Truck driver Munir Ahmed was motoring along a darkened highway after a long day unloading sacks of rice in Pakistan\u2019s Sindh province late Sunday, when he crossed over into Balochistan. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they got down from the trucks, they were asked to show their identity cards. After checking the identity card, four people were taken aside and armed men started firing indiscriminately at them,\u201d the 45-year-old said. <\/p>\n
Ahmed saw three men die in front of him before he lost consciousness, having taken five bullets to his arms and legs. In total, 23 people were executed on the highway that night. <\/p>\n
The mass roadside executions were the biggest of six separate attacks by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) on Sunday and Monday that killed 54 people in total, including 14 security personnel. The coordinated onslaught was sophisticated, with militants simultaneously targeting a police station and a military base, as well as highways and railway lines. <\/p>\n
It was the deadliest day of the year so far for Pakistan, the latest flare-up in a long-running insurgency driven by inequality, ethnic resentments and colossal Chinese investments. <\/p>\n
Somehow, Ahmed survived. The father of six young children had been assumed dead, but when his bullet-riddled body reached the hospital in Quetta, Balochistan\u2019s biggest city, doctors quickly realized he was alive. He is still in critical condition. <\/p>\n
Balochistan is strategically important and rich in minerals. But its population is deeply disenfranchised, impoverished, and increasingly alienated from the federal government by decades of policies widely seen as discriminatory. <\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s bloodshed marked the anniversary of the killing of Akbar Khan Bugti, a popular Baloch tribal leader and an Oxford-educated politician, whose death in 2006 was blamed on Pakistan\u2019s then military ruler Pervez Musharraf. Bugti\u2019s death sparked a surge in separatism, and remains an open wound for the Baloch people, who have had their own richly distinct culture and language since long before Pakistan gained independence from the British in 1947. <\/p>\n
Provincial security chiefs were seemingly unprepared for an attack on the important date for the BLA \u2013 the strongest separatist group in the province, with close to 4,000 fighters. That was a \u201cgrave mistake in intelligence\u201d according to Abdul Basit, a research fellow at Singapore\u2019s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). <\/p>\n
But the violence came as no surprise to analysts who have been monitoring the region and blame what they say is the military\u2019s interference in civilian affairs. \u201cThe political leadership in Balochistan has no roots with the people, genuine leadership has been sidelined, there is a political vacuum, and social media has allowed mobilization and organization,\u201d Basit said. <\/p>\n
The latest flare-up is a major challenge to the government\u2019s authority. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis attack shows that the militants are very active and can be lethal, demonstrates that the state has not been vigilant that these people have developed so strongly,\u201d said Retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a security commentator. <\/p>\n
Most of the victims of Monday\u2019s attack, like Ahmed and the murdered drivers, were from Punjab, Pakistan\u2019s largest and most prosperous province. They were targeted because many separatist groups resent the perceived exploitation of their region and its resources. The BLA often refers to itself as warring with the \u201cPunjabi establishment.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a statement released after the attacks, the BLA claimed all of their targets were linked to the military. <\/p>\n
Though the insurgency has been running for decades, it has gained traction since Balochistan\u2019s deep-water Gwadar port was leased to China, the jewel in the crown of Beijing\u2019s \u2018Belt and Road\u2019 infrastructure push in Pakistan. <\/p>\n
Beijing has invested tens of billions of dollars in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship Belt and Road project launched in 2015 that links China\u2019s western Xinjiang region to Gwadar on the Arabian Sea with a network of roads, railways, pipelines and power plants. <\/p>\n
Anti-China sentiment is rife among Baloch separatist groups. Militants are angered by what they say is the state\u2019s exploitation of the region\u2019s rich mineral resources, with little of the proceeds filtering down to people in what remains Pakistan\u2019s poorest province. The port, often touted as \u201cthe next Dubai,\u201d has become a security nightmare with persistent bombings of vehicles carrying Chinese workers, with many killed. <\/p>\n
The state and security forces have responded severely, killing thousands of people in the last two decades. The government in Islamabad recently initiated a new military campaign, \u201cResolve for Stability,\u201d to eliminate extremism, and has allocated millions of dollars\u2019 worth of resources to the plan. <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement on Thursday \u201ccommended the sacrifices and contributions of the people of Balochistan towards national progress and development, and resolved that enemies of Pakistan, bent on creating unrest in Balochistan, would be defeated with full force and national support.\u201d <\/p>\n
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in a statement to parliament that the Balochistan attacks were \u201cplanned to ruin\u201d the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation scheduled for October, which Pakistan is hosting under its rotating chairmanship. The SCO is a 10-member club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia, acting as a counterweight to Western institutions led by the United States and its allies. <\/p>\n
The military said in a statement Friday that three separate intelligence operations have been undertaken in Balochistan since Monday\u2019s attack, adding that \u201cfive terrorists were sent to hell by the security forces.\u201d <\/p>\n
It emphasized that the \u201csecurity forces of Pakistan, in step with the nation, remain determined to thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan.\u201d <\/p>\n
But Fazi Zaka, an Islamabad-based political commentator, has questioned where the \u201cattention of the state is going,\u201d noting that the country is in the throes of a severe economic crisis that has \u201csapped the morale of the people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pakistan is currently suffering high debt, low exports, energy inflation, and urgently needs a loan from the International Monetary Fund. <\/p>\n
But as well as militancy, Balochistan\u2019s alienation has also led to peaceful dissent, under a young generation of Baloch activists. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), led by 31-year-old Dr Mahrang Baloch, held protests in Islamabad last January and in the summer led a sit-in in Gwadar city which lasted for more than 10 days. <\/p>\n
Her family has suffered acutely. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Mahrang Baloch\u2019s father was abducted in 2009, his mutilated body surfacing two years later. Her brother was also abducted in 2017. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just Balochistan that is testing the limits of central authority; this has been a long summer in parts of Pakistan far from the political heartland. <\/p>\n
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the country\u2019s most militarized province, which also borders Afghanistan, thousands of young people came out to demonstrate after the government announced a new military campaign in the region. <\/p>\n
Since Afghanistan returned to Taliban rule in 2021, the militant group\u2019s Pakistani operation has increased activities along the border with a drastic uptick in attacks that have begun to worry locals already traumatized by years of violence at the hands of militant groups. <\/p>\n
In some areas, the Taliban presence is testing the efficacy of state security forces, said Zulfikar Ali Shah, a shop owner from the northwestern town of Bannu. He said that \u201cby late afternoon prayers, police stations are locked up with the police disappearing and rescue cars, police cars cannot roam in the evening in this area, the Taliban make check posts every other week in the tribal areas and search people despite the presence of the military.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe government does understand these issues but are not focusing on them,\u201d said Masood. \u201cThey need a rethink, look at the way Pakistan is going downhill in terms of economy and prestige. Is the country democratic? Is the military\u2019s involvement in politics helpful? These things need to be addressed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Basit agreed that \u201ca reset in approach is needed,\u201d but doubted such a reset is imminent. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey will double down, their playbook is outdated, they don\u2019t understand how this generation thinks, they don\u2019t understand what makes them tick,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen peaceful activists will see that peaceful gatherings are not allowed when there is a crackdown on peaceful activists then people will turn towards violence. \u201c <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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