First Balochistan conflict | |||||||||
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Part of Insurgency in Balochistan | |||||||||
Map of the Baluchistan Agency | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Pakistan | Kalat insurgents | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Until September 1948) ContentsLiaquat Ali Khan | Prince Agha Abdul Karim Prince Muhammad Rahim | ||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
Pakistan Army | Dosht-e Jhalawan | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Unknown | ~1000 militants | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
The First Balochistan Conflict was a rebellion instigated by Prince Agha Abdul Karim and Prince Muhammad Rahim of Kalat in response to the accession of Kalat and with the aim of establishing Kalat as an independent state from Pakistan. With the arrest of the princes and loss of a lot of manpower, the rebellion ultimately came to an end in 1950 with Pakistan recapturing all territories.
Balochistan contained a Chief Commissioner's province and four princely states under the British Raj. The province's Shahi Jirga and the non-official members of the Quetta Municipality opted for Pakistan unanimously on 29 June 1947. [1] Three of the princely states, Makran, Las Bela and Kharan, acceded to Pakistan in 1947 after independence. [2] The ruler of the fourth princely state, the Khan of Kalat, Ahmad Yar Khan, who used to call Jinnah his 'father', [3] declared Kalat's independence as this was one of the options given to all of the 535 princely states by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee. [4]
Kalat finally acceded to Pakistan on 27 March 1948 after the 'strange help' of All India Radio and a period of negotiations and bureaucratic tactics used by Pakistan. [3] The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan, led his brother, Prince Abdul Karim, to revolt against his brother's decision [5] in July 1948. [6] Princes Karim Khan and Muhammad Rahim refused to lay down arms and lead the Dosht-e Jhalawan (numbering around 1000 militants) [7] in unconventional attacks on the army. [5] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
The Baloch militants captured the area of Jhalawan and used it as a base to stage further operations against Pakistani armed forces; after an offensive Pakistani forces were able to recapture this area. The militants suffered heavy casualties and were demoralised which ultimately contributed to their surrender. [13] [8] [12] [11]
Prince Karim Khan and some other Baloch separatist leaders such as Qadir Bakhsh Nizamani, Muhammad Hussain Anqa, Malik Saeed Dehwar, and Moulvi Muhammad Afzal, went to Afghanistan in May 1948, to obtain material and financial support from the Afghan government and the Soviet Union, [13] [7] but they failed to obtain any financial or military assistance although Prince Abdul Karim was granted refuge in Afghanistan [13] [14] Afghan government wanted to rather annex Balochistan as it was in desperately in need of a sea port. Prince Karim failed to get any support from the Afghan government and the local Balochs, who were not interested in rebelling against the government of Pakistan.
In 1950, they returned to Pakistan upon being granted amnesty by some Baloch statesmen and Pakistani government however on their return, they were arrested against the truce and sentenced to ten years in Haripur jail. [15]
Jinnah and his successors allowed Yar Khan to retain his title until the province's dissolution in 1955.
Balochistan is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-east, Punjab to the east and Sindh to the south-east; shares international borders with Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north; and is bound by the Arabian Sea to the south. Balochistan is an extensive plateau of rough terrain divided into basins by ranges of sufficient heights and ruggedness. It has the world's largest deep sea port, the Port of Gwadar lying in the Arabian Sea.
The Baloch or Baluch are a nomadic, pastoral, ethnic group which speaks the Western Iranic Baloch language and is native to the Balochistan region of South and Western Asia, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There are also Baloch diaspora communities in neighbouring regions, including in Central Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Nawab Nauroz (Nowroz) Khan (1868?–1965), also known by Balochs as Babu Nowroz, was the head of the Zarakzai (Zehri), a subject to the Khan of Kalat in Balochistan, Pakistan. After his unsuccessful insurgency against the government of that time he was imprisoned in Kohlu jail where he died in 1965.
The National Awami Party (NAP), translated from Urdu to English as National People's Party, was the major left-wing political party in East and West Pakistan. It was founded in 1957 in Dhaka, erstwhile East Pakistan, by Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Yar Mohammad Khan, through the merger of various leftist and progressive political groups in Pakistan. Commonly known as the NAP, it was a major opposition party to Pakistani military regimes for much of the late 1950s and mid-1960s. In 1967 the party split into two factions.
The history of Balochistan refers to the history of the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Vague allusions to the region were found in Greek historical records of around 650 BCE. Prehistoric Balochistan dates to the Paleolithic.
The Khanate of Kalat was a Brahui Khanate that originated in the modern-day Kalat region of Pakistan. Formed in 1666 due to the threat of Mughal expansion in the region, it controlled the wider Balochistan at its greatest extent in the mid-18th century, extending from Kerman in the west to Sindh in the east and from Helmand River in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. The Khanate of Kalat lost considerable area to Qajar Iran and the Emirate of Afghanistan in the early 19th century, and the city of Kalat was itself sacked by the British in 1839. Kalat became a self-governing state in a subsidiary alliance with British India after the signature of the Treaty of Kalat by the Khan of Kalat and the Baloch Sardars in 1875, and the supervision of Kalat became a task of the Baluchistan Agency. Kalat was briefly independent from 12 August 1947 until 27 March 1948, when its ruler Ahmad Yar Khan acceded to Pakistan, making it one of the Princely states of Pakistan.
Las Bela was a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with British India which existed until 1955. The state occupied an area of 18,254 km2 (7,048 sq mi) in the extreme southeast of the Balochistan region, with an extensive coastline on the Arabian Sea to the south. Las Bela was bordered by the princely states of Kalat and Makran to the north and west. To the east lay the province of Sind and to the southeast lay the Federal Capital Territory around the city of Karachi.
Makran was an autonomous princely state in a subsidiary alliance with British India until 1947, before being absorbed as an autonomous princely state of Pakistan. It ceased to exist in 1955. It was located in the extreme southwest of present-day Pakistan, an area now parts of the districts of Gwadar, Kech and Panjgur. The state did not include the enclave of Omani Gwadar, which was under Omani rule until 1958.
Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo was a Pakistani politician from Balochistan. He served as the 3rd Governor of Balochistan.
The Insurgency in Balochistan is an insurgency or revolt by Baloch separatist insurgents and various Islamist militant groups against the governments of Pakistan and Iran in the Balochistan region, which covers the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and Balochistan of southern Afghanistan. Rich in natural resources, this is the largest, least populated and least developed province in Pakistan and Iran, and armed groups demand greater control of the province's natural resources and political autonomy. Baloch separatists have attacked civilians from other ethnicities throughout the province. In the 2010s, attacks against the Shia community by sectarian groups—though not always directly related to the political struggle—have risen, contributing to tensions in Balochistan. In Pakistan, the ethnic separatist insurgency is low-scale but ongoing mainly in southern Balochistan, as well as sectarian and religiously motivated militancy concentrated mainly in northern and central Balochistan.
Baloch nationalism is an ideology that asserts that the Baloch people, an ethnic group native to Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, form a distinct nation. The origins of modern Baloch nationalism coupled with the insurgency in Balochistan involving various militant organizations, go back to the period of the partition of British India and subsequent independence of Pakistan, when Kalat, the largest Baloch princely state, acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan.
Gul Khan Naseer also known as Malek o-Sho'arā Balochistan ; 14 May 1914 – 6 December 1983) was a Pakistani politician, poet, historian, and journalist from Balochistan. Most of his work is in Balochi language, but he also wrote in English, Urdu, Brahui and Persian.
Abdul Aziz Kurd (1904–1979) was a co-founder of the Anjuman-e-Ittehad-e-Balochan-wa-Balochistan. Among the pioneering Baloch nationalists, he wished to establish an independent Balochistan.
Human rights abuses in the province ofBalochistan refers to the human rights violations that are occurring in the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan. The situation has drawn concern from the international community, The human rights situation in Balochistan is credited to the long-running conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistani security forces.
The princely states of Pakistan were princely states of the British Indian Empire which acceded to the new Dominion of Pakistan between 1947 and 1948, following the partition of British India and its independence.
Aala Hazrat Khan e Azam His Highness Amir al-umara Beglerbegi Sir Alhaj Mir Ahmad Yar Khan Ahmedzai Baloch (1902–1979), commonly referred to as Yar Khan, was the last Khan of Kalat, a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with British India and the Dominion of Pakistan, serving from 10 September 1933 to 14 October 1955.
His Highness Muzaffar ul-Mulk was the Mehtar of Chitral who reigned from 1943 to 1949. He took the important decision of Chitral's accession to Pakistan in 1947. He also dispatched his army into Gilgit in August 1947, to help secure that territory for Pakistan.
The princely state of Kalat in Balochistan acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan on 27 March 1948, after having declared independence earlier on 15 August 1947. It was accepted by the Governor General Muhammad Ali Jinnah on 31 March, making Kalat an integral part of Pakistan. The accession was a stormy affair. Whether it had the consensus of its subjects remains disputed and Insurgencies against the state of Pakistan continue till the present day.
The Second Balochistan Conflict refers to a rebellion by Nawab Nauroz Khan who took up arms in resistance to the One Unit policy, which decreased government representation for tribal leaders, from 1958 to 1959. He and his followers started a guerrilla war against Pakistan, and were arrested, charged with treason, and imprisoned in Hyderabad. Five of his family members, sons and nephews, were subsequently hanged on charges of treason and aiding in the murder of Pakistani troops. Nawab Nauroz Khan later died in captivity.