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Baloch unrest finished: Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

India is responsible for the insurgency, says senior official

ISLAMABAD: Quoting an unnamed official, several newspapers in Pakistan on Thursday ran reports that security forces had broken the back of the secessionist Baloch Nationalist Army and that the insurgency in the province was at an end.

At a briefing for Pakistani journalists, an unidentified "senior official" said a BLA "secessonist plot" was to have got under way in June "with the help of external forces" but the security forces had thwarted it.

The official was reported as holding India responsible for the unrest in the province.

"The organised mayhem is finished off and what separatist plans these sub-nationalist terrorists were making with the help of India has been knocked off," the News quoted the official as saying.

The newspaper reported that Indian and Russian weapons had been found in Balochistan.

The Indian weapons had come in from Jaisalmer, the official said.

He is also reported to have commented that India had more consulates in Afghanistan than it had in the U.S.

"BLA hijacked"

Exactly who leads the BLA is not clear. Though the Mari tribe of Balochistan are said to have founded the militant group some decades ago, there is no certainty that they still run it.

The official said Nawab Mohammed Akbar Khan Bugti, a long-time friend of Islamabad who launched his own resistance last year to demand a fair share from the Government of the monies from the gas fields in the region, had now "hijacked" the BLA.

He said the security forces were on the verge of arresting Nawab Bugti. They knew his whereabouts but they were delaying his arrest to avoid collateral damage, the official was reported as saying.

"The Bugtis are finished and things are coming to a close now," the Dawn quoted the official as saying.

Pakistan does not allow journalists to visit the restive province, which shares part of its border with Afghanistan and another part with Iran.

Over the last few days, the Government has said several loyalists of the 79-year-old Nawab Bugti have surrendered, that the Nawab has left his mountain hide-out and is on the run. A close aide of the Nawab has denied the claim.

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