fired mortar shells across the Pakistan border into Balochistan on several occasions, in a display of power meant not only for Pakistan, but also for the substantial Iranian Baloch population. And the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) has ramped up their presence in Balochistan: 2016 has already seen two major suicide attacks in Balochistan linked to the TTP, which claimed 27 lives.’
For the Chinese, Balochistan is of great strategic importance because through Gwadar port in the province which was built by the Chinese, the latter have obtained vital access to the Indian Ocean. Consequently, China has a huge stake in Pakistani control over Balochistan.
All in all, fighting insurgency in Balochistan can be a major worry for Pakistan especially if India does to it even fractionally what Pakistan has been doing to Kashmir. Modi’s hint of Indian activism should be a warning and a deterrent to recalcitrant Pakistan.
