Third Balochistan Conflict | |||||||
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Part of the Insurgency in Balochistan | |||||||
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The Third Balochistan Conflict refers to an insurgency by Baloch separatists against the Pakistani government lasting from 1963 till 1969 with the aim to force Pakistan to share revenues from gas reserves in Balochistan, freeing up of Baloch prisoners and dissolution of One Unit Scheme.
Following the introduction of a new constitution in 1956 which limited provincial autonomy and enacted the 'One Unit' concept of political organisation in Pakistan. [4] [5] Tension continued to grow amid consistent political disorder and instability at the federal level. [4] [5] Multiple Baloch parliament members were dismissed. [6] The federal government tasked the Pakistan Army with building several new bases in key areas of Balochistan. [4] [5] The Basic Democracies during Ayub military regime gave an indirect representation which created democratic problems in Pakistan as the representation of the Baloch was reduced in the non-democratic constitution of 1962 as the baloch provinces and territories were merged into West Pakistan. The unrelenting denial of the military regime to lodge the Baluch interests, and the brandishing of such interest as sub-nationalist, took several political protesters to drive for a separate Baluch state and radical and leftist Baluch political parties like Baluch National Liberation Front, and the Baluch Student Organization were launched and they started agitations and protests against Ayub regime. They organized and arranged different gatherings in different areas of Baluchistan and as a result, the second rebellion in Baluchistan broke out from the Marri tribal area in 1962.
Sher Muhammad Bijrani Marri led like-minded militants into guerrilla warfare from 1963 to 1969 by creating their own insurgent bases. [7] [8] [9] [10] [4] [5] Their goal was to force Pakistan to share revenue generated from the Sui gas fields with the tribal leaders and lifting of One Unit Scheme. [11] [10] The insurgents bombed railway tracks and ambushed convoys and raided on military camps. [6] [12] [10]
Popular Front for Armed Resistance, or PFAR, was a separatist organisation [2] formed during the 1960s. [2] The group is responsible for series of bomb blasts in Pakistan. [4] [5] Most of outfit's activists were trained in Afghanistan. For the outfit, Afghanistan was good place to obtain weaponry and others goods. [2] [8]
Parrari or Parari was a terrorist outfit founded by Sher Mohammad Marri in the 1962. The outfit was responsible for series of attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces. The outfit continued its attacks until 1969. [4] [5] [11] [13] .Sher Mohammad Marri was the first Baloch to use the tactics of modern guerrilla warfare against the government. In early 1960s his Parari fighters attacked the Pakistani Armed Forces in the Marri area and in Jahlawan under Mir Ali Muhammad Mengal. [11] This campaign came to an end in 1967 with the declaration of a general amnesty. [11] [4] [5]
Bugti militia also actively partook in this conflict against Pakistan armed forces.
Balochistan Liberation Front the group was founded by Jumma Khan in 1964 in Damascus, and played an important role in the 1968–1973 insurgency in Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran [7] which ultimately spilled over into Pakistan [7] with BLF launching raids on Pakistani outposts. [7] [4] [5] [3] Iraq openly and quite actively supported this group against Pakistan and Iran by providing financial support, weapons and training which ultimately led to 1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan. [3] [8] Syria also provided support to this group. [3] [8]
The Pakistan Army retaliated by destroying the militant camps. [6] [4] [5] Pakistan Army bombed multiple villages with separatist presence. Pakistan Air Force also led a bombing campaign on the tribal areas with separatist presence [4] [5] [6] which not only destroyed multiple separatist bases but also destroyed vast agricultural farmland. [6]
This insurgency ended in 1969, with the Baloch separatists agreeing to a ceasefire granting general amnesty to the separatists as well as freeing the separatists. In 1970 Pakistani President Yahya Khan abolished the "One Unit" policy, [11] [4] [6] [10] [14] which led to the recognition of Balochistan as the fourth province of West Pakistan [4] [5] (present-day Pakistan), including all the Balochistani princely states, the High Commissioners Province, and Gwadar, an 800 km2 coastal area purchased from Oman by the Pakistani government. [15]
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Fourth Balochistan Conflict was a four-year military conflict in Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, between the Pakistan Army and Baloch separatists and tribesmen that lasted from 1973 to 1977.
The Balochistan Liberation Army, is a Baloch ethnonationalist militant separatist organization based in Afghanistan. BLA's first recorded activity was during the summer of 2000, after it claimed credit for a series of bombing attacks on Pakistani authorities. BLA is listed as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Balochistan, also spelled Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of desert and mountains is primarily populated by ethnic Baloch people.
The Baloch Students Organization is a student organisation that campaigns for the students of Pakistan's Balochistan Province. It was founded as a student movement on 26 November 1967 in Karachi and remains the largest ethnic Baloch student body in the country. It got divided due to ideological differences. BSO Pajjar and BSO Mohiuddin are affiliated with the parliamentary framework of Pakistan. Dr Allah Nazar, founder of pro independence wing, in 2002 while he was studying in college, created a breakaway faction — BSO–Azad — that advocated struggle for an independent Balochistan based on pre-colonial Baloch country. The Pakistani government banned the BSO Azad on 15 March 2013, as a terrorist organisation.
The Balochistan Liberation Front is a militant group operating in the Balochistan region of southwestern Asia. The group was founded by Jumma Khan in 1964 in Damascus, and played an important role in the 1968–1973 insurgency in Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran and 1973–1977 insurgency in Balochistan province of Pakistan. However, the group's insurgency was defeated in both Pakistan and Iran and the status of the group became unknown until 2004. The group re-emerged in 2004 after Allah Nazar Baloch took command of the group in 2003. Since then the group has taken responsibility for attacks on civilians, journalists, government officials and military personnel.
Baluch People's Liberation Front, also known as Baluch Awami Azadi Mahaiz or BPLF is a militant group formed by Mir Hazar Khan Marri, a prominent Baluchi leader in 1976, led by Sher Mohammad Marri.
Jumma Khan Marri is a senior Baloch political activist from Balochistan. He was formerly a member of Baloch separatist groups.
Sher Mohammad Marri was the chief of the Marri Baloch tribe in Pakistan, and an early leader in the Parrari movement which would lead to the formation of the Baloch Liberation Army, a militant nationalist group. A Marxist, he had close ties to leftist governments in Kabul and Moscow.
The 1973 raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan was an armed infiltration carried out by Pakistan in February 1973 at the embassy of Ba'athist Iraq in Islamabad. The raid, carried out by the Pakistan Rangers and the Islamabad Police, was launched after the interception of information by Pakistani intelligence that uncovered large-scale covert Iraqi involvement in the supply of weapons and funds to militants waging an insurgency against Iran and Pakistan in the Balochistan region situated between the two countries. Following the embassy raid, an abundance of funds and Soviet armaments from Iraq that were meant for Baloch insurgents were seized by Pakistani forces, and the Iraqi ambassador to Pakistan as well as the embassy's staff were immediately expelled from Pakistan and declared personae non gratae. Pakistan's findings in the embassy raid heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq, which, in 1974, escalated into armed clashes over the Shatt al-Arab, a river that was formerly subject to a territorial dispute between the two nations that later served as one of the key factors that propelled them into a full-scale and protracted war in 1980 following the Iranian Revolution. The event led to a severe deterioration in Iraq–Pakistan relations and contributed to Pakistan's heavy backing of Iran during the latter's eight-year-long war with Iraq.
The Anglo-Marri Wars is the name given to three major military conflicts between the Marri Baloch tribesmen and the British Empire in the independent eastern Baloch tribal belt. The conflicts took place in the 19th and 20th centuries, specifically in 1840, 1880, and 1917.
Baloch nationalism is an ideology that asserts that the Baloch people, an Iranic ethnic group native to Iran, Pakistan 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.
There are or have been a number of separatist movements in Pakistan based on ethnic and regional nationalism, that have agitated for independence, and sometimes fighting the Pakistan state at various times during its history. As in many other countries, tension arises from the perception of minority/less powerful ethnic groups that other ethnicities dominate the politics and economics of the country to the detriment of those with less power and money. The government of Pakistan has attempted to subdue these separatist movements.
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.
United Baloch Army was a militant group, fighting for the separation of Balochistan. The group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Pakistani government. The government of Pakistan banned the group on 15 March 2013. The group has also been classified as a terrorist organisation by Switzerland's government.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been accused of genocide against Baloch People in Pakistani Balochistan during the Balochistan insurgency. There have been reports of death squads as well as the discovery of mass graves since 2014. Baloch activists and scholars blamed the Pakistan Armed Forces as the main culprits for the genocide. Actions labelled as genocidal actions include indiscriminate military attacks, kidnappings and forced disappearances, as well as detention with trial, torture, assassination and extrajudicial killings. The Pakistani State has continuously denied any accusation of genocide.