The rise of Baloch anger

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani security and intelligence agencies investigating the Tuesday bomb blast in Karachi, that killed three persons, are certain that the terrorist act was carried out by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic nationalist group which represents the violent side of Baloch nationalism.

Though the Sindh government high-ups are blaming the Islamists for the blast, the BLA spokesman has already claimed responsibility, saying they detonated the car bomb outside the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) building which houses the head office of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), near a KFC restaurant. Said the BLA spokesman in a telephone call to The Associated Press. “We didn’t want to hurt civilians. We did it to protest, and we did it to pressure the government to get our rights.”

The BLA is considered a vague underground organisation which was born in the Balochistan university many years ago during the cold war era. Though the nationalists in the resource-rich province have been waging a low-level battle against central rule for decades, the BLA in recent years has launched bomb and rocket attacks against natural gas installations.

The former editor of The Frontier Post, Rashid Rehman, maintains that the establishment should positively engage the BLA. Since Musharraf’s 1999 takeover, he feels, the Baloch nationalists have been excluded from power.

“Presently, the situation has deteriorated to an extent that the movement for greater political and economic rights in Balochistan has got the potential to grow into a major insurgency unless the Army troops are withdrawn from the area and the demands of the Baloch nationalists are accepted.”

Human rights activist Ansar Burni says the BLA had upped the ante early this year following the rape of a lady doctor in the PPL residential compound in Sui. Hundreds of armed Baloch nationalists stormed the PPL installations after the incident, forcing the government to call in the Army troops.

A subsequent clash  killed 62 civilians and eight army men, leaving the rape victim, Dr Shazia Khalid, with no other option but to leave the country under the Army’s pressure.

Significantly, four US nationals belonging to the Union Texas Petroleum, a US oil and gas exploration company, were shot dead in Karachi exactly eight years ago, 20 meters from the PIDC House where a car bomb exploded on Tuesday. Despite strong opposition from Baloch nationalists, who are opposed to the American hegemony in the region, the Union Texas Petroleum continues to explore at the Khaskheli Oil Field in Balochistan which produces 25 per cent of the country’s total oil production.