Balochistan: Is Islamabad still clueless?

What is happening in Balochistan when the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in the country had fallen to 995 last year, a reduction of 12 percent? This question has found a new legitimacy after the recent spate of killings in various parts of this insurgency-infested province where attacks on the personnel of law-enforcement agencies and others by the Taliban and Baloch insurgents remain commonplace. Other victims of terrorist activities in the province are usually members of the Hazara community and Punjabi economic migrants. On Wednesday, a senior police officer and his family members were gunned down in Quetta, 15 bullet-riddled bodies were discovered by the Levies force in Balochistan's Kech district. Acting SP Investigation, Mohammad Ilyas, was gunned down by motorcyclists in a Quetta neighbourhood as he was travelling in his car with his family. Also killed in the attack were his wife, son and six-year-old grandson. In the terrorist attack that took place in Buleda tehsil of Kech district the border with Iran, the victims were gunned down from close range belonged to Punjab. It has been reported that the victims were trying to enter Iran on their way to Europe. Three days later, bullet-riddled bodies of five more such migrants were found in the same area. They too hailed from Punjab.
From Islamabad's perspective, there is an equally worrying dimension to the Balochistan conundrum: the role of certain European states in encouraging anti-Pakistani forces to support the Balochistan insurgency. The "Free Balochistan and save the Baloch" posters displayed on London buses is one glaring example of this. Although Transport for London (TfL) has removed such messages from their buses, it has been done only after Pakistan's High Commission in London lodged a formal complaint to the British authorities. It was the second time in as many weeks that such posters appeared on London's streets. The advertisements in London that were accepted "in error," according to the TfL, are similar to those put up in Geneva. India has a hand in the Balochistan unrest, and these sinister campaigns have been widely reported in the Indian press.
The Taliban and the Baloch secessionists have been playing the perfect role of India's proxies to foment trouble to sabotage the CPEC projects, including its flagship project, the Gwadar port. As the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, pointed out, India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is spending over $500 million through a "Balochistan Cell" set up by New Delhi in 2015 to devise a radical force for subversion and terrorist activities in the province. India's interference in Balochistan has manifested in sponsoring terrorist organizations in a variety of manners. As has been summed up by the most senior general in Pakistan, sponsoring the outlawed TTP and Baloch insurgents and the capture of RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav from Balochistan "is the proverbial smoking gun of India's sinister designs being hatched against Pakistan."
The situation in Balochistan brooks no complacency, alertness against critical danger is a critical requirement for successful implementation of CPEC projects. Unfortunately, the policymakers in Islamabad seem to have shifted their responsibility to either a beleaguered government headed by Nawab Zehri or the abnormally-stretched armed forces so far as a political solution to the issue is concerned. The federal government is conspicuous by its absence in relation to efforts aimed at finding a viable solution to the Balochistan issue, because it is expending most of its energies on articulating strategies aimed at addressing the woes of the Sharif family and its key minister Ishaq Dar who have been facing cases in an accountability court. The Balochistan situation does require a new approach to the challenge without further loss of time.