According to a press report, Interior Minister Rehman Malik briefed a special committee of the National Assembly on the situation in Balochistan, where the committee members noted with concern, the outlawed Laskhar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) had intensified its campaign of sectarian attacks. The minister repeated the usual 'foreign hand' claims saying that Afghanistan and India supported both the LJ and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), whereupon he was asked to provide documentary evidence for substantiation. The report did not say whether or not he had the evidence. But there is little reason to doubt these claims.
In fact, regarding the BLA activities, Prime Minister Gilani is known to have provided the proof to his Indian counterpart during their famous meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh. The LJ people have cohorts among the Afghan Taliban. Both neighbours may have a role in the violence perpetrated by insurgents and sectarian extremists. Nonetheless, they can do little harm if we have our house in order.
Rehman Malik betrayed thoughtlessness regarding the grave issue of repeated execution style killings of the Hazaras. He said that the province's chief secretary has been directed to take action against the LJ activists; and that, otherwise, the federal government would act on its own. Given the nature of the atrocities, the government should have mobilised all its resources to ensure the security of Balochistan's Hazara community, which is under LJ attack. After all, the primary responsibility of the government, any government, is to ensure the security of its citizens. Going by the minister's remarks, the federal government has left it to a provincial government bureaucrat to take on such a violent and powerful sectarian outfit as the banned LJ.
The fact of the matter is that the LJ activities are not restricted to Balochistan, although that is where, lately, it has been committing horrific violence against innocent citizens. There is little the provincial secretary can do about it. Neither would it do any good to arrest some foot soldiers. The issue needs to be addressed at the bigger level. The government should cut off their funds that flow from certain Muslim countries farther west than in Afghanistan. And equally important, the funders' clout should be used to successfully persuade LJ and other sectarian organisations to stop violence against other sects.
The minister also told the committee that the government is focusing on a political solution to the Balochistan problem. He said that he had contacted Harbyar Marri, a BLA leader, and managed to dissuade him from issuing a "declaration of independence" on August 14. The claim sounds like a case of simplification stretched to the extreme. It is hard to believe that all that is required to encourage BLA leaders to give up their secessionist agenda is some sort of a contact with the Federal Interior Minister.
The Balochistan situation is too serious. In the years following the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti a lot has happened, increasing Baloch people's estrangement from the federation. All across the Baloch political spectrum, people have two main worries, one 'enforced disappearances'; and second, the ongoing military operation - something the government denies. Hence, all stakeholders - Baloch nationalists, federal government and the Army - need to sit around a table to address issues of contention, to bring back all Balochis, including the insurgents, into the mainstream of the political process.