For several weeks, a group of
coy Baloch men and women camped outside the Islamabad Press Club. Mostly young,
many are members of the Baloch Student Organisation (Azad). Samina, 9-years-old,
left her home in Mekran to demand justice for her father, whom she has never
met. Behind her petite demure is a large poster with faces of the missing,
abducted in various parts of Balochistan, accusing security agencies for the
disappearance of many fathers, brothers and sons.
“No one is safe, there are arms everywhere,” said Governor of Balochistan, Nawab
Zulfiqar Magsi,as alarming levels of target killings, kidnappings and sectarian
attacks continue to challenge the writ of law and order. There are four
dimensions to the conflict, which are important to consider when understanding
the vacuum in state power and ability to control violence.
The first is the nationalist insurgency, which has framed a larger discussion on
Balochistan. The movement is typically associated with tribal groups such as the
Bugtis, Marris and Mengals, who at various points in Pakistani history, aligned
with and took up arms against the state.
However, the middle-class Baloch youth has become increasingly politicised
through student organisations and online networks. For them, there are no
rentier privileges offered by the state and nothing short of an independent
Balochistan will resolve the current crisis.
Instead of being enrolled in schools and universities, many of these young
Baloch are vainly attempting to find the whereabouts of their family members who
have gone missing for their alleged anti-state and separatist political views.
In many of these enforced disappearances cases, First Information Reports (FIRs)
have been registered but the families of the missing assert that there has been
little effort by the police to investigate whether they are dead or alive.
The second dimension of the conflict is the spike of sectarian violence in many
parts of the province. Target killings on motorbikes, large scale firing in
markets and parks, and bomb attacks have been used to intimidate members of the
Hazara community.
Despite the proliferation of cases, according to Abdul Khaliq Hazara, Chairman
of the Hazara Democratic Party, the process of trail and prosecution remains
slow on part of the police, local courts, and other law enforcement agencies.
The impression is that law enforcement is complicit in these crimes and
unwilling to take action, says a Hazara who travels with personal security
guards, out of fear that any day could be his last.
The third dimension can be defined as a sort of contradiction between forces of
modernity, that is, penetration of state and market structures versus
traditional, tribal forms of authoritry and power.
The fourth dimension is terrorism or the ‘war on terror’, militancy and
radicalism.
The need for accountability of the security forces remains critical if the state
desires to curb causes of conflict.