Shabbir Suleman
The province of Balochistan comprising 43% of the total Pakistani landmass, has been bestowed with tremendous potential of natural resources along with high mountain barriers and long coastal area. The Baloch people are hard workers, intelligent and loyal to their motherland. Unfortunately, owing to poor development over the past years, and regional and global conspiracies, there remained phases of instability in the province. Moreover, the banned militant outfits have been working on the behalf of India to destabilize the province. These militant organizations such as Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Balochistan Republican Army (BRA), Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and their international supporters have been blaming the Pakistani State, its intelligence agencies and Law-Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) for the case of missing persons. Undoubtedly, these terrorist and separatist outfits backed by their external supporters have been killing the innocent Baloch masses and put the blame on the Pakistani LEAs.
In the past, these separatists have been using coercive techniques to intimidate the local people in order to expand their influence and enlarge their support base. Their oppressive methods are extremely harsh as they brutally kill innocent people and throw away their dead bodies to inflict psychological pain to the bereaved families. The resultant demonstration of these miscreants is to shift the blame of their heinous crimes to the LEAs including the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Apart from that, these organizations have been sending their recruited youth for terrorist training in various countries especially India, and subsequently portray them as missing persons. In the last few years, hundreds of the local youth have been sent to various countries under the patronage of these organizations for terrorist training and ultimately employing them for terrorist activities against the Pakistani State and its constituent organizations along with killing those innocents who challenge their narrative. In a nutshell, these separatists play the double game by hiding their crimes and presenting themselves as the victims.
In a recent attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, Abdul Razzaq Baloch along with two other militants were killed. Notably, the name of Abdul Razzaq Baloch was found in the list of missing persons. According to the initial investigation, Abdul Razzaq Baloch was an active terrorist of the BLA and was shown as a missing person. The BLA has already claimed responsibility of this attack. The Pakistani State and its LEAs have been accused of his abduction for the last two years. Reportedly, there are many such names in the list of missing persons, but they are either living abroad or waging war against the Pakistani State. Hundreds of such people shown as missing are being used by the Hostile Intelligence Agencies (HIAs) like the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) of Afghanistan.
Indeed, owing to Balochistan’s geopolitical significance, there is a global conspiracy against Pakistan. Richard Auty, a renowned scholar presented his famous ‘Resource Curse Theory’ that defines and explains the curse faced by the regions enriched with natural resources. Historical evidences give us this unfortunate judgment that any part of the world possessing marvelous natural resources in any form, rarely enjoy its fruits. Rather such region becomes a victim of conspiracies by different actors for the purpose of occupying the resources. The province of Balochistan is a true manifestation of the ‘Resource Curse Theory’ since it has been facing conspiracies of various kinds. This gifted province has immense natural resources with traditionally hardworking workforce. Apart from the explored and unexplored natural resources, the development of the strategically located Gwadar Port and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are the major projects which have displeased the anti-Pakistan forces. These regional and international forces are trying to destabilize the province by provoking the locals in the name of Baloch Sub-Nationalism (BSN).
Nevertheless, despite such conspiracies, there has been a visible change in outlook of the province which can be attributed to the awareness among the Baloch people. The Baloch masses have started rejecting those elements having anti-state narratives. They now support the socio-economic development of the province. There is a return of normalcy in the form of peace and economic activity in Balochistan.
