Afia Ambreen
In another step to interfere in Balochistan All India Radio has announced to broadcast programmme in Balochi language. Ironically, an Indian stooge Jawad Baloch, President of the Balochistan Republican Party (BRP) in Germany, called it a big step and thanked Modi. Before this on Indian Independence Day PM Modi unleashed an unprecedented onslaught against Pakistan and supported insurgencies in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK. Modi’s outburst against Pakistan was driven by two main motivations: one, to deflect pressure on his government for the ongoing crisis in Indian Occupied Kashmir; and two, to project India as a regional hegemone capable of denying China access to economic trade routes through Pakistan into the Indian Ocean region. On both efforts, India is flawed.
On July 8, 2016, Indian security forces martyred Burhan Wani a Kashmiri who joined Hizbul Mujahideen after witnessing Indian security forces harass his brother and beat him unconscious. An estimated fifty thousand people attended Wani’s funeral; a testament to the popularity of the young man and local disdain for Indian security forces. The funeral was followed by protests, which included rock pelting. But the response by Indian security forces has been inhuman to say the least. Over 80 Kashmiris have been martyred, over 100 have lost their eyesight due to pellet guns fire and thousands others injured by Indian forces. Pakistan has no hand in the Kashmir protests. They are an organic response to the abuse and injury of the local population by Indian security forces and New Delhi’s persistent attempts to whip them into submission. Pakistan has invited India for dialogue on Kashmir in view of grave situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and for the sake of regional peace.
India’s involvement in the Balochistan unrest cannot be ruled out in view of the rapidly changing geopolitics of the region. India, which has ambitions of dominating the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, is upset over China’s growing stakes in the Gwadar port. A fully-developed and functional Gwadar port near the Strait of Hormuz will enable China to frustrate India’s dream of dominating regional waterways. New Delhi feels that the Gwadar port would have serious strategic implications for India. It perceives that it would empower Pakistan to control strategically important energy sea-lanes of the Persian Gulf, while India controls no choke points on the coastline of the subcontinent through which international shipping may pass. India sees Chinese involvement in Gwadar with suspicion and believes that China wants to set up bases and outposts across the globe to monitor and safeguard energy flows.
PM Modi’s statement on Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) was a manifestation of growing Indian frustration over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the strategic initiative that has the potential to transform the region in prosperity. PM Modi is feeling pressure after committing atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir and execution of CPEC. The Economic Corridor which is part of the greater One Belt One Road (OBOR), was launched to link 3 billion people of South Asia, Central Asia and China. On the record, both Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj have expressed to Chinese counterparts their opposition to CPEC projects, because of projects that run through Gilgit-Baltistan. However, off the record, New Delhi has also indicated that its opposition to CPEC stems from its belief that an economically empowered Pakistan will be more strategically emboldened.
Moreover, Indian Prime Minister’s intrusive remarks addressing GB, AJK and Balochistan are violations of the UN Charter. This is reflective of Indian state involvement in sponsoring and financing terrorism inside Pakistan. By mentioning Balochistan, the PM Modi has only tried to deflect attention from what is happening in Occupied Kashmir. UN Secretary General and most of the UN members have already condemned the precarious situation in IOK. It is time India is reminded by UN and international community to ensure realization of the right of self-determination of people of Jammu and Kashmir as per Security Council resolutions as it is an outstanding agenda on the United Nations Security Council for six decades. China and Pakistan have said repeatedly that CPEC is a project aimed at economic development of not only the two countries but also the entire region. Thus, objection of India to such a beneficial economic project is beyond comprehension.
