Terror from within

 A deadly car bombing in Pakistan has killed at least 11 and wounded 18. The explosion took place in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan and it occurred close to the police chief’s office.

While no terror or militant group has come forward and taken responsibility for the bombing, Balochistan, one of the four provinces of Pakistan, has been the epicentre for a lot of insurgent activities by separatists and nationalists in the region.

Background

Balochistan is one of the four provinces in Pakistan. Covering about 44% of the country’s total area, the majority of its seven million residents of the region are Baloch. The largest province in the country is also home to multitude of natural resources including oil, copper and gold as well as large oil fields. However, despite the presence of its natural resources, the region is largely undeveloped and the people who reside there (that also includes Pashtuns and Brahuis) live in relative poverty.

The Baloch people, who are native to the region, are inherently different to the rest of Pakistanis in terms of their ethnicity, culture, and social structure. There have also long been reports of suppression of the native Balochs and many residing in Balochistan by the Pakistani government. For decades, there has been a call for secession from Pakistan and it has led to multiple violent conflicts. One of the biggest conflicts to take place in the region was the five year military operation that took place between the Pakistani army and the Baloch separatists that lasted from 1973 to 1978. This period of strife led to the deaths of thousands on both sides as well as the lives of civilians and while it ended with a victory for the Pakistani forces, it caused a deep rift between Islamabad and Balochistan that has yet to recover.

There are a number of militant and separatists groups in the region but the biggest one by far is the Balochistan Liberation Army. The group has regularly orchestrated attacks with one of the most recent ones taking place in May of 2017. Gunmen riding bikes opened fire in Gwadar, Balochistan and killed 10 labourers as a result.

The Pakistani government has in the recent years tried to introduce development programs including starting work on the highly profitable China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, giving Beijing a route to the Arabian Sea through Gwadar.  However, violence remains a part of the region’s existence.

Analysis

According to initial reports the most recent attack in Quetta resulted in the deaths of at least five policemen who were at the scene.  The attack took place in the morning an old car came and stopped near the police chief’s office. When it was stopped by the policemen present, it exploded. As of right now, no militant group including the BLA has taken responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the provincial government of Balochistan, Anwarul Haq Kakar, did float a theory that the act could have been carried out by India, however did not present any evidence to back that claim.

Apart from militant groups fighting for a separate state, there are other factors that contribute to the instability in Balochistan. In February 2017, Sarfaraz Bugti, the minister of home and tribal affairs in Balochistan said in an interview that the region was home to thousands of Aflghan Taliban forces still studying in seminaries in the province. It is likely that as many as 5,000 Afghans were studying in these schools presently where they are trained to be foot soldiers for the Taliban and are indoctrinated with the group’s extremist ideologies.

Assessment

With terror attacks becoming more frequent in Pakistan, the government ought to become more proactive about battling insurgent forces. The country has been accused of sponsoring terrorist groups to serve its agenda. However, with the death toll increasing by the day, it is time for the government to weed out terrorists operating within its own borders. Our assessment is if it fails to do just that then Pakistan will find it more difficult to resuscitate itself as a modern state.