And Jalib Departs Too

By Amjad Hussain

Yet another prominent Baloch nationalist leader, Habib Jalib Baloch, was killed outside his residence in Quetta on Wednesday morning. Jalib, a great protagonist of right of self-determination for Balochistan, was sprayed with bullets by unknown bike riders on Sariab Road in the presence of scores of law enforcement agencies personnel regularly patrolling the area. Jalib’s murder was preceded by killing of an important leader of National Party Maula Bakhsh Dashti in Turbat a few days back.

Jalib’s murder is as another addition to list of prominent Baloch nationalist leaders including Nawab Akbar Bugti, Balaach Marri and Ghulam Mohammad Baloch who have been assassinated.

Jalib’s killing triggered a widespread violence across Balochistan as Baloch political activists took to roads and streets and started torching and ransacking public properties and vehicles to protest the incident. Balochistan National Party Mengal announced a three-day wheel jam strike and forty-day mourning in Balochistan. All public and private educational institutions have also been closed for three days in mourning.

Responsibility for Jalib’s murder has been claimed by Baloch Musalah Defai Tanzeem – an anti Baloch nationalist group- which surfaced first on Balochistan’s political horizon four months ago after claiming responsibility for a blast in University of Engineering Technology Khuzdar earlier this March. Baloch nationalist parties term this new outfit as a subsidiary of intelligence agencies formed to counter Baloch militants.

Former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Attaullah Mengal and his son Sardar Akhtar Mengal – the president of his own faction of Balochistan National Party – have blamed the intelligence agencies for Jalib’s assassination.

Targeted killing of innocent people is underway in Quetta for the last over ten years. Unfortunately, none of the federal and provincial governments took serious exception to these killings which led to thriving of the felony without any check. These killings have been carried out on sectarian and ethnic basis. Hazara community is the main target of the sectarian killings; while, Punjabi settlers, of the ethnic ones.

Targeted killings of prominent Baloch nationalist leaders also started in Balochistan as the gulf of differences widened between the military and the Baloch militants over control of resources.

Unfortunately, all the law enforcement agencies in Balochistan are still unable to track down the target killers despite their repeated claims of having found clues to the culprits.

The question now arises as to why the law enforcement agencies are unable to apprehend the killers and check these target killings in Quetta. The answer is either they are incapable of performing their duties to provide security to citizens or those committing this inhuman act are too powerful to be managed by them. The latter seems more plausible as these forces are fully equipped with all those resources which could help them trace the culprits with ease. The confession of Balochistan’s home minister on the provincial assembly floor last year that he did know the target killers but was unable to net them also reinforces this notion. Moreover, almost all the political parties of Balochistan including the ruling PPP are also of the same view that the spy agencies are behind these targeted killings.

If the agencies are involved in these killings then one wonders as to what could be the motives of the premier spy agencies of Pakistan behind these acts of terrorism aimed at targeting of innocent citizens and political leaders.

Most of the political analysts say the agencies are trying to achieve multiple objectives from these incessant acts of targeted killings in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan.

By killing the Baloch political leaders, they want to emasculate the Baloch national movement and thereby forcing the Baloch leadership to negotiate with them on their own terms. But, while doing so, perhaps, they forget that this practice – whether deliberate or indeliberate – is in fact sabotage the peace process in Balochistan initiated by the present government. Such killings would serve them nothing. It would further add insult to Baloch people’s injuries instead of dumping their already heightened sentiments. Jalib’s murder will surely compel a number of Baloch nationalists who were hitherto talking of provincial autonomy within the federal framework of Pakistan to follow the footsteps of anti-Islamabad forces which are now demanding independent Balochistan.

Similarly, the ethnic-based killings of settlers, as according to political analysts, are also aimed at creating hatred for Balochs in Punjab and thereby making the dominant province to be less concerned about Baloch people’s sufferings.

As far as the targeted killings of minority ethnic Hazaras are concerned, this is again a conspiracy to defame the Baloch people and to create a rift between the Baloch and Hazaras who have been living in Balochistan with full harmony for the past several decades. This should also be viewed in terms of ongoing proxy war between US, Iran and Pakistan in Afghanistan.

The mishandling of Balochistan issue by military spy agencies has turned this once most peaceful region into a burning hell. It is high time the government takes up the gauntlet and bar the military spy agencies from sabotaging the peace negotiations by interfering in internal politics of the country.

(Amjad Hussain is a senior Quetta-based journalist and a regular contributor to The Baloch Hal. To read his previous articles, click here. E-mail: amjad.hussain73@gmail.com)