Praveen Swami

We will not throw down our arms, says Baloch leader



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Escalation in hostilities in strategically-vital province
Baloch forces claim to have killed soldiers in sniper attacks
Bombings cripple surface transport, disrupt gas supplies

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NEW DELHI: Baloch insurgent forces and Pakistan's armed forces have clashed at least four times since Saturday, in what appears to be an escalation in hostilities in the strategically-vital province.

Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the head of the powerful Bugti clan and one of the key leaders of the insurgent campaign in Balochistan, told The Hindu that large-scale fighting had taken place at Biam Shahi and Tilli Mat, both in the gas-rich Sui valley. Pakistan military positions at Gori and Bardoze, north-east of the town of Dera Bugti, were also ambushed, he said.
Speaking on satellite phone from his mountain hideout, Nawab Bugti said Baloch insurgents had been able to capture two armoured Frontier Corps vehicles and encircle troops around Biam Shahi. However, Baloch forces were compelled to withdraw after several hours of attacks executed by at least six helicopter gunships, which were called in to provide fire support to the encircled Pakistani troops.
Baloch forces also claim to have shot dead four men of Pakistan's Punjab Regiment in a sniper attack. Another sniper attack near Bardoze, Nawab Bugti said, had left one soldier dead. Pakistan is thought to have committed some 23,000 troops to the troubled province, mainly from the paramilitary Frontier Corps and Rangers, the Army's Punjab and Sindh Regiments, and the crack Special Services Group.

The casualty claims could not be confirmed, although Pakistani newspapers had reported that two insurgents and a soldier had been killed in a March 26 skirmish near Dera Bugti. The fighting was provoked by Army-backed resettlement of 1,500 members of the Rahija clan, who dispute Nawab Bugti's authority, in Dera Bugti. Rahija clan leaders had been expelled from the area after intra-tribal clashes in 1997.

In recent weeks, Baloch insurgents have succeeded in executing a series of successful bombings that have crippled surface transport in the region, and disrupted gas supplies from the Sui, Loti and Pir Koh gas fields. Pakistan's plans to develop the port of Gwadar as a free-trade zone to rival the West Asian centres such as Dubai and Sharjah have also been hit hard by the continuing violence.

Unlike these bombings, though, the latest fighting has consisted of classic insurgent hit-and-run combat, directed in the main at troops. Although little credible reportage of the conflict is available because of restrictions on media operations in the area, experts say the renewed fighting suggests Pakistani attacks on Baloch training camps and weapons caches have so far had no real effect on their combat capabilities.

Pakistani authorities have, however, shown little willingness to find a negotiated compromise that would allow the fighting in the resource-rich region to end. In a recent speech, President Pervez Musharraf said the influence of Balochistan's tribal sardars, or tribal chieftains, was approaching an end, and that Pakistan would not succumb to what he characterised as blackmail.

"What President Musharraf wants," Nawab Bugti said, "is for us to throw down our arms, and crawl before him. This we will never do. The Baloch will fight on." The Baloch leader also denied media speculation that he had fled to Iran. "It is true that I am not on Pakistani soil," he said, "but I am still on the soil of my nation, Balochistan."