Saman Hamid
Mr. Modi gave a very obvious hint last year at his annual independence day speech. He called out to the Baloch people. The people in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, in a cowardly attempt to malign the Kashmir cause and to hinder Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts above all it served to disenchant the Chinese to no avail of course. What is more obvious however is how shallow this entire façade is. It seems that the gears have shifted in this guerilla offensive. The memory of the missing Chinese couple as not faded in Quetta, soon after Ehnsan and Kulbhushan’s admission of Indian intrusion, the latest though is too explicit and deserves formal defense and offense in global forums.
The Baloch Hind Forum has recently been established in India. With the first seminar held on June 20,2017, with the title “How Indians can play a role in the freedom struggle of Balochistan” at Hotel Howard Plaza Fatehabad Road, Agra, Utter Pardaesh India. The focus of the discussion was how to aggravate the separatist element in Balochistan. In clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty this is an alarm and an admission. The great denial that Kulbhushan was just a big misunderstanding and Ehsanullah Ehsan was no more than a Pakistani ploy. Presence of Major General (retired) G.D. Bakhshi, former Director RAW at the event is more than proof of the involvement of prominent members. Bramdagh Bugti in his interview seems to be the first perpetrator in the string of events that have culminated in this “mega” event, few other Balochs with links to Indians. PM Modi’s independence day speech followed suit with a call to people of Balochistan. Yadav’s statement gave direction to the clear Indian intent towards Balochistan. The missing Chinese couple from Quetta was another attempt to paint a dubious picture about security situation in Pakistan. All these events continued while different CPEC projects are quickly getting completed throughout Pakistan and Burhan Wani’s generation removed all Indian doubts about occupying Kashmir. Signs of desperation are also visible, for one thing when all else is failing New Delhi may have decided to expose themselves at last.
This also indicates the increasingly aggressive practices the Indian government is employing. Let us not forget the stance Trump administration is taking towards Pakistan the recent visit of Modi to the white house, gave the less than shocking development of Indians joining the Afghan-led coalition, a country which Obama promised to vacate post decade long “successes” in nothing. Modi visit’s diplomatic triumph of making North Korea and Afghanistan the same problems and Indians as a primary ally has more to do with Trumps’ downtrodden ratings, worsening situation in Afghanistan and CPEC and the greater One Belt One Road initiative in Asia that had led Obama to make the critical error of misjudging the US’ role in the Middle East as well as India. Had this not been the case then perhaps more than 600 attacks in the name of cow meat’s consumption since Modi came into power would have been more real to the “humanitarian” Americans than his leadership, the only one perhaps banned from US entry at one point in time due to his role in the Gujrat riots. It is also interesting to note that none of the world leaders mention Kashmir or the human rights abuses Indians are so blatantly incurring there.
We cannot shout “cheating” globally or at the United Nations, the terms psychologists use for the dilemma we face is “selective perception”. The growing instability in Europe and economic realities of the rest of the world have turned lots of ears deaf. We have a strong army and advances in Radd-ul-Fassad are indicative of internal stabilization of law and order. If someone were to conduct a SWOT analysis of Pakistan one emerging trend is clear, our change is strongly linked to CPEC and all forces are trying to curb the initiative to contain us and China. Balochistan is a focal point of all such activities because that is the one region post the North where there is deep rooted penetration. It is time to wake up and stand tall against the storm that Indians are trying to brew against us. We need to gain a focused approach towards these external threats no matter what the internal political, societal upheavals.
